ASSET MANAGEMENT FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES

• US 20120087301A1
• Filed: 10/06/2010
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Johnson, Randy S., Northway, Tedrick N., Brandt, Scott A., Voorhees, Rick
• Granted Patent: US 8,558,694 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings

Abstract

A method to identify information technology resources whereby a locator device is inserted into a communication port of each information technology resource, such as a computers, router, cable endpoints, etc. When activated, the device passively receives wireless RF transmissions from broadcast units in the vicinity while actively receiving and storing configuration and other predetermined information from the resource. The device can calculate the exact position of the information technology resource and store the location in memory. The location and the identifying data of the information technology resource can be used in an asset management database, to locate a lost or missing resource, or can be used for billing for service level agreements. The method and device herein is particularly useful in secure facilities.

Claims

1. A secure device comprising:

a connector to transmit and receive data from an electronic resource;

a receiver to receive wireless signals;

a nonvolatile memory;

wherein data is received from the electronic resource and wireless signals received in the receiver are stored in the memory.

2. The secure device of claim 1, further comprising:

processing logic to determine spatial coordinates of the electronic resource from the signals received by the wireless receiver.

3. The secure device of claim 1, wherein the electronic resource is in a secure facility not receiving emanations from outside the secure facility.

4. The secure device of claim 1, further comprising:

an optical transmitter and receiver to emit radiation and receive reflected radiation from a reference and store the distance from the secure device to the reference.

5. The secure device of claim 1, further comprising a gyroscopic level.

6. A method to receive information from one or more information technology resources, comprising:

inserting a locator device into an electronic data connector of the one or more information technology resources;

activating the locator device;

the locator device interrogating and receiving data from the one or more information technology resource;

for each of the one or more information technology resources, the locator device receiving wireless signals from at least two different transmitters in the facility of the one or more information technology resource;

the locator device storing the data received from the one or more information technology resource in a nonvolatile memory in the locator device.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

processing logic within the locator device calculating spatial coordinates of each of the one or more information technology resource from the wireless signals.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

the locator device storing the wireless signals in the nonvolatile memory.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

the locator device emitting a beam to a reference;

the locator device receiving a reflection of the beam from the reference;

for each of the one or more information technology resources, processing logic within the locator device calculating a distance from the locator device to the reference;

the locator device storing the distance of each of the one or more information technology resource in the nonvolatile memory.

10. The method of claim 6,

wherein the data received from the one or more information technology resources comprises one or more of the following:

name, serial number, type of information technology resource, cost, price, depreciation, firmware, basic input output system data, internet protocol, IP address, install software configuration, intranet protocol.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

removing the locator device from the one or more information technology resource;

connecting the locator device to a computer;

downloading the information technology resource data and the stored wireless signals for each of the one or more information technology resources to the computer;

the computer performing at least one of the following;

calculating the spatial coordinates of each of the one or more information technology resources;

creating/updating an asset database with the information technology resource data and its respective spatial coordinates;

creating/updating physical diagrams of a facility in which the information technology resource is located;

creating/updating information associated with use of the one or more information technology resources.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein the one or more information technology resources are in a secure TEMPEST facility that does not receive transient and compromising transmissions and emanations and signals from outside the secure TEMPEST facility.

13. A method to manage information technology assets comprising:

for each selected information technology asset, plugging a passive receiving device into a communication port;

downloading relevant information from the information technology asset into the passive receiving device;

storing the download relevant information for each information technology asset in the passive receiving device;

for each information technology asset, storing one or both of;

signals from wireless transmitters or spatial coordinates of the information technology asset calculated within the locator device from the signals wirelessly transmitted.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

generating/updating a database of the information technology assets.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

generating/updating physical diagrams of the location of the information technology assets.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

updating service level agreements of the information technology assets.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

conducting an inventory of the information technology assets.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

recording an install move add change event on one or more of the information technology assets.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

locating an information technology asset that has been lost or misidentified.

20. A computer program product for receiving information technology asset data and location data of the information technology asset, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:

first program instructions to receive and store predetermined information from an information technology resource;

second program instructions to receive wireless signals from one or more wireless transmitters in a same facility in which the information technology resource is located;

third program instructions to calculate the position of the information technology resource in the same facility from the wireless signals;

fourth program instructions to transmit the predetermined information and the position of the information technology resource to one or more computer program applications.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, further comprising:

fifth program instructions to create/update a database of one or more of the information technology resources.

22. The computer program product of claim 20, further comprising:

sixth program instructions to create/update physical diagrams of the facility indicating the location of one or more of the information technology resources in the facility.

23. The computer program product of claim 20, further comprising:

seventh computer program instructions to update and manage service level agreements of one or more of the information technology resources in the facility.