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'World's largest' IT catalog open to view

iPad in the, um, datacenter

An IT asset management firm is providing access to what it claims is the world's largest catalogue of hardware, software, and networking equipment.

BDNA has announced Technopedia, claiming it lists "every piece of hardware you could find in a data center and the software that runs on it." The list of 150,000 IT products has everything from Windows and Oracle applications to, er, the iPad.

Technopedia packs in 800,000 data points on products features, interdependencies, price, and companies' support into a single, continuously updated source, BDNA said.

It's the first time BDNA has opened the catalogue. Until now, it's only been available to customers using its asset discovery tool. Now, you can browse Technopedia via BDNA's TheITGenome.com portal after you've registered with a user name and password.

Naturally, there's a quid-pro-quo. This isn't just a version of Wikipedia for IT assets. BDNA hopes you'll download its agentless Discover tool to make sense of the data by finding out what you're running in-house - PCs and servers, devices, and software.

Then, the BDNS says, you'll want to use the company's additional services: the newly-announced Normalize and Enrich. Normalize uses a standardized taxonomy to identify what's running on your network and to remove duplication of names. Enrich finds what BDNA called "non-discoverable data" on information like a PC's physical dimensions or the amount of energy it consumes. The idea is that this will allow you to devise, say, a green IT strategy.

BDNA reckons its long-term plan is to open up Technopedia to a Wikipedia-like model with user-generated content - currently entries are from BDNA's own in-house research operation, based in China. Researchers update the catalogue every six months - or sooner if there's been an IT company acquisition or a product rebranding or launch. ®

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