This document is intended for IT administrators using the Intel ASF solution. It provides a detailed overview of ASF including a variety of usage scenarios.

Executive Summary

One of the last, big pieces of the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) puzzle is currently falling into place with the ASF (Alert Standard Format) specification. Developed by the Pre-OS Working Group under DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force), ASF helps deliver on the cost-reduction promise of systems management through capabilities such as system health monitoring, asset protection and remote control.

Even though network management solutions have been widely available and deployed for years, many IT departments are not fully utilizing these solutions because of systems management gaps in low-power and OS-absent states. Now ASF is helping to close those gaps and reduce IT costs by defining interfaces that provide access and manageability in OS-absent environments. This paper provides a detailed overview of ASF including a variety of usage scenarios.