2024 End of Year Newsletter

"Another year over. And a new one just begun."

-- John Lennon

As I get older, time seems to go by faster. Einstein is right: time is relative!

I looked at last year's newsletter, and the main challenges predicted for 2023 are still challenges for 2025, with the addition of one more challenge: noise. More on that later. So, does the lack of change mean we didn't improve in 2024? Yes and no. Implementing ITAM is a series of continuous improvements that go on forever, so it's a program, not a project. Some of ITAM's challenges have also evolved and are different.

The key areas that will remain in focus include artificial intelligence, cyber security, cloud, the economy, global unrest, and the new edition, noise.

Let's explore these topics and why they will likely be crucial in the coming year.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Will the hype finally come to an end in 2025? To some degree, yes, but it depends on the new capabilities introduced. We saw that this year with AI agents. Organizations will continue to evaluate and deploy AI solutions. Still, the justification behind these projects will vary, similar to when everyone had to have a website. This is how I see AI adoption, which is very similar to the adoption of website technologies in the late 1990s. Organizations went on spending sprees sometimes just because their competitors had one!

For ITAM, this means getting ahead of AI purchases. You will not stop these purchases; you will get run over if you try. The objective should be to document everything you can, including why AI is being used, where it's being purchased and from whom, contracts, how the technology is tracked, the costs, and the risk exposure. You will need to see what current processes and tools can be used to manage AI IT assets. If you are not following technology, then you should be.

Regarding AI's impact on ITAM, I still don't see AI replacing ITAM any time soon. AI's value for ITAM at this time is helping to identify ITAM data, the data relationships, and IT asset usage patterns. Most ITAM programs do not have enough valid data for AI to consume. I doubt there is enough ITAM data, even in the largest organizations, to build a usable AI model without using large volumes of synthetic data. One interesting exception is ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a cloud solution and may be sitting on a large amount of ITAM data. But then again, how clean is the ServiceNow data?

Cyber Security

It is still disappointing that ITAM is not playing a significant role in IT security's efforts despite all the frameworks that require it. ITAM is the missing link to giving IT security the proactive advantage it desperately needs to succeed. In 2025, ITAM must commit to working with IT security first to learn their challenges and then to educate security on how ITAM will help.

Learn more from our self-paced "ITAM and Cyber Security Workshop" at https://www.itamiq.com/store#Cyber. In early 2025, we will release a new version reflecting updates to CIS's and NIST's cybersecurity platforms. This update is free to everyone who has purchased the workshop.

Cloud

Cloud is not losing steam, but it is getting more expensive, and organizations are still struggling to manage costs. This is not surprising given the ITAM service industry's approach to managing the cloud is SAM and FinOps. Both are needed disciplines but only manage a small part of cloud’s complexity. AI became the new service to emerge in 2024 and will significantly add to the cost of cloud services, and not just financial costs. Cloud AI is cheap right now compared to what it will be in 2025. You must apply Cloud Asset Management (CAM) to manage the cloud correctly. CAM manages significantly more than finance and SAM, making each of those disciplines better.

Learn even more from our cloud asset management courses, SaaSAM and CAM. Details can be found at https://www.itamiq.com/cloud-asset-management.

The Economy

Economic uncertainty will continue into 2025, but not for the same reasons as in 2024. 2025's uncertainty will originate in the US due to a new administration. With the promise of sanctions and cutting costs in the public sector, there is much angst over the economic impact. Executives and the stock markets do not like uncertainty, so expect the first quarter of 2025 to be volatile. The effect on ITAM will be to find ways to cut costs and, depending on sanctions, new vendors. ITAM must prepare for these scenarios.

Global Unrest

And again, global unrest will continue into 2025 and probably every year after that. A new administration in the US brings unpredictability around the globe. We also don't know the impact AI will have on poorer nations. Add to that global warming, and we may have a perfect storm brewing. The effect this has on organizations can be chaotic, with wild swings in revenue, profit, and the supply chain. ITAM needs to be prepared for anything, and the way to start is by keeping up with current events and talking with your business leaders to get their perspectives. Then, ITAM needs to prepare to react. We like to say ITAM is proactive; one of its strengths is its ability to respond to changing market conditions.

Noise

We released a free course this year to help you create a plan to secure an executive sponsor. During my research for this course, I concluded that one barrier to ITAM's adoption at the executive level is the noise created by ITAM solution providers. Solution providers constantly seek messaging that helps sell their products and services. For example, when cloud adoption started accelerating, the solution was SAM, SAM, and more SAM. Why? Because the vendors had SAM solutions to sell. Then came FinOps, and these solution providers switched to the more popular message, FinOps. FinOps was a gift! So, the cloud management solution providers switched from SAM to FinOps, FinOps, and FinOps. Now, we are seeing AI creep into the messaging, but for the reasons mentioned earlier, it's a hard sell. Now I'm seeing messages saying SAM is dead and that it's no longer about license compliance but data provided by FinOps. I still see talking heads in the ITAM space speaking only of SAM while ignoring HAM and ITAM. A lot of noise from "industry experts" creates too much confusion. If, after all, the ITAM industry's own "experts" can't agree on what ITAM is, then how can executive management be expected to support it? For ITAM, you have to understand what ITAM is and the value you, not the solution providers, bring to your organization. As I mentioned, we have created a free course to help you secure an executive sponsor for your ITAM program. You can find this free resource at https://www.itamiq.com/executive-buy-in-for-itam.

Final Words

Unfortunately, 2025 will be a challenging year for ITAM, trying to justify its existence. ITAM is a very young profession, maybe, 30 years young. That's younger than IT! IT asset managers will be faced with managing day-to-day operations, taking on new responsibilities, and improving the program. However, the most critical goal the IT asset manager must achieve is executive sponsorship, perhaps now more than ever.

Please contact me with any questions or comments or if you just need to vent!

Thank you for reading. Have a great holiday season, and keep learning!