Maintaining the inventory through a combination of system configuration, network management, and license management tools is the best method of maintaining the inventory of software and hardware within the organization. An inventory is a list or record of the software and hardware assets owned or used by the organization, such as servers, workstations, routers, switches, firewalls, applications, databases, operating systems, or licenses. Maintaining an inventory is an important security practice, as it helps the organization to identify, track, monitor, and manage its assets, and to ensure their compliance with the security policies, standards, and regulations. Maintaining an inventory also supports the security processes of asset classification, risk assessment, vulnerability management, patch management, configuration management, incident response, and disaster recovery. A combination of system configuration, network management, and license management tools can help the organization to maintain an accurate and up-to-date inventory of its software and hardware assets. System configuration tools can collect and report the information about the hardware and software components, settings, and dependencies of each system. Network management tools can discover and map the devices and connections on the network, and monitor their performance and availability. License management tools can track and verify the licenses and subscriptions of the software products used by the organization, and prevent unauthorized or illegal use of software. References: CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Eighth Edition, Chapter 8: Security Operations, page 525. Official (ISC)² CISSP CBK Reference, Fifth Edition, Domain 7: Security Operations, page 867.
