Asset Inventory Glossary

Discovery that sends probes to network addresses and records what answers: open ports, services and device fingerprints. runZero documents active scanning alongside passive discovery.

A connector that pulls asset data from another product's API into an aggregation tool. Axonius documents more than 1,200 adapters, and each one needs API access and credentials for its source.

Software installed on a device that reports its state to a management or security tool. Agents see detail network scans miss, such as installed software and running security tools, but only on devices where they are installed. Lansweeper offers an optional agent for off-network laptops and ServiceNow a unified agent for endpoints.

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Finding and profiling assets without installing software on them, through network scanning, traffic analysis or API connections. runZero, Armis, Lansweeper, Device42 and ServiceNow Discovery all document agentless options.

A network with no connection to the internet or to other networks. Inventory tools for these sites must run fully on premises; runZero documents support for air-gapped environments.

Anything of value to an organization. NIST's glossary includes tangible items such as hardware, firmware, computing platforms and network devices, and intangible ones such as data, software and services.

A rating of how much an asset matters to the business, used to decide which gaps and findings to handle first. Criticality rules usually draw on business unit, environment and the data an asset holds.

Finding the assets that exist in an environment by scanning networks, listening to traffic, installing agents or reading other tools' APIs. Discovery answers what exists; correlation decides which records describe the same thing.

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The person or team accountable for an asset and for fixing what is wrong with it. An inventory without owners can show gaps but cannot route them to anyone.

A category of tools that connect to the security and IT systems an organization already runs, consolidate their asset data into one view and show coverage gaps. The full name and scope are on the CAASM explainer.

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A prioritized set of security safeguards published by the Center for Internet Security. The first two controls in version 8 cover inventory and control of enterprise assets and of software assets.

A configuration management database: the system of record for configuration items and their relationships, used by IT service management processes.

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A component or group of components that is placed under configuration management and treated as a single entity, from a whole system down to one software package. CIs are the records a CMDB holds.

The activities that establish and maintain the integrity of systems by controlling how their configurations are initialized, changed and monitored over their life cycle. NIST's definition comes from SP 800-128.

Deciding that records from different tools describe the same asset and merging them into one record. It carries 18% of the score in our methodology, together with deduplication.

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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.

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A system that integrates computation with physical processes, so its behavior depends on both the digital and the physical parts. Gartner uses the term for its CPS protection platforms category.

How quickly an inventory reflects a change in the estate: continuously, on an event or on a schedule. An inventory is only as fresh as its slowest source.

The unit JupiterOne prices its platform on. Its pricing page states that pricing is based on the number of data points in an environment and the length of the subscription.

Removing the extra records created when several tools report the same asset. Tools match on identifiers such as serial number, MAC address and hostname; Lansweeper documents this approach.

Recording which applications, services and infrastructure depend on each other, so the effect of a change or an outage can be traced. Device42 generates dependency visuals from its agentless discovery.

In Axonius, the run in which adapters fetch data from each connected source and asset records are recalculated. How often it runs sets how fresh the inventory is.

Security software on laptops and servers that records activity and can act on the device. An asset inventory treats the EDR console as one source and checks which devices are missing its agent.

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Tools that enroll and configure laptops and phones, and so hold a list of managed devices and their primary users. Microsoft Intune and Jamf are examples named among integrations on vendor pages we reviewed.

In Axonius, an automated step run on the assets that match a query, such as opening a ticket or updating a ServiceNow record, as a single action or a multi-step sequence with ticket tracking.

A continuous program of finding, prioritizing and reducing the weaknesses that could be used against an organization, grounded in an accurate asset inventory.

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Identifying a device's manufacturer, model and operating system from how it responds or behaves on the network. Lansweeper describes machine learning fingerprinting against a library of more than 175 million devices.

The directory and sign-in service that holds user accounts and groups, such as Okta or Microsoft Entra ID. It is the usual source for who owns an asset and for SaaS apps reached through single sign-on.

A mapping from a NIST CSF 2.0 outcome to a section of another standard or guideline, so one control set can be read against another. NIST published a quick-start guide on informative references, SP 1347, on 25 August 2026.

Tracking which IP addresses and subnets are allocated, to what and by whom. Device42 includes IPAM alongside discovery and dependency mapping.

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.

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The practice around the inventory: procurement, lifecycle, licensing and disposal. Tools such as Oomnitza focus on the lifecycle side.

An open protocol that lets AI assistants call outside tools and data through one standard interface. On 21 July 2026 Axonius announced an MCP server, in early access, that makes its asset data queryable from other AI tools.

NIST's framework of cybersecurity outcomes, organized into six functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover. Asset management, category ID.AM, sits in the Identify function.

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An identity used by software rather than a person, such as a service account, API key or automation identity. Axonius documents discovery of human and non-human identities across directories, cloud, SaaS and infrastructure.

Programmable systems and devices that interact with the physical environment or manage devices that do, such as industrial control systems and building automation. NIST's OT security guidance is SP 800-82, now in draft Revision 4.

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Identifying devices from the network traffic they already send, without probing them. It suits fragile OT networks; runZero, Armis and Lansweeper document passive methods.

A time-boxed trial of a tool on the buyer's own environment, judged against success criteria agreed before it starts.

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Comparing a system of record, usually the CMDB, with what other tools report, and correcting the differences: missing assets, stale status and wrong field values.

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A software bill of materials: a formal record of the components used to build a piece of software and their supply chain relationships.

ServiceNow's certified integrations that bring third-party data into its CMDB. ServiceNow lists them as a way to curate CMDB data from multiple sources.

Technology used without the knowledge or approval of IT or security, most often SaaS apps and personal devices.

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Tracking software installations, licenses and SaaS subscriptions to control cost and compliance. ServiceNow's SAM product covers SaaS sprawl through SSO integrations with identity providers such as Okta and Microsoft Entra ID.

The rule for which tool's value wins when two sources disagree about the same field of an asset record. It is set field by field, not tool by tool.

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The system an organization treats as authoritative for a type of data and runs its processes on. For IT service processes that is usually the CMDB; an asset inventory tool checks it against other sources and helps keep it accurate.

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A device on the network with no management or security agent reporting on it, so no control applies to it. Network discovery is the usual way to find one.

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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.

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