In the July 25th, 2009 CompTIA SmartBrief newsletter [comptia@smartbrief.com]was the following blub:

       Data centers the next target for RFID
       RFID technology is seen by many in the financial services industry as a solution
       for Sarbanes-Oxley regulatory compliance, allowing firms to accurately and easily
       keep tabs on assets, and a group called the Financial Services Tech Consortium 
        has been assembled to develop standards for RFID-based IT asset tracking. 
        According to the group, the technology has helped Bank of America trim its time
        spent on inventory by 90%, followed by Wells Fargo and Chase at about 78% each. 
        IT Business Edge (6/24)

Did you realize that if you have CMDB Solution (part of the Asset Management Suite) and a Cisco wireless network, you may be closer to being able to track your assets than you realized.

From the IT Business Edge article:
      “A better solution is a stationary RFID scanner at the door of the data center that can 
       automatically track everything that goes in and everything that goes out. Other options 
       are a stationary scanner in the ceiling and a push-cart system that rolls through larger
       data centers taking readings.

       Networking vendor Cisco tracks about 400 pieces of equipment in one data center using an 
       active Wi-Fi RFID system using its own wireless infrastructure. The system takes inventory
       every three hours and updates its asset-management system.

       In e-mail, David Hensley, Cisco’s program manager for IT, declined to elaborate on the ROI for
       the project, but said the company is working to implement similar systems at its other data centers.”

I’ve spoken to David at Cisco, and he is using Altiris Asset Management Suite and Cisco’s Mobile Service Engine (MSE) to track servers, right down to their rack location.

Let me know if you are interested in hearing more.

Sandy Fletcher
Altiris Asset Management Suite Product Manager
Sandy_fletcher@symantec.com