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Cracking The CMDB EnigmaHint: There is no “CMDB”
Glenn O’DonnellSenior AnalystForrester Research
February 19, 2009
2Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
CMDB
3Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
CMS
4Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Questions to be Answered
• What is the difference between CMDB and CMS?
• What’s feasible; what’s not?
• What is federation?
• What good is the CMDB?
• How will the CMS evolve?
5Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
What IS this thing we call a CMDB?
• The source of informationfor IT decisions
• “CMDB” is a misnomer
• A critical element ofoperational discipline
• Popularized by ITIL
• Migrate to the ITILv3configuration management system (CMS)
6Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Configuration Management System
• The CMS contains MANY “CMDBs”
– Management Data Repositories (MDRs)
– Linked by federation
• Accuracy is ensured by discovery &change mgmt
• Heavy use ofmetadata
• Captures all data aboutIT services and infrastructure
HR DB
Servers
Network Service Catalog
StorageVirtual
Servers
CMS
Known Errors
Incidents
Apps
DataWhse
7Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
CMDB: What’s possible and what’s not?
• Federation is coming
• Infrastructure discovery
• Application discovery
• Attack small bites
• Multi-vendor CMDB
• CMS (but it’ll take time)
• Federation is coming
• Accuracy in “old world”
• Accuracy in “new world”
• Single-Vendor CMDB
• “One” CMDB
• “Big Bang” CMDB
Possible Difficult/Impossible
Isolated pockets of the truth are better than unified ambiguity!
8Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
A simple federated CMDB example
Service Catalogservice Aservice Bservice C
Service MDRcustomer
service ownerapplication A
Customer MDRorganization IDcontact person
IT_customer_rep
HR DBemployee ID
nameorganization ID
Application MDRclient
networkserver
Server MDRmanufacturer
modelstorage
Client MDRmanufacturer
modeluser
Network MDRmanufacturer
modelnum_ports
Storage MDRmanufacturer
modelcapacity
100%metadata
mix ofmetadata
andlocaldata
local data
9Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
The CMDB “Butterfly Effect”
• All decisions are based on configuration information!
• Good information= good decisions
• Bad information= bad decisions
• Decisions compound
• Delays will prove devastating PunitiveOutsourcing
Operational Excellence
Process Refinement
Status Quo
CM
S“N
udge
” Disadvantage
Delayed Start
Collapse
The very future of the organization rides on trustworthy
information!
10Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Discovery Yields the Truth
• CMDB population is a big problem
– Solution: discovery and change mgmt
• Complexity is beyond comprehension … and getting MUCH worse
– Verify documented systems;trust no current data
• Automated technologies discover the truth
– e.g., network, server, storage, apps, …
• Beware of blind faith, but tools discover complex environments (the truth) better than humans can
Difference
11Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
CMDB process maturity
1
2
3
4
5
• Knowledge of IT is almost entirely in human minds• Verifying configuration is heavily manual
• Simple CMDB is assembled, but data is stale• Limited discovery is in use
• Heavy use of discovery, but data unification is weak
• Most discovery data is unified into a federated model• Early process integration is happening
• Most discovery data is unified into a federated model • Broad process integration is accelerating execution
12Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
CMDB becomes the CMS
• Federation will grow through 2011
• Process integration becomes the focus by late 2009
• CMS technologies become infused in mgmt tools
– Vendors will focus on CMS use, not the CMS itself
• Service design, visualization and reporting will emerge as important tools/functions based on CMS
• CMS elements will be decoupled from other tools
– Modular MDR integration will be the feed
• Active adaptation will derive intelligence from the CMS and will update CMS immediately (mandatory!)
13Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Prepare for the new CMDB (the CMS)
• Beware CMDB misinformation
• The “new CMDB” follows a federated model
• Understand how tools will evolve and which foundation tools are available today
• Much of the CMDB will change
• Determine HOW the CMDB will be used
• Ensure a thriving future with trustworthy information
Information is not just data,it is useful data with intelligence!
14Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
How to do CMDB right!
• Start now
• Appoint and empower a strong CMDB leader
• Leverage discovery and incumbent tools
• Expect to do some integration yourself
• Unify service-level definitions with metadata models
• Migrate thinking to align more with ITILv3
Avoid the monolith!There can be no single CMDB!
15Entire contents © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Thank you
Glenn O’Donnell
+1 617.613.8826
www.forrester.com