Martin Thompson

Mixed signals on Oracle audits - is the risk falling or just changing shape?

Jul 15, 2026

The signals seem to be pointing in different directions. Here is what I'm seeing, what it might mean.

Would you like AI with that?

Jul 9, 2026

Different vendors, one playbook. Forced AI upgrades and unwarranted price spikes abound.

For ITAM to thrive, it must sell itself

Jun 25, 2026

A follow-on to the new IT Asset Governance framework announced last week

A new IT Asset Governance Framework

Jun 17, 2026

Introducing the IT Asset Governance Framework: 25 tangible outcomes built on ISO/IEC 19770-1.

Four camps in the AI-for-ITAM race: table stakes, aggregators, disruptors, and one smart bet

Jun 11, 2026

an update on the AI ITAM tools I've been looking at over the last four or five months.

Vendor Pressure Index (Preliminary Results): Renewal hotspot, loading unwanted AI

May 27, 2026

We launched the Vendor Pressure Index in early May. Thank you to everyone that has participated so far. In this article I want to share some preliminary insights from ITAM professionals around the world.

Sixteen months into DORA, can you prove your asset register works?

May 12, 2026

The organisations that struggle in year two of DORA enforcement will not be the ones missing the processes. They will be the ones missing the safety net underneath them.

Introducing the Vendor Pressure Index

May 7, 2026

Over the years publishing ITAM Review, we have covered point-in-time assessments of audit behaviour and vendor tactics. Useful at the time. I thought it was about time we did this on a regular basis.

20-30% Stock Drops. 30,000 Layoffs. What Enterprise Software Vendors Do Next.

Apr 10, 2026

Six of the largest enterprise software vendors on the planet lost between 20% and 40% of their market value in the opening months of 2026. Oracle reportedly cut up to 30,000 jobs in a week.

Flying Blind on Mobile, Losing the SaaS War, Questioning the CMDB and Why FinOps Belongs in Your Tool Belt

Mar 26, 2026

Key conversations from the ITAM Forum Wisdom Unplugged Event in Melbourne, Australia this week.

Building a business case for ITAM, SAM and Software Licensing Training

Mar 9, 2026

A practical framework for connecting training investment to measurable financial outcomes

Vendor lock-in: A beginners guide

Feb 24, 2026

This guide gives you a framework to identify lock-in early, classify it, and manage it before it manages your budget for you.

8 Dimensions of Trustworthy ITAM Data

Jan 28, 2026

Accurate ITAM data strengthens careers and helps expand teams.

FinOps prices the rooms, ITAM manages the hotel

Jan 20, 2026

It also raises a question I have been asked a few times already, “If FinOps is now modelling data centre costs, how does that sit with ITAM?”

AI innovation vendor briefings: call for participants

Jan 14, 2026

In December 2025 I published an AI Innovation Watch List. That article was a starting point. The obvious next step is to stop guessing from the outside and get hands-on with what’s actually being built.

Flexera acquires ProsperOps, from dashboards to execution

Jan 7, 2026

This strengthens Flexera’s position in cloud cost optimisation and FinOps. It also reinforces a trend we’ve been tracking for a while: ITAM and FinOps are converging, and the tooling market is now responding to that reality.

The ITAM Review, rebooted: independent analysis for a changing industry

Dec 16, 2025

Now the landscape is shifting again. As the ITAM Forum transitions into the Linux Foundation, ITAM Review is becoming a separate entity once more.

AI Innovation Watch List - Emerging AI tools transforming ITAM, SAM, licensing and FinOps workloads

Dec 9, 2025

The AI innovation watchlist below is a snapshot of tools and platforms that are applying AI to ITAM workloads (and surrounding disciplines SAM, Licensing, FinOps, IT Procurement). It’s a list of vendors I’ll be watching closely as AI permeates the market.

Workshop Results: Hybrid IT - Why ITAM Needs a New Operating Model

Dec 3, 2025

Hybrid IT, a mix of on-prem, public cloud, SaaS and now AI workloads, has become the default for large enterprises, not a temporary phase on the way to “all cloud”. Live polling at the ITAM Review Wisdom Unplugged event in Newbury last month showed that most teams are wrestling with fragmented data, licensing chaos and unclear ownership across suppliers that span on-prem, cloud and SaaS.

Building ITAM Foundations: A Quick Guide to Inventory and Discovery

Nov 26, 2025

Within the ITAM world, the terms “discovery” and “inventory” often get bundled together, almost as if they’re the same thing

Eight steps towards AI Governance

Nov 12, 2025

Are you behind the 8 ball of AI risk?

Crawl, Walk, Run applied to ITAM Best Practice

Nov 4, 2025

I've borrowed the methodology and applied it to the 12 competency areas of the Practical ITAM framework

AI Governance through an ITAM Lens: Treat AI as a Status Change, Not a New Asset

Oct 28, 2025

Managing AI in the enterprise is a team sport. In this article, I want to explore specifically what ITAM brings to the table as we enter the AI era.

The Cost Ripple from the AWS Outage

Oct 21, 2025

Another exciting week in San Francisco's vibrant tech ecosystem!