Patent ID: 7200613

Claim:
A method of retaining data about a plurality of assets in an effectively single database controlled by a computer, the assets including network assets and non-network assets, the data including network data and non-network data, the network data being obtainable over a network, comprising: for each asset, associating the asset with a file in the database, the file including spaces for holding data, each space being associated with a type of data; discovering a network asset, the network asset having a network address associated therewith; as a result of discovering the network asset, creating a file and populating at least one predetermined space in the file with network data relating to the network asset; inferring non-network data related to the network asset and populating at least one predetermined space in the file with the inferred non-network data relating to the network asset, the non-network data including data relating to at least one of a physical location of the asset, a person associated with the asset, a warranty associated with the asset, and a lease associated with the asset; and for a non-network asset, associating the non-network asset with a file and populating a space in the associated file with non-network data.