SHEET 05 · UNIVERSITY · SURVEY DATE: SEPTEMBER 2026
Asset Inventory University: Glossary and Lessons
Bottom line
Start with the glossary if a vendor term is unclear, then follow the four tracks in order: Basics, How inventory works, Buying and Running it. There are 12 lessons and guides, each ending with a link to the next one.
What is in the glossary?
47 terms, from active scanning to write-back, each defined in one to three sentences. Where a term comes from a standard, the entry links to its source.
47 termsAsset Inventory GlossaryWhich track should you start with?
Basics
What an asset inventory is, how it differs from a CMDB, and the terms vendors use.
5 items · about 9 minutes
Guide 1 of 5
What is an IT asset inventory
An IT asset inventory is a continuously updated list of the hardware, software, cloud resources, SaaS apps and identities an organization has, with who owns each one and what state it is in.
2 min read
Guide 2 of 5
CMDB vs asset inventory
A CMDB is the system of record that IT service processes run on: configuration items, their relationships and the services they support.
2 min read
Guide 3 of 5
What is CAASM
CAASM tools connect to the security and IT systems an organization already runs, consolidate their asset data into one view and show coverage gaps, such as devices missing an agent or accounts with no owner.
2 min read
Guide 4 of 5
What is shadow IT
Shadow IT is technology used without the knowledge or approval of IT or security.
1 min read
Guide 5 of 5
What is exposure management
Exposure management is a continuous program of finding, prioritizing and reducing the weaknesses that could be used against an organization: vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, missing controls and risky access.
2 min read
How inventory works
How tools find assets, merge records from many sources and show what is missing.
3 items · about 8 minutes
Lesson 1 of 3
Active, Passive, Agent and API
Asset inventory tools find assets in four ways: probing the network (active scanning), listening to traffic (passive discovery), reporting from software installed on the device (agents), and reading other tools' APIs.
4 min read
Lesson 2 of 3
How Asset Correlation Works
Correlation decides which records from different tools describe the same asset, merges them into one record and settles conflicts between them.
2 min read
Lesson 3 of 3
How to Read an Asset Coverage Gap
A coverage gap is an asset that exists but is missing something it should have: a CMDB record, an EDR agent, an owner or a place in the scanner's scope.
2 min read
Buying
What to ask vendors and how to test a tool on your own estate.
2 items · about 6 minutes
Guide 1 of 2
Asset inventory buyer's guide
Decide first whether you need to discover assets directly, reconcile the tools you already run, or both.
3 min read
Lesson 2 of 2
How to Run an Asset Inventory Proof of Concept
A useful proof of concept tests an asset inventory tool on your own estate against success criteria written before it starts: which sources it connects, how many known assets it gets right, which gaps it finds that you can confirm, and how its fixes reach your system of record.
3 min read
Running it
Keeping the inventory useful once it is live: fixes and owners.
2 items · about 5 minutes
Lesson 1 of 2
How Write-Back Closes the Loop
Write-back is an inventory tool changing another system based on what it found: opening a ticket, updating a CMDB record or triggering an action on a device.
2 min read
Lesson 2 of 2
Asset Ownership
An asset without an owner can be found but not fixed, because nobody receives the ticket.
3 min read