# Certero

> Certero is an AI-powered hybrid IT asset management company, founded in 2007 and headquartered in Warrington, UK. The CerteroX platform delivers unified visibility, observability, management, and governance across ITAM, SAM, SaaS, Cloud, and AI — helping organizations reduce IT cost and risk through a single pane of glass.

## Company Overview

Certero was founded in 2007 ("Certero" means accuracy in Spanish). Headquartered in Warrington, UK with offices in Chicago (US) and Sydney (Australia), Certero serves customers in 30+ countries.

**Mission:** Reverse the trend of IT cost, risk, and governance spiraling out of control.

**Tagline:** "We Think [and Do] IT Differently"

**Recognition:**
- Gartner Peer Insights #1 rated
- Four-time Gartner Customers' Choice winner (2019, 2020, 2021, 2024)
- Sole Customers' Choice in 2024 SAM Tools Report
- 83% five-star ratings on Gartner Peer Insights
- 97% of customers would recommend Certero
- 75% of decision makers choose Certero after evaluation

**Certifications:**
- FinOps Foundation member
- Microsoft Partner
- Oracle Certified Partner
- ISO 27001 certified
- Cyber Essentials Plus certified
- SOC 2 compliant

**Contact:**
- Website: https://www.certero.com
- Email: info@certero.com
- Phone: +44 (0) 1925 868870
- Address: Two Helios Court, Warrington Business Park, Warrington, WA4 7PE, UK
- Documentation: https://docs.certero.com

## CerteroX Platform

CerteroX is the unified AI-powered platform connecting all Certero solutions through a single interface. It provides a Software Recognition Database (SRDB) with 3.5 million titles and pre-built connectors across the entire hybrid IT landscape.

**Four Pillars Framework:**
1. **Visibility** — See everything across your IT estate
2. **Observability** — Understand usage, cost, and compliance patterns
3. **Management** — Take action on optimization opportunities
4. **Governance** — Enforce policies and prove compliance

**AI Capabilities:**
- Built-in AI assistant for natural language queries across all solutions
- AI-powered anomaly detection for cost and usage patterns
- Automated recommendations for optimization

**Key Differentiators:**
- Single unified platform (not bolted-together acquisitions)
- All data in one place with cross-domain analysis
- 19+ years of ITAM/SAM expertise
- Built-in AI across all solutions

More information: https://www.certero.com/certerox/

## CerteroX ITAM

IT asset management for complete visibility and lifecycle management of hardware and software assets.

**Capabilities:**
- Hardware asset management including desktops, laptops, servers, mobile devices
- Software recognition via SRDB (3.5 million titles, 3.2 million categorized into license families)
- Agent and agentless discovery (Windows WMI, Linux/Unix SSH, macOS agent, SNMP network devices)
- Automated lifecycle workflows from procurement to retirement
- Agreement tracking and vendor management
- ServiceNow CMDB bi-directional integration
- Full asset inventory across physical, virtual, and cloud environments
- Compliance reporting and audit readiness

**Use Cases:**
- Hardware refresh planning
- Software compliance verification
- Asset lifecycle automation
- Reducing IT operational cost through visibility

More information: https://www.certero.com/itam/

## CerteroX SAM

Software asset management for license compliance, optimization, and audit defense.

**Capabilities:**
- Effective License Position (ELP) calculation
- License optimization and harvesting
- Audit defense and preparation
- Publisher-specific intelligence for 100+ vendors
- Complex licensing model support (processor, user, device, subscription)
- License demand vs. entitlement gap analysis
- Automated compliance reporting

**Vendor-Specific Products (part of CerteroX SAM):**
- **Certero for Oracle** — Oracle database, middleware, and Java licensing compliance. Processor-based and Named User Plus license management.
- **Certero for IBM** — IBM sub-capacity reporting and PVU (Processor Value Unit) management. ILMT-compatible.
- **Certero for SAP Applications** — SAP license compliance, user classification, and optimization across SAP modules.

