Top CMDB Tools You Should Consider Using
Published on April 24, 2020,
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When you begin accumulating any type of item, you need a system to organize the items, depict their interrelation, and enhance their overall composite function. Although this need for oversight, insight, and organization can apply to many areas, the IT assets in your company’s data center are no exception. In fact, they may take precedence.
CMDB tools can provide sufficient relief to such need.
What is CMDB?
CMDB, itself, stands for Configuration Management Database. Functionally, a CMDB system is concerned chiefly with data through offering a storage location, warehouse, or repository for such data, inputted from various primary source locations. This centralization of data allows for asset management.
How does CMDB relate to IT?
CMDB is an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) data warehouse. This functions within the larger Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) platform which maintains functionalities such as tools and reporting capacities. This allows for greater overall IT performance.
What is its purpose?
One of the largest benefits to CMDB is its insight into the interrelation between assets in an IT environment. Effectively, CMDB is able to store not simply lists of items but also log the relationship between items. Thus, it can track and provide information about the various statuses of individual IT infrastructure components. Although it can often be confused with the related technology asset management (TAM), it can also be combined with data center infrastructure management (DCIM) in powerful and effectual manners.
What are its benefits?
Effective implementation and use of the CMDB software allows for multi-functional insight into the interrelation of the IT environment. This leads to such benefits as document configuration rules, network-based assets discovery, application dependency mapping, inventory performance, incident management, and more. This can result in other residual enhancements, including service management processes and various circumstances of change or incident management while giving information on other improvements. Accomplished holistically, this can lead to performance increase and cost reduction.
Why does it matter now?
Although some purport potential drawbacks to a CMDB software (such as keeping everything up to date, personnel management, and interpretation needs), new processes (such as Agile, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, and SaaS usage) only increase its need. Not only does the ever-developing field of technology necessitate urgency for use, but it also can help equip the IT decision makers through providing key insight and can even lead to innovative discoveries to strengthen companies’ futures.
What tools are available?
Many options exist to help your company select and implement a CMDB system, and Nlyte’s Asset Explorer Connector for ServiceNow CMDB can provide invaluable assistance.
Additional CMDB tools to consider include:
Beyond various options for a CMDB software, you can continue seeking to improve your data center’s efficiency through additional means such as HDIM, DCIM, and TAM while looking to solutions for colocation, workload asset management, compliance and more.
