Notifications
Clear all
Topic starter
09/06/2026 11:48 pm
TL;DR: IT asset management software centralises inventory, lifecycle tracking, and audit preparation, but Zluri’s roundup also shows how identity data, entitlement visibility, and access lifecycle control now sit inside the same operational problem space. The governance question is no longer asset tracking alone, but whether identity programmes can keep pace with every asset, app, and access path it touches.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Zluri: IT Teams Top 20 IT Asset Management Software - 2026
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should IT teams connect asset management with identity governance?
A: They should treat asset management as an input to identity governance, not a separate inventory exercise.
Q: Why do shadow apps create identity risk even when inventory tools are in place?
A: Shadow apps create risk because inventory tools can find software without revealing who approved it, who uses it, or what access it inherited.
Q: What breaks when access reviews are disconnected from asset lifecycle events?
A: Access reviews become stale snapshots that miss the moment when a device is retired, a service is migrated, or a contract ends.
Practitioner guidance
- Link asset inventory to entitlement ownership Require every critical asset record to include the identity owner, access approver, and downstream applications or secrets it touches.
- Fold ITAM outputs into access review workflows Send newly discovered software, devices, and cloud resources into the same review queue used for entitlement certification so hidden assets do not remain outside governance cycles.
- Synchronise decommissioning with deprovisioning Make asset retirement, service account disablement, token revocation, and contract closure part of one closure process.
What's in the full article
Zluri's full article covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- A longer breakdown of each ITAM product's feature set, including discovery, lifecycle management, and compliance workflows.
- Implementation-oriented detail on asset tracking, audit preparation, and centralized repository design.
- Specific platform modules for identity visibility, access reviews, and posture management that go beyond the governance framing here.
👉 Read Zluri’s roundup of the top IT asset management software tools for 2026 →
ITAM software and identity governance: what teams are missing?
Explore further
10/06/2026 2:18 am
IT asset management is becoming an identity control plane, not a record-keeping function. The article’s strongest signal is that asset inventory, access lifecycle, and audit readiness are converging into one governance problem. Once an asset can host software, expose data, or carry identity-linked access, the value of ITAM depends on whether it can inform IAM and NHI decisions in real time. Practitioners should treat ITAM as an upstream control source for identity governance, not a parallel administrative system.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 70% of organisations grant AI systems more access than they would give a human employee performing the exact same job, according to The 2026 Infrastructure Identity Survey.
- That same survey found that only 44% of organisations have implemented any policies to manage their AI agents, despite 92% agreeing that governing AI agents is critical to enterprise security.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Should organisations treat IT asset management as part of zero trust?
A: Yes, if they want zero trust to reflect reality. Zero trust depends on accurate asset context, continuous verification, and least privilege. If ITAM cannot tell identity systems what exists, who owns it, and whether it is still active, then access decisions will be made against stale assumptions.
👉 Read our full editorial: IT asset management software exposes the identity governance gap
