Solution Provides Complete Network Visibility for the Ongoing Process of IT Asset Verification

Lumeta, a leading provider of network assurance solutions for enterprises and government agencies, today introduced the Lumeta Baseline Solution. The Lumeta Baseline Solution leverages the industry leading network assurance technology IPsonar to enable organizations to identify assets, ensure compliance to usage policies, as well as ensure that the most comprehensive and accurate information is loaded into an Information Technology Asset Management (ITAM) system -- thereby enabling asset inventories to be understood in context and the nature of the network more clear.Asset verification is the ongoing process of identifying and analyzing devices within the organization so they can be properly managed. ITAM tools are credential-based and heavy on the network, conversely IPsonar is lightweight and can be used to accelerate the process of network discovery, and then pass that information to the credential-based ITAM tool's in-depth reporting. IPsonar maps every asset on a network, including assets not currently under management, visualizes the connectivity between assets and networks to uncover risk patterns and policy weaknesses, and enables network and security teams to bring unknown assets under management while deploying security technology more effectively to mitigate risk. Once the device is known to be active within the organization, it can then be integrated into the ITAM system. Using IPsonar, IT organizations can deploy new business services, maintain existing service levels and minimize network security risk to ensure compliant operations.

"ITAM systems rely on the creation of an asset baseline from which the inventory can be managed going forward. However, the auto discovery capabilities that are coupled with ITAM systems do not produce a view of the hardware device inventory in its entirety," said Lumeta's executive vice president of technology and operations, Michael Markulec. "To reap the benefits of an ITAM investment, an accurate baseline from IPsonar, is a critical first step. An incomplete baseline masks significant security risks, under-accounted infrastructure costs and rogue network devices."

Enhanced Fingerprinting provides an important compliment to credential- based ITAM products as it broadens the picture, and shortens the time it takes to discover information about parts of the network with lightweight discovery. Enhanced fingerprinting allows you to use IPsonar to learn some of the aspects of the devices and show the connectivity between assets. So ITAM tools will be able to know what a particular device is connected to and what networks it can see which ports are active on a device, and which services are running.

To determine whether assets are non-compliant or vulnerable to a specific threat, IT organizations must understand their attributes in context within the ITAM system, such as a server's OS or whether a device or host has a particular service enabled. IPsonar addresses this issue by:

-- Identifying Internet services and proprietary IP applications active on hosts and devices, pinpointing resources for which tested ports are active.

-- Flagging improperly secured wireless access points for remediation

-- improving security without requiring staff to scan airwaves or deploy antennae-based monitors.

-- Determining which operating systems network devices are running.

-- Extracting information from standard packets (ICMP echo requests and high-port UDP packets); no application-layer transactions.

-- Facilitating consolidation by noting devices that run network-based services, such as printers, network-based faxes and storage appliances.

-- Exporting details to security tools, optimizing host-level vulnerability assessments and accelerating patch management.