Chris Goettl is many things to many people. Family man. Homebrewer. PC gamer. Hockey player. And IT security guru and thought leader. As Director of Product Management, Security, at Ivanti, Chris is a highly sought-after expert for his insights into how organizations can strengthen their enterprise IT security in an increasingly demanding environment. Chris hosts a monthly webinar focusing on Patch Tuesday and security vulnerabilities, and frequently blogs about security topics.

ITIL 4 has the potential to launch a massive shift in the evolution of IT service management. We're used to thinking in terms of a "service lifecycle", but ITIL 4 introduces a service value chain—where activities that create value can be started at any point, by anyone. Let our experts help you sort through the chaos of this intellectual shift.

Are you prepared for Windows 7 end of life? Today marks the day that Windows 7 has entered its end of life phase. What does that mean? It means that after 11 years, Microsoft's updates and security fixes will no longer be offered for the old operating system. Millions of PCs around the globe are still running Windows 7, and it's important to know how Windows 7 end of life will affect those PCs.

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year. I am writing from my favorite coffee shop in Warrington, rather than undoing all the damage I did eating my own bodyweight in Ferrero Rochers over the Christmas break! I’m excited to share some of my Software Asset Management (SAM) predictions for 2020, and the coffee has kicked in, so let’s go!

The importance of IT Service Management today cannot be overstated. Managing IT services has rarely been more challenging, and your users expect a lot from you. With Ivanti Service Manager, you gain a proven, robust IT service management solution that transforms help desks and support teams into strategic business enablers.

If you're one of the lucky ones, 2019 was a great year for you. All the fortune cookies came true, and for that, we're happy for you. Some of us were not as lucky, as our fortune cookies were full of lies and false hopes. Simply hearing the word "2019" is so triggering we need a safe space. Deep breaths—2020 will be better. Regardless of anyone's personal experience with 2019, one thing is for sure regarding this little corner of the internet: the Ivanti blog totally slayed.

It's been a long few weeks. You feel bloated and your head hurts. You can't even remember how your pants used to fit because all the family dinners and homemade desserts have taken up permanent residence on your body. There's extra love on your handles, so to speak. But it wasn't just the chocolate truffles that tested you. All the shopping, gift wrapping, traveling, food preparation, and time with the in-laws has you feeling like you just battled war.

At its core, the mission of the IT organization is to deliver services by leveraging assets and data that are the living infrastructure of the business. While most IT professionals would agree with this statement, we commonly see the focus of the organization moving to service delivery or security due to the perceived higher visibility and risks associated with these elements of IT.

Many organizations are looking at IT asset management (ITAM) solutions to ensure that all IT assets are properly discovered, tracked, secured, and disposed of at the end of the asset’s lifecycle. IT administrators often ask me if they can use a configuration management database (CMDB) to meet their ITAM requirements. Administrators are concerned that tracking IT assets in two solutions will require them to duplicate each IT asset record in addition to increasing their workload.

Most people, when they think about Software Asset Management (SAM) (and, let’s be honest, most people try to avoid thinking about it at all), they think about minimizing disruption and cost of audits and ensuring that the organization remains in a compliant state to avoid heavy fines from their vendors. To be fair to these people, that is what a large part of SAM is—ensuring that the organization is paying appropriately for the products they use to avoid costly audits or legal battles.