A method comprising the step of: sending an identification of an address information of a particular computing device (220, 225, 230, 235, 240) to an asset management system for inclusion of the address information in an asset repository managed by the asset management system; identifying, using a passive-type pluggable discovery sensor in a set of discovery sensors (280, 285) included in an asset detection engine, said address information of said particular computing device (220, 225, 230, 235, 240) within a network, where said address information is an IP address information of said particular computing device (220, 225, 230, 235, 240); and if the asset management system determines that the identified IP address information was not included in the asset repository, identifying additional attributes of the particular computing device (220, 225, 230, 235, 240) using an active-type pluggable discovery sensor in the set of discovery sensors (280, 285); wherein the passive-type pluggable discovery sensor is an event-based pluggable discovery sensor adapted to identify IP address information of computing devices (220, 225, 230, 235, 240) on the network from event record data of at least one of DHCP server events, Active Directory audit events, firewall events, and intrusion prevention system events, or the passive-type pluggable discovery sensor is a latent-type pluggable discovery sensor adapted to identify IP address information of computing devices (220, 225, 230, 235, 240) on the network from network traffic monitored by the passive-type pluggable discovery sensor, wherein the latent-type pluggable discovery sensor is adapted to monitor at least one of NetBIOS broadcast packets in the network traffic, ICMPv6 network traffic, and network traffic via port mirroring. sending an identification of an address information of a particular computing device (220, 225, 230, 235, 240) to an asset management system for inclusion of the address information in an asset repository managed by the asset management system; identifying, using a passive-type pluggable discovery sensor in a set of discovery sensors (280, 285) included in an asset detection engine, said address information of said particular computing device (220, 225, 230, 235, 240) within a network, where said address information is an IP address information of said particular computing device (220, 225, 230, 235, 240); and if the asset management system determines that the identified IP address information was not included in the asset repository, identifying additional attributes of the particular computing device (220, 225, 230, 235, 240) using an active-type pluggable discovery sensor in the set of discovery sensors (280, 285); wherein the passive-type pluggable discovery sensor is an event-based pluggable discovery sensor adapted to identify IP address information of computing devices (220, 225, 230, 235, 240) on the network from event record data of at least one of DHCP server events, Active Directory audit events, firewall events, and intrusion prevention system events, or the passive-type pluggable discovery sensor is a latent-type pluggable discovery sensor adapted to identify IP address information of computing devices (220, 225, 230, 235, 240) on the network from network traffic monitored by the passive-type pluggable discovery sensor, wherein the latent-type pluggable discovery sensor is adapted to monitor at least one of NetBIOS broadcast packets in the network traffic, ICMPv6 network traffic, and network traffic via port mirroring.