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Active directory Asset Management means connecting your Active Directory to your IT Asset Management (ITAM) tool so the people and computers registered in the directory feed the asset inventory. IT teams look for it when they want asset owners to come straight from the directory, technicians to sign in with their corporate account, and every computer in the domain to show up in the inventory.

Purchase order tracking is the practice of following each purchase order (PO) from the moment it's issued until the goods are delivered, invoiced and the order is closed. Procurement, finance and IT teams use it to know what was ordered, what arrived and what is still pending. In IT, the trail runs one step further: every laptop, monitor or server on the order ends up as a device with a serial number that someone has to register in the inventory.

Last updated: October 21, 2026. We'll update this article as PHP and Linux distributions publish new information. PHP2Shell is the nickname of two critical vulnerabilities in PHP that let an attacker run code on a web server without logging in. PHP released the fixes on October 21, 2026, and IT and security teams now need to know which of their servers and computers run a vulnerable PHP version, so they can patch those first.

Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) is the process of tracking every digital certificate an organization uses, from the moment it is requested to the day it is retired. IT, infrastructure and security teams look into Certificate Lifecycle Management when they need to stop certificates from expiring unnoticed, keep up with shorter certificate lifetimes and know who answers for each one.

An IT internal audit is a structured review of an organization's technology systems, processes, and controls to evaluate their effectiveness. It spans hardware inventory, software and licenses, access controls, IT policies, Change Management, and vendor contracts. This guide covers what an IT internal audit includes, how it differs from an external audit, and the six phases of the process, including physical verification of the inventory.

AI prompts for IT Asset Management (ITAM) are the questions and instructions IT teams type into an AI assistant to get answers from their asset inventory. They're searched by IT asset managers, technicians and IT leaders whose assistant can already read inventory data and who want ready-made questions that return useful answers about devices, owners, warranties and costs.

An AI agent and digital certificate inventory is a record of every AI agent and digital certificate an organization runs, with what each one does, who owns it, what it connects to and when it expires or needs a review. IT and IT Asset Management (ITAM) teams build one because both kinds of asset keep critical services running with no hardware to scan, no purchase order to trace and, very often, no owner on record.

Shadow AI on company computers often starts with an AI agent that an employee installed on their own, signed in with a personal subscription and connected to internal systems through a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. Shadow AI is one branch of shadow IT, with a shorter path from install to impact: these tools set up quickly, act on files and systems, and work under whatever account the employee chose. This guide skips the long definitions and goes to the practical part.