Organizations invest heavily in vulnerability scanners, penetration tests, and patch management tools—yet breaches and audit failures still occur. Why? Because you can’t secure what you don’t know exists. 

IT Asset Management (ITAM) has long been viewed as an operational necessity for tracking hardware and software. In today’s digital landscape, it’s a strategic pillar of cybersecurity and risk management. 

Why Visibility Is the Foundation of Risk Reduction 

Every vulnerability assessment or penetration test relies on knowing which assets to scan. Shadow IT, orphaned devices, and unmonitored cloud workloads create blind spots that attackers exploit. 

An effective ITAM practice provides: 

• Complete asset inventory: A living, accurate record of all devices, software, and cloud instances—on-premises or remote. 

• Lifecycle tracking: Visibility into outdated, unsupported, or end-of-life assets to close common attack vectors. 

• Dependency mapping: Insight into which services or business processes would be impacted by vulnerability. 

Without ITAM, vulnerability management operates on incomplete data—leaving risk exposure unmeasured and unmanaged. 

The NWN Approach: Turning Visibility Into Defense 

NWN’s Asset Assurance bridges the gap between ITAM and cybersecurity. It’s a managed, cloud-delivered service that connects asset data, vulnerability intelligence, and governance into a unified risk-management framework. 

By integrating directly with both customer systems and NWN’s Experience Management Platform (EMP)—which already monitors infrastructure, devices, and applications under NWN’s management—Asset Assurance creates a real-time, verified inventory of every asset in the environment. 

This eliminates the guesswork in vulnerability management and provides a shared data foundation for IT, Security, and Compliance teams to act on the same truth. 

Pairing ITAM With Vulnerability Scanning and Testing 

Risk reduction isn’t achieved by any single tool—it’s a coordinated process. Pairing Asset Assurance with vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and patch management transforms these point activities into a continuous cyber-defense cycle: 

1. Asset Discovery → Risk Scanning 
   Asset Assurance continuously discovers assets and feeds them into NWN’s Offensive Security suite, ensuring no system is overlooked during vulnerability assessments. 

2. Risk Prioritization → Patch Strategy 
   Asset Assurance contextualizes vulnerabilities with business impact and compliance data, enabling teams to prioritize the issues that matter most to the organization. 

3. Exposure Remediation → Continuous Assurance 
   Penetration tests validate whether critical vulnerabilities remain exploitable, while Asset Assurance tracks remediation and provides ongoing compliance evidence for audits. 

Sidebar Insight: The ROI of Integration 

Measured Outcome: 
According to Gartner (2025), organizations that integrate asset management into their vulnerability management programs reduce unpatched critical vulnerabilities by up to 50%. 

Why It Matters: 
With NWN Asset Assurance, every asset is visible, every risk is contextualized, and every remediation action is tracked—shrinking the attack surface, improving audit readiness, and giving leadership quantifiable proof of risk reduction. 

Business Value: Beyond Compliance 

When integrated with EMP and NWN’s broader security services, Asset Assurance delivers measurable value across multiple dimensions: 

• Reduced Attack Surface: Unknown or unmanaged devices are prime entry points for attackers. Asset Assurance shines a light on them. 

• Faster Incident Response: Complete asset data accelerates containment, patching, and recovery when incidents occur. 

• Improved Audit Readiness: Accurate asset records and compliance dashboards simplify regulator and auditor responses—reducing cost and disruption. 

• Smarter Investments: By mapping risk to business impact, organizations can allocate cybersecurity budgets where they matter most. 

Governance and Strategy: The vCISO Advantage 

Technology alone isn’t enough to maintain security and compliance over time. NWN extends Asset Assurance with vCISO advisory services, providing governance, reporting, and board-level insight that connects operational data to strategic decision-making. 

This managed governance layer helps organizations: 

• Design and enforce ITAM and vulnerability policies 

• Establish risk-based patching SLAs 

• Benchmark maturity against compliance frameworks 

• Translate technical risk into business impact 

Through ongoing collaboration and periodic reviews, NWN’s vCISO and EMP teams ensure that Asset Assurance remains aligned to evolving risk and business objectives. 

From Tactical to Strategic ITAM 

Leading organizations have shifted ITAM from a back-office inventory function to a risk intelligence hub. Modern service models like NWN Asset Assurance deliver real-time visibility, automation, and analytics that directly feed cybersecurity operations. 

This integrated approach is now considered a cybersecurity best practice. 
As Gartner highlights, organizations that embed asset management within vulnerability management frameworks can cut unpatched critical vulnerabilities by up to 50%—a measurable, defensible improvement in risk posture. 

Takeaway 

Vulnerability scanners and penetration testing alone can’t reduce risk if you don’t know what’s in your environment. A robust ITAM program—especially one connected through NWN Asset Assurance—is the missing link that transforms isolated security efforts into a coordinated, risk-based defense strategy. 

With NWN Asset Assurance, you can: 

• Continuously discover and classify every asset 

• Correlate vulnerabilities with business context 

• Prove compliance with real-time, audit-ready reporting 

• Shrink the attack surface and strengthen resilience 

Managing vulnerabilities starts with managing your assets. 
And Asset Assurance makes that visibility continuous, contextual, and actionable.