More RFID Journal Sites: RFID Journal Espanol RFID Journal Brasil RFID Journal Events RFID Journal Awards
RFID NEWS
Text size:
T
T
T
PC Guardian Debuts RFID Suite for IT Asset Tracking
PC Guardian's new suite consists of six modules: IT Pro Asset On Demand, IT Pro Asset 24/7, IT Pro Asset Provisioning, IT Pro Asset Mobile, IT Pro Asset Parts and IT Pro Asset Data Center. IT Pro Asset On Demand lets companies use either active or passive RFID readers and tags to take inventory of their IT assets, and includes software to track and maintain that inventory. On Demand includes a specific offering that uses RF Code's 433 MHz active RFID tags, handheld readers and middleware to provide companies with asset visibility and security around the clock. Using the handheld reader, which has lights that indicate signal strength, users can find a tagged asset's specific location by taking the reader to the area that the asset is supposed to be in, and then letting the reader guide the user to the asset by following the light indicators on the handheld.
IT Pro Asset 24/7 includes RF Code's 433 MHz active RFID tags and fixed readers to track the physical location of IT assets, typically to a zone or room. By installing the fixed readers throughout the facility, or area in which assets are to be tracked, companies can view where their assets are by accessing the IT Pro Asset software to see a real-time inventory of assets and asset locations. "This really is an active tag solution, providing visibility and security of assets around the clock," Groth says. "But we aren't really, at this stage, advocating what people refer to as more of the location technologies—triangulation, ultra-wideband, Wi-Fi—because typically IT is not willing to pay for these real-time location systems. An IT department isn't like a hospital that needs to know exactly where the heart pump is because someone needs it for the next patient. So visibility provided by IT Pro Asset 24/7 is more based on a zone or building."
IT Pro Asset Provisioning is designed to help companies check in new IT assets as they are received, using EPC Gen 2 tags and fixed reader portals. When new IT hardware is delivered, companies typically have to unpack it, check to see if it works, configure it, and then prepare it for deployment. "What IT Pro Asset Provisioning does is help companies track the assets as they move along these processes," Groth explains, "so you know where they are in those processes and so they don't end up in a closet somewhere, waiting."
For now, Groth says most companies will have to tag their own IT assets, but hardware manufacturers are starting to tag their products and are following standards set forth by The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC), a New York-based organization comprising North American financial institutions, technology vendors, research groups and government agencies. FSTC has just published a set of standards for implementing RFID-based systems to track IT assets within data centers (see Financial Consortium Publishes RFID Standards for IT Assets).
IT Pro Asset 24/7 includes RF Code's 433 MHz active RFID tags and fixed readers to track the physical location of IT assets, typically to a zone or room. By installing the fixed readers throughout the facility, or area in which assets are to be tracked, companies can view where their assets are by accessing the IT Pro Asset software to see a real-time inventory of assets and asset locations. "This really is an active tag solution, providing visibility and security of assets around the clock," Groth says. "But we aren't really, at this stage, advocating what people refer to as more of the location technologies—triangulation, ultra-wideband, Wi-Fi—because typically IT is not willing to pay for these real-time location systems. An IT department isn't like a hospital that needs to know exactly where the heart pump is because someone needs it for the next patient. So visibility provided by IT Pro Asset 24/7 is more based on a zone or building."
IT Pro Asset Provisioning is designed to help companies check in new IT assets as they are received, using EPC Gen 2 tags and fixed reader portals. When new IT hardware is delivered, companies typically have to unpack it, check to see if it works, configure it, and then prepare it for deployment. "What IT Pro Asset Provisioning does is help companies track the assets as they move along these processes," Groth explains, "so you know where they are in those processes and so they don't end up in a closet somewhere, waiting."
For now, Groth says most companies will have to tag their own IT assets, but hardware manufacturers are starting to tag their products and are following standards set forth by The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC), a New York-based organization comprising North American financial institutions, technology vendors, research groups and government agencies. FSTC has just published a set of standards for implementing RFID-based systems to track IT assets within data centers (see Financial Consortium Publishes RFID Standards for IT Assets).