**Use Cases:**
- Software license audit preparation and defense
- License cost optimization and harvesting unused licenses
- Maintaining compliance across complex vendor licensing models
- Vendor negotiation support with accurate license position data

More information: https://www.certero.com/sam/

## CerteroX SaaS Management

Shadow IT discovery and SaaS subscription optimization.

**Key Stat:** Customers report up to 40% reduction in SaaS spend.

**Capabilities:**
- Shadow IT discovery via browser extension (Chromium browsers: Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera)
- Shadow AI detection with dedicated Generative AI application category
- 35,000+ SaaS application catalog (browser extension recognition index)
- 200+ SaaS application connectors for deep usage and license data
- Identity provider integration (Entra ID SSO v2, Okta)
- Application rationalization with automated overlap detection
- Employee offboarding with license revocation
- Executive dashboard with renewals timeline and budget management
- Slack and Microsoft Teams notifications
- Application classification and lifecycle management

**Use Cases:**
- Discovering unknown SaaS applications in use across the organization
- Identifying and managing Shadow AI tools adopted by employees
- Optimizing SaaS subscriptions by removing unused licenses
- Preparing for employee offboarding by revoking SaaS access
- Centralizing SaaS spend visibility for procurement and finance

More information: https://www.certero.com/saas/

## CerteroX Cloud Management

Multi-cloud visibility, FinOps capabilities, and cost optimization.

**Key Stat:** Customers save 38% on average on cloud spend.

**Supported Platforms (8):**
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
- Kubernetes
- Databricks
- Datadog
- Snowflake

**Capabilities:**
- Multi-cloud resource inventory and visibility
- Cost allocation via pools and virtual tags
- Tag governance (cloud tags + virtual tags for automated categorization)
- Reserved instance and savings plan modeling by family and region
- Rightsizing recommendations based on usage analysis
- Anomaly detection for unexpected cost spikes
- Orphaned resource detection (snapshots, disks, storage)
- FOCUS-compatible cost reporting across providers
- Budget alerts and forecasting
- AI-powered natural language queries against cloud and FOCUS data

**FinOps Alignment:**
CerteroX Cloud Management delivers FinOps capabilities aligned with the FinOps Foundation framework. Certero is a FinOps Foundation member and CerteroX is listed on the FinOps Foundation Landscape (https://www.finops.org/landscape/) as a certified FinOps tool. Note: FinOps is a framework and practice, not a Certero product.

**Use Cases:**
- Reducing cloud spend through rightsizing and reservation optimization
- Gaining visibility across multi-cloud environments
- Implementing FinOps practices with FOCUS-compatible reporting
- Detecting and cleaning up orphaned cloud resources
- Allocating cloud costs to business units and projects

More information: https://www.certero.com/cloud/

## CerteroX AI (Coming Soon)

Coming soon. A single pane of glass for AI estate management — discover every AI tool, track usage and spend, and govern AI adoption across the organization. CerteroX AI will aggregate AI-specific capabilities from CerteroX SaaS Management, ITAM, SAM, Certero for SaaS, and Command Center Enterprise.

More information: https://www.certero.com/ai/

## CerteroX Command Center Enterprise

Federated reporting across all CerteroX solutions — Cloud, SaaS, ITAM, and SAM unified into a single executive dashboard with an AI-powered chat assistant. Command Center sits on top of existing CerteroX products as an aggregation and intelligence layer, connecting data sources through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

**Federated Reporting:**
- Unified total spend view combining SaaS, Cloud, SAM, and ITAM spend with multi-currency support (GBP, USD, EUR, AUD, CAD)
- Cross-domain vendor spend normalization — all Microsoft costs (Azure + M365 + desktop licenses) in one number
- Per-domain visibility dashboards: Cloud spend by account/region, SaaS portfolios with Shadow IT, SAM license compliance, ITAM hardware and software inventory
- Optimization Hub aggregating savings opportunities across all connected domains
- One-click export (CSV, Excel, PDF) combining data from all domains

