Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) improves the accuracy and efficiency of software inventories, helping to enable regulatory compliance and save on licensing costs. This improvement avoids inaccuracies in software inventory information that can impede regulatory compliance, lead to incorrect payments for software licenses and maintenance contracts, and fail to uncover over-utilized or under-utilized software licenses.

Intel AMT overcomes limitations of traditionally managed IT client platforms that can hinder software inventory processes. First, it improves the tamper-resistance of client management agents upon which software management consoles may rely. Secondly, Intel AMT has a major advantage over conventional client management applications, since it is available down-the-wire regardless of operating system state, even when the client is powered off (as long as AC power and a LAN connection are present). Increased resistance to tampering by users helps to ensure the accuracy of software inventories. Together, these capabilities avoid labor-intensive manual inventories that would otherwise be required to gain sufficient accuracy to comply with government regulations and to manage licenses and maintenance and service contracts.

This use-case illustrates how Intel AMT can improve the robustness of software-inventory activities to optimize utilization and to ensure accurate license and maintenance payments.

Conventional tools for software inventory work on an in-band basis only; that is, these tools require the target system to be operational, and they fail if the platform is powered off or if the operating system is otherwise non-functional. Moreover, users can intentionally or inadvertently remove the software agents on which the tools depend. In addition, 15-20% of IT managed platforms are not visible down-the-wire.

As a result, IT organizations must traditionally depend on users to report their installed software packages, or IT employees must be sent to the platform to conduct an inventory manually.

No common persistent software asset ID exists, and there is no automated system to compare such an ID with software inventory information in third-party asset management databases. 

Using a third-party software inventory management application that supports Intel AMT, an IT professional discovers platforms remotely down-the-wire, regardless of operating system or power state. Intel® AMT makes that possible via out-of-band (OOB) remote access to the platform's persistent, tamper-resistant asset IDs:

• The third-party software then can use in-band tools or agents to inventory the system or write inventory information to Intel AMT’s third-party data store.
• Because a system is found using Intel AMT, the IT professional is able to gather information accurately, quickly, and remotely, so the enterprise can more efficiently and effectively manage its software licenses, as well as optimizing utilization of maintenance and service contracts.
• In addition, accurate and timely inventory information enables the IT department to better manage software updates

The following table summarizes the features and functionality utilized in this use case that are provided by Intel AMT or enabled by Intel AMT in third-party software:

Using Intel AMT platforms, an IT department can reduce or eliminate manual software inventory, making audits faster, more accurate, and more timely. Intel(R) AMT makes this possible through remote, down-the-wire access to the platform's tamper-resistant, persistent asset ID, firmware resident software list, and/or keys to the third-party asset management database.

This set of capabilities improves inventory accuracy, regardless of the platform's operating system health or power state. More accurate software inventory information enables better version control, repurposing underutilized software, and optimizes maintenance contracts, licensing, and configuration management. In addition, it facilitates regulatory compliance.

IT organizations can realize substantial cost savings on software maintenance contract cost by implementing solutions based on Intel AMT. Those savings are created by increasing the efficiency with which the contracts are applied.

The implementation of the software inventory management usage case follows these steps:

1. Regularly scheduled software audit processes are initiated by IT using third-party management software.
2. Audit technician uses Management Console (MC) to initiate a software inventory scan of all systems.
3. MC finds Intel® AMT-enabled systems that are in “off” or “standby” mode.
4. MC automatically boots the Intel® AMT systems so that MC can perform the software inventory update using information stored in Intel AMT’s 3PDS and one or more management clients running in the client’s OS.
5. When software inventory has been updated, MC automatically returns the Intel® AMT client to its original state.
6. Audit technician compiles software inventory audit report.

The workflow associated with this implementation is as follows:

The following tables provides an overview of Software Inventory Management APIs:

GeneralInfo APIs:

The GeneralInfo APIs provides general (read only) information for various (local or network access) management applications. 

Remote Control APIs:

The Remote Control APIs managing the power and booting state of the Intel AMT managed system. 

ISV Storage APIs:

The ISV storage APIs are used by ISVs to access the Intel AMT non-volatile storage feature 

The following SDK sample source code provides examples of Software Inventory Management:

• GeneralInfo
• ApiTest
• RemoteControl

The following SDK Documents provide further information:

• Network Design Guide
• Storage Design Guide

§ The following assumptions underlie the analysis in this use case:

1. Unique asset ID enables data set comparisons (e.g., with the third-party asset management database).
2. This analysis is limited to the third-party software's method of obtaining the inventory information and other features of the management application.
3. All research data was gathered from US-based global IT shops.
4. Platforms being audited using Intel AMT are connected to a power source (electrical outlet, battery, etc.), but the platform does not have to be powered on.
5. Platforms are physically connected through a working Ethernet connection to the corporate LAN (and not over VPN) for OOB access.
6. This analysis assumes a mostly wired environment or one where laptops are often wired.