How does governance address IT asset management (ITAM)?

• A. Track ownership, lifecycle, licensing, and disposal to optimize asset usage and reduce risk.
• B. A single central repository of assets with no lifecycle tracking.
• C. Only focuses on financial accounting, not operational aspects.
• D. Outsources all asset management to vendors.

Answer: (A)

Governance in IT asset management establishes the policies, roles, and controls that ensure assets are tracked and managed from cradle to grave. It emphasizes who owns each asset, how it moves through its lifecycle, the licensing status, and how disposal is handled securely and responsibly. This full-spectrum view lets an organization optimize asset usage, stay license-compliant, manage costs, and reduce risks such as over-purchasing, underutilization, license penalties, or data exposure on retired hardware. The other options miss important governance aspects: a single central repository without lifecycle tracking lacks the controls and visibility needed; focusing only on financial accounting ignores operational risks and optimization opportunities; outsourcing everything removes the internal accountability and policy enforcement that governance requires.