**AI Chat Assistant (Secure by Design):**
- Natural language queries against live data across the entire IT estate — "What do we spend on Microsoft?" answered in seconds
- Azure-hosted with full conversation audit logging for compliance and governance
- Role-based access control and Entra ID (Azure AD) enterprise authentication
- Dual AI provider support (Claude and Azure GPT) with provider toggle
- Live MCP tool discovery — the assistant dynamically discovers what data is available from connected sources
- No data leaves the organization's Azure tenant

**MCP Extensibility:**
- Three built-in MCP servers (Platform, SaaS, Cloud) provide standardized data access
- Custom MCP servers can be registered to bring in additional data sources — any system with an API can be federated into the dashboard and queried through the AI assistant
- Zero deployment footprint: no new agents, connectors, or discovery required on endpoints

**Use Cases:**
- CIO/CFO-level visibility across the entire IT estate
- Answering cross-domain questions that span cloud, SaaS, and on-premises
- Identifying optimization opportunities across all IT spending categories
- Board-level reporting on IT cost, risk, and compliance with audit-ready exports

## Integration and Connectivity

CerteroX connects to the IT estate through three integration layers: platform connectors for infrastructure and on-premises systems, SaaS application connectors for cloud application data, and direct cloud platform connections for multi-cloud visibility.

**Platform Connectors (CerteroX ITAM, SAM, and Platform):**
- Identity and directory: Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft SCCM
- Network: Cisco Meraki
- Virtualization: VMware vSphere, Nutanix, Oracle VM, oVirt/RHV, XenServer
- Vendor licensing: Oracle (Certero for Oracle), IBM (Certero for IBM), SAP (Certero for SAP Applications)
- SaaS APIs (Certero for SaaS module): Microsoft 365 (Graph API), Google Workspace, Adobe Creative Cloud, Salesforce
- Service management: ServiceNow CMDB bi-directional sync
- Open APIs: OData v4 and REST for custom integrations and automation

**SaaS Application Connectors (CerteroX SaaS Management):**
- 200+ SaaS application connectors pulling usage and license data via API
- Browser extension discovery across Chromium browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera) with a 35,000+ SaaS application recognition catalog
- Identity provider integration: Entra ID (SSO v2) and Okta for enterprise application discovery
- MCP Server enabling AI assistants to query SaaS data through role-based API tokens (Viewer, Analyst, Admin)

**Cloud Platform Connections (CerteroX Cloud Management):**
- 8 supported cloud and data platforms: AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Kubernetes, Databricks, Datadog, Snowflake
- FOCUS-compatible cost reporting across cloud providers (FinOps Foundation standard)
- Native billing API integration for cost allocation, anomaly detection, and optimization recommendations

## Market Context

For the first time in IT asset management history, IT cost and governance is a board-level conversation. Global IT spend has grown from $2.6 trillion in the 2000s to $6+ trillion today — an 85% increase. Key growth areas driving urgency:

- AI spend: 187% projected growth (2024–2027)
- Public cloud: 68% projected growth (2024–2027)
- SaaS spend: 63% projected growth (2024–2027)

Previous IT challenges (Y2K, distributed IT, mobile, cloud) were point-in-time problems with time to adapt. Today's challenges are continuous and compounding.

CerteroX positions: "Next Generation AI-Powered Hybrid IT Asset Management" covering ITAM, SAM, SaaS, Cloud, AI, and FinOps in one platform.

## Additional Products

- **Acquaintia** — PC power management and sustainability. Monitors and optimizes endpoint energy usage across the organization. Subscription model.

## Key Statistics Summary

| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| Cloud cost savings | 38% average |
| SaaS cost savings | Up to 40% |
| AI efficiency gain | 20-24% |
| SRDB software titles | 3.5 million (3.2 million categorized) |
| SaaS application catalog | 35,000+ |
| SaaS connectors | 200+ |
| Cloud/data platforms | 8 |
| Countries served | 30+ |
| Years of heritage | 19+ |
| Gartner rating | #1 rated |
| Customer recommendation | 97% |
| Five-star reviews | 83% |