Cloud Asset Management (CAM) is all about managing IT assets that run in cloud environments to maximize their value and efficiency. It’s also a critical extension of effective IT Asset Management (ITAM), as more and more IT infrastructure moves off-premise.
In fact, according to Foundry's 2024 Cloud Computing Study, 63% of IT decision-makers agree that their organization has accelerated its migration to the cloud over the past 12 months
What is Cloud Asset Management (CAM)?
Cloud Asset Management (CAM) is the practice of discovering, tracking, organizing, and optimizing all cloud-based IT assets across an organization. These assets can include virtual machines, containers, storage services, SaaS licenses, APIs, and more.
In short, it does what Asset Management does — but specifically for cloud assets. It ensures they are visible, secure, compliant, and cost-efficient throughout their lifecycle.
Why is Cloud IT Asset Management important
IT environments are moving to the cloud and managing cloud assets is not the same as managing physical ones. Cloud assets are dynamic, short-lived, and distributed. They’re provisioned on demand, billed by usage, and often managed across multiple teams and providers.
This adds complexity. You need to track consumption, enforce tagging, monitor costs in real time, and stay on top of compliance — all while everything keeps changing.
Cloud Asset Management gives you the tools, processes, and visibility to manage these differences effectively. It helps you stay in control of your cloud resources, avoid waste, reduce risk, and make smarter decisions in a fast-moving environment.
3 key benefits of Cloud Asset Management
By applying clear processes and real-time oversight, CAM helps organizations handle the challenges of cloud environments head-on. Here are three key benefits it brings to the table:
#1: Visibility across dynamic environments
Cloud assets can pop up and disappear quickly. CAM helps you maintain a real-time inventory across providers, regions, and teams — so you always know what you have and who’s using it.
#2: Cost control and optimization
With usage-based billing, cloud costs can escalate quickly. In fact, Foundry reports that 94% of organizations have experienced unexpected cloud expenses — highlighting the need for tools that identify waste and optimize resource usage.
CAM helps detect idle resources, enforce budgets, and fine-tune configurations to reduce unnecessary spending.
#3: Stronger compliance and security
Cloud environments are harder to govern without centralized oversight. CAM ensures that assets follow tagging standards, access controls, and regulatory requirements — reducing the risk of misconfigurations and data exposure.
This is critical, especially considering that 69% of IT decision-makers surveyed by Foundry cited governance, compliance, and security as top cloud challenges — exactly the areas where CAM brings structure and control.
Cloud Asset Management software
InvGate Asset Management: 5-Minute Demo
A Cloud Asset Management software is a tool that helps organizations gain visibility and control over their cloud-based resources. It automates the discovery, tracking, and optimization of cloud assets across multiple providers and platforms, making it easier to manage them throughout their lifecycle.
Many modern IT Asset Management solutions now include Cloud Asset Management capabilities, offering a centralized way to manage both physical and cloud-based resources in one place.
For example, InvGate Asset Management is a no-code ITAM platform with strong CAM features, making it a solid option for organizations looking to manage their cloud assets without complex setup or coding.
A CAM solution should enable you to:
- Automatically discover assets – IT asset discovery is essential for any CAM tool. It should enable you to detect and inventory cloud resources in real time, including virtual machines, SaaS tools, containers, and more.
- Track usage and spending – Visualize usage trends and identify idle or underutilized resources with software metering to reduce waste and stay within budget.
- Support IT budgeting and depreciation – Simplify budgeting by tracking asset depreciation and usage patterns across hybrid environments.
- Monitor compliance and governance – Enforce internal tagging rules, access policies, and regulatory standards.
- Enhance security – Identify unauthorized software, outdated versions, and assets with upcoming warranty expirations to reduce vulnerabilities.
- Track software and configuration changes – Detect changes in configurations or unauthorized applications that may introduce risk.
- Generate audit-ready reports – Document compliance and security posture with detailed, up-to-date reporting.
- Integrate across IT workflows – Connect with IT Service Management, procurement, and Configuration Management tools for a more cohesive IT environment.
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To sum up
Cloud Asset Management is no longer optional — it’s a necessity for any organization with a cloud footprint. As infrastructure shifts off-premise and environments grow more complex, having a structured way to manage cloud assets is the only way to stay in control.
With the right Cloud Asset Management software in place, you can gain full visibility, cut unnecessary costs, stay compliant, and keep your cloud environment secure. And if you’re already using an IT Asset Management platform like InvGate Asset Management, extending your efforts to cover cloud assets can be a natural and powerful next step.
