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An organization’s IT environment consists of many interconnected infrastructure components, applications and services. Without a central source of knowledge about these dependencies, managing changes, incidents or infrastructure development becomes increasingly difficult. The answer to these challenges is a CMDB system – a configuration management database that lets you bring order to information about your IT environment. Which CMDB software is worth choosing?
What is CMDB software?
What is a CMDB? CMDB (Configuration Management Database) software is used to collect, organize and maintain information about the configuration items (CIs) that make up an organization’s IT environment – servers, applications or services, for example. The key feature of a CMDB is above all the ability to map the real dependencies between the individual CIs present in the infrastructure.
CMDB software differs from classic IT asset inventory. Inventory tools answer the question of what the organization owns. A CMDB, in turn, also answers questions such as:
- What does a given service depend on?
- Which systems does a specific application use?
- What impact will the failure of a particular component have on the remaining processes?
When does an organization need a CMDB system?
In most cases, the need to implement CMDB software in a company appears as the IT environment grows and the number of supported services increases.
The first signal is infrastructure data that is too scattered. Storing information about IT assets across many tools and documents makes it harder to keep that information consistent. The next problem is a lack of IT service visibility. This is a situation in which the organization has knowledge about individual servers or applications, but not about the dependencies between them.
Another signal may be missing information about the relationships between infrastructure components, along with difficulty in analyzing the impact of changes, which increases the risk of unplanned downtime and incidents. An organization should also consider implementing a CMDB system if its infrastructure covers on-premises resources, cloud resources and data from various systems at the same time.
What CMDB systems are available on the market?
The CMDB market is fairly diverse. The most commonly used solutions include:
- Enterprise-class tools – extensive platforms designed for large organizations with complex IT infrastructure.
- Systems for mid-sized organizations – they provide CMDB functionality without the costs typical of corporate platforms.
- Open source – they help limit licensing costs and offer a high degree of configuration flexibility.
- CMDB as part of an ITSM platform – CMDB software can also be an integral part of an ITSM platform, giving the organization a single, consistent source of knowledge about infrastructure, services and their mutual dependencies.
- Specialist solutions – local CMDB systems designed for the specific needs of an organization, for example managing cloud environments or business-critical assets.
Which CMDB software should you choose?
The answer to the question of which CMDB software to choose depends above all on the characteristics of the IT environment and the needs of the organization. The greater the number of devices, applications and services operating in the organization, the harder it becomes to manage the dependencies between them and to maintain full visibility of how they are connected.
The second aspect is the number of data sources. In many organizations, information about the environment comes from various types of systems, such as Service Desk or Asset Management. A good CMDB should make it possible to gather data from different sources in one place.
The ability to model relationships between CIs is also very important – it is precisely the dependencies between components that form the foundation of effective change impact analysis and incident management.
Your choice should also take into account integration with ITSM processes, especially if the organization uses Incident Management, Problem Management and Change Management. The deployment model (on-premises, cloud or hybrid) matters as well.
What features should modern CMDB software have?
The capabilities of a CMDB go far beyond storing information about infrastructure. Below we point out the most important features of a good system.
- Defining CI types – lets you create your own classes of configuration items and adapt their attributes to the needs of the organization.
- Relationship modeling – lets you map dependencies between infrastructure components, applications and IT services.
- Service mapping – lets you present the links between services and the components that support them.
- Data import – lets you automatically retrieve and update information coming from various sources.
- Integrations – enable data exchange between the CMDB and other systems used in the organization.
- Discovery – lets you automatically detect assets and update information about the IT environment.
- Incident Management support – enables faster identification of the source of an incident and determination of the scope of its impact.
- Problem Management support – lets you analyze the root causes of problems and identify recurring errors.
- Change Management support – enables assessment of how planned changes will affect IT infrastructure and services.
- Impact Analysis – lets you predict the effects of changes and limit the risk of unplanned disruptions.
What to look for when choosing CMDB software?
The choice of a CMDB should take into account both the organization’s current needs and its future growth. First of all, you should assess whether the chosen solution is suited to the size of the company and the degree of complexity of its IT infrastructure.
It is also worth paying attention to:
- integration capabilities,
- flexibility of the CI model,
- reporting quality,
- impact analysis features,
- automation of data updates.
Ease of implementation and usability for operational teams also remain an important criterion. An overly complicated system can generate high maintenance costs and make it harder for users to put the software to practical use.
Why is data quality in a CMDB so important?
A CMDB system is useful only when it contains up-to-date and consistent data. Duplicates, outdated records or discrepancies between information coming from different sources can lead to faulty analyses and make managing the IT environment more difficult. That is why data reconciliation, deduplication and automatic synchronization mechanisms play an important role in the software. Data governance is equally important – that is, defining the rules and responsibilities for maintaining the quality of information in the CMDB.
How to match CMDB software to the type of organization?
The choice of a CMDB should be adapted to the specifics of the organization. In mid-sized companies, the most important factors are simplicity of implementation and integration with core ITSM processes. Such organizations usually look for solutions that do not require extensive resources to maintain.
In organizations that have a Service Desk, the CMDB should be closely linked with handling tickets, incidents and changes. Teams that need strong data governance should choose solutions supporting information quality control, reconciliation of data from various sources and effective configuration item management.
Companies with extensive on-premises infrastructure may want to look at integration capabilities with other systems and at modeling dependencies between the components of the IT environment. For hybrid or cloud organizations, in turn, integrations with cloud platforms and mechanisms for automatically updating data about assets and services are what matter.
What benefits does well-implemented CMDB software deliver?
Properly implemented CMDB software is one of the most important sources of knowledge about the IT environment.
The most frequently achieved benefits include:
- faster incident resolution,
- more effective Incident Management processes,
- better change risk assessment,
- greater Change Management effectiveness,
- smoother analysis within Problem Management,
- fuller visibility of IT services,
- easier planning of migrations and upgrades,
- less information chaos,
- better business decisions.
OXARI CMDB against the selection criteria
OXARI CMDB supports the creation of a central repository of data about configuration items, making it possible to model CIs and map the relationships between infrastructure components and services. An important feature of the solution is the ability to integrate with ITSM processes and to work together with the Service Desk and Asset Management areas. You will find more information in the guide showing how to build a CMDB.
OXARI CMDB fits the selection criteria for a modern CMDB system, combining configuration management with practical support for handling incidents, problems and changes.
FAQ – frequently asked questions about CMDB software
How does a CMDB differ from ITAM?
ITAM focuses on managing IT assets throughout their entire life cycle. A CMDB focuses on configuration items, their relationships and their impact on IT services.
Does a mid-sized company need a CMDB?
Yes. As the number of systems and services grows, even mid-sized organizations begin to feel the need to centralize knowledge about their infrastructure.
Should CMDB software have discovery?
In most cases, yes. Automatic asset detection significantly improves how up to date the data is and reduces the administrative workload.
Does a CMDB only work with a Service Desk?
No. A CMDB also supports monitoring, change management, problem management and many other processes.
Does a CMDB work well in a cloud environment?
Yes. A CMDB is particularly useful in cloud environments, where there are many dependencies between services, applications and resources.
How long does a CMDB implementation take?
Implementation time depends on the scale of the organization, the number of data sources, the degree of infrastructure complexity and the scope of relationship modeling.
