Editor's note:The "Handheld Management Suite" sidebar was updated Dec. 13, 2005, at 1:20 p.m. The previous version incorrectly stated that the Altiris Handheld Management Suite costs $92 per node. It actually costs $35 per node, and the Altiris Client Management Suite costs $92 per node.

In the good old days — before personal computers and copy machines — managing information technology assets was pretty much limited to ensuring that typewriters worked and nobody walked out the door with confidential documents stuffed in their jacket. Each new technology, however, presents new capabilities for users and new challenges for IT employees who need to maintain and secure those assets.

The current challenge for IT workers is mobile devices. Asset management programs that have been available for some time make it easy to manage hard-wired networks of servers and desktop PCs. And those solutions have also been adapted to provide at least some of the same functionality for notebook PCs. However, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smart phones — which often run on proprietary operating systems and might not support standards found on most enterprise networks — present special challenges.

Some managers might prefer to provide end users only with technologies that can be effectively managed. But the popularity of portable devices and their ability to intrude on enterprise networks are forcing IT employees to adapt.

In some cases, users are buying such devices on their own and discovering that they have enterprise client hooks. For instance, some PDAs have the ability to access agency or departmental e-mail servers, so users often pressure IT departments to deploy those features. Furthermore, such devices are useful to federal workers in the field. For example, BlackBerries and camera phones offer powerful mobile tools for a variety of jobs, from law enforcement to emergency response teams.

The challenges of mobility

The fundamental features of asset management are pretty much the same for mobile devices as they are for networked, hard-wired systems: discovery, configuration and software management, help-desk and repair tools, and security.