Plain-English glossary

The words you’ll hear, explained.

ITAM, CMDB and cloud-governance terms in one line each, with a link to where Omnitam does the work.

ITAM
IT Asset Management: what you own and pay for, and who owns it. ITAM & CMDB →
CMDB
Configuration Management Database: what runs and what depends on what. ITAM & CMDB →
Configuration item (CI)
Anything in the CMDB. Every asset is a CI; not every CI is an asset. Taxonomy guide →
Asset
A CI you pay for: a server, a database, a license, a certificate. Taxonomy guide →
Agentless discovery
Finding everything through AWS’s read-only APIs; nothing installed. Security →
Serverless
Nothing for you to install, patch or size: Omnitam is fully managed.
Blast radius
Everything affected if one thing breaks or changes. Blast radius →
Lineage
The chain of rebuilds linking a resource to what it replaced. Time Machine →
Drift
When two environments, or record and reality, quietly stop matching. Environment Parity →
SBOM
Software bill of materials: the ingredients list of software. SBOM →
Write-protected (WORM)
Write once, read many: storage that blocks edits and deletion. Omnitam’s evidence storage blocks edits and deletion for the retention period. Security →
True-up
The bill when you’ve used more licenses than you bought. License Management →
Recertification
Owners regularly confirming what’s assigned to them is still right. Governance guide →
MRU
Managed Resource Unit: an asset counts 1, a configuration item 0.2. Taxonomy guide →
License position
Seats bought vs seats assigned, per license: what an auditor asks for. License Management →
CRA
EU Cyber Resilience Act: security and reporting rules for EU products. Reporting duties apply since 11 September 2026; the rest, including an SBOM, from 11 December 2027. Not legal advice. EU CRA and SBOMs →

Assets vs configuration items, with everyday examples: Taxonomy guide. An adoptable process and policy: ITAM & CMDB governance guide.

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