DDMI, formerly known as Enterprise Discovery, is HP’s best-of-breed solution for hardware and software inventory needs.  Using a combination of agent-less and agent-based technologies, this tool quickly and accurately provides a comprehensive inventory of your network devices, printers, servers and desktops along with the software installed on them.  Its core strengths include:

  • Strong emphasis on accuracy – ability to reconcile multiple views of a device into a single comprehensive device view, thus avoiding “double-counting” of devices.  Critical in environments where a device can move around (e.g. laptop users) or change IP address by way of DHCP or VPN connections
  • Focus on virtualization – can provide an inventory per virtual device for a number of virtualization platforms, including VMware and Solaris containers
  • Large, extensible software library – over 20,000 entries, with monthly updates, which can be easily extended by customers to include applications, such as custom apps, not present in the out-of-the-box software library
  • Integrations to BTO portfolio – integrates with HP AssetManager, HP ServiceManager, HP DDM and HP Client Automation to provide out-of-the-box solutions for asset management, service management and configuration management

Click here to find out more about DDMI’s feature set.  For more information and technical specs, please visit the official HP DDMI site.

Additional Features

  • Managing global deployments – inventory data from multiple servers can be aggregated to provide a single consolidated view.  This works even in ‘cookie cutter’ deployments where branch offices are configured with identical local network addresses.
  • File system scans – captures ALL software installations including those that try to hide themselves (i.e., identifies potential security or corporate policy violations)
  • Normalized data – discovered data is normalized and classified to enable accurate, C-level reporting.  For example, a report of all Oracle applications will list software titles using a uniform, standard naming convention and include software titles from acquired companies, such as Peoplesoft.
  • Tracks software utilization

How Can DDMI Help Your Organization

An inventory of what you have is the foundation upon which various business processes are built.  It is critical that this data is both complete and accurate or else, as they say, garbage in, garbage out.   Below are just a few scenarios where DDMI can provide value for your business:

  • Provide baseline inventory (e.g. M&A situations) – for an accurate inventory as part of M&A due diligence or for post-acquisition integration
  • Software license compliance – proactively manage software license usage and avoid costly penalties upon audit
  • Manage IT as a business – in conjunction with HP Asset manager, implement chargebacks internally by identifying hardware and software in use
  • Hardware/software maintenance planning – in conjunction with HP Asset manager, plan your IT budgets better by gauging upcoming maintenance costs and identify opportunities for cost reduction through usage tracking
  • Prepare for OS migration – reports such as DDMI’s Vista Readiness report enable organizations to identify devices that require an OS upgrade and identify hardware compatibility issues, if any

Contact us for more examples of how DDMI can address your specific needs or for a detailed ROI analysis for your organization.

How Can RevealIT Help?

At RevealIT, we have deep expertise with DDMI as well its predecessor products such as Enterprise Discovery, Peregrine Network Discovery and Peregrine Desktop Inventory.   We can assess your organization’s business objectives, provide recommendations on how best to leverage DDMI for your needs, and architectand implement the solution in your environment.  Specific services around DDMI that we offer include:

  • Environment assessment – recommendations to maximize your investment in DDMI
  • Solution architecture and implementation
  • Extending the DDMI Software Library for your environment
  • Troubleshooting an existing implementation
  • Migration from older solutions to a currently supported version – e.g. migrate from Peregrine Network Discovery, Peregrine Desktop Inventory or Enterprise Discovery to DDMI 7.5
  • Custom reporting – tap into the vast DDMI database to provide reports that suit your needs
  • Development of value-added solutions – augment DDMI’s out-of-the-box functionality with custom solutions to meet your organization’s needs
  • End-user training on DDMI