Glossary

A configuration management database, or CMDB, is an organization-wide database created as a reference for technology assets, also known as configuration items (CIs), and their contextual relationship information in the IT estate across various business functions. Technology assets typically include hardware and software, but increasingly may include additional hybrid technology.

The goal of a CMDB is to provide an organization with the information needed to make better business decisions, run efficient IT asset management practices, and plan infrastructure and support processes such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT financial management (ITFM).

Organizations typically implement CMDBs to maintain a centralized repository of CIs, support change management, enhance incident and problem resolution, and improve overall ITSM. However, CMDBs can vary widely based on the organizational need and complexity of infrastructure. Typically, CMDBs will include the following:

• Attributes and properties
• Relationships
• Hierarchy and topology
• Configuration baselines
• Versioning and history
• Lifecycle management
• User access and permissions
• Integration and data sources
• Customization and extensions

CMDBs often provide reporting and visualization capabilities to help users understand the relationships, dependencies, and changes within the IT environment, as well as the ability to search or query the CMDB for specific information about assets.

The ways IT teams use data are evolving, and more stakeholders of the CMDB are becoming involved in the process, including asset managers, enterprise architects, information security and cyber security teams, ITSM and even cloud architects using asset inventory data.

CMDBs are a foundational tool for effective IT management. Not only do they help to provide a centralized repository, they can be used toward informed decision making across a host of strategic initiatives within an organization. CMDBs can help through contextualization of:

• IT asset management:

  CMDBs are often used for IT asset management, helping organizations keep track of hardware and software assets, their lifecycle stages, ownership and other relevant information, including utilization, compliance and control costs.

• Identify relationships and dependencies:

  One of the core features of a CMDB is its ability to discover and provide visibility into the relationships between different CIs or IT assets. For example, CMDBs can show which applications are hosted on which servers or which network devices are connected to each other. This is particularly helpful when it comes to business services provided by or internally available to your organization, where updating, removing or adding applications can affect the output.

• Change management/Incident and problem management:

  CMDBs are often used in conjunction with change management processes. When changes are planned within your IT environment, the CMDB helps assess the potential impacts of those changes on other components by showing their interdependencies.

  Additionally, when issues or incidents occur, the CMDB can aid in quickly identifying the affected components and their relationships. This speeds up troubleshooting and resolution processes.

• Reporting and analysis:

  CMDBs offer reporting and visualization capabilities that help you gain insights into your IT environment, such as understanding application rationalization, resource utilization/consumption, lifecycle management (end of life/obsolete and end of support assets), identifying potential vulnerabilities (versions, patches and updates), and planning for capacity upgrades and cloud migration efforts.

Implementing a CMDB can be a considerable investment in time, effort and cost. Common challenges include:

• Data accuracy and completeness:

  Ensuring that the data entered into the CMDB is accurate, complete and up to date can be a considerable undertaking. Inaccurate, incomplete or outright missing data can undermine the effectiveness of your CMDB and lead to erroneous decisions. Typically, this requires a combination of human curation, machine learning or artificial intelligence, and automated processes to truly stay on top of unwieldy data.

  Implementing a CMDB effectively also requires expertise in configuration management, data modeling and ITSM. If your organization lacks such expertise, you may face obstacles in setting up an optimal CMDB.

• Data consistency, standardization and upkeep:

  A variety of teams or departments—including within IT itself—may have their own naming conventions and data formats, leading to inconsistent and unstandardized data in the CMDB. Normalizing data across myriad sources can be complex and time intensive.

  Additionally, keeping the CMDB up to date requires ongoing effort. Changes in the IT environment, such as hardware upgrades, software installations and configuration changes, need to be reflected accurately in the CMDB.

  Integration with existing systems, such as asset management, incident management and change management tools, can be complex and require careful planning to ensure data consistency and accuracy.

• Scope management:

  Determining the scope of what should be included in your CMDB can be tricky. The hybrid IT space is constantly evolving, and some items (e.g., containers) are fleeting in nature and can expand entries quickly. Including too much information can lead to overwhelming complexity, while excluding critical items can limit a CMDB’s usefulness. Selecting the appropriate tools or software for implementing your CMDB is also a consideration for scope, as the chosen solution should align with the organization's needs, scalability, integration capabilities and user friendliness.

  CMDBs contain sensitive information about your organization's IT infrastructure. Ensuring data security and compliance with privacy regulations while granting appropriate access to authorized personnel is a balancing act.

In short, implementing and maintaining a CMDB demands time, human capital, additional resources, and financial investment. Organizations must allocate resources appropriately to ensure the project's continued success after implementation for continued maintenance and support.

Establishing a set of best practices can help your organization derive the maximum benefit from the CMDB, leading to improved IT asset and service management, better and more reliable decision making and enhanced overall operational efficiency.

• Define clear objectives:

  Establish clear goals and objectives for your CMDB implementation by understanding and illustrating what problems you're trying to solve and how it will contribute to overall IT and business objectives.

• Establish scope and involve stakeholders:

  It’s essential to define the scope of what will be included in your CMDB to prevent unnecessary complexity and ensure the CMDB remains manageable. It’s also vital to involve representatives from all IT teams and relevant business units, as well as gaining leadership buy-in and support for the initiative. Collaboration and input from various stakeholders will help ensure that the CMDB meets the needs of the entire organization.

• Accuracy, consistency and regular maintenance:

  Ensure that data included in your CMDB is accurate, complete and consistent by establishing data standards, naming conventions and validation processes to maintain data quality. Implement processes for regularly updating your CMDB to include changes in the IT environment, such as hardware additions, software installations and configuration changes.

  Updates should establish clear and accurate relationships between CIs and understand dependencies and interactions between different assets and components to ensure effective change/incident management and troubleshooting. Contextual data on purpose, usage and attributes of each configuration item are helpful toward strategic initiative planning; metadata helps users understand the context and relevance of each item in the CMDB.

  Validate and audit data regularly to identify and update inaccuracies. Perform audits to ensure that your CMDB aligns with the actual IT infrastructure and is effectively delivering for users. Remember to communicate changes and updates to your CMDB through process documentation, and make sure to define guidelines and procedures for using the CMDB, ensuring that it will remain a valuable resource. Continuously gather feedback from users to make improvements and refine processes.

• Automate discovery and integration:

  Reduce manual data effort through implementation of automated discovery tools that can scan the network and collect information about CIs. Take it one step further by integrating with change management processes so changes made to the IT environment are documented in the CMDB and you ensure the current state of the hybrid IT estate is accurately reflected.

• Security and access control:

  Due to their nature, CMDBs contain sensitive information about an organization's IT infrastructure. Ensuring data security and compliance with privacy regulations while granting appropriate access to authorized personnel is essential. Implement role-based access control to guarantee that only authorized personnel can access and modify CMDB data. Data security and privacy are critical considerations.

Implementing these best practices can help your organization derive the maximum benefit from its CMDB, leading to improved ITSM, better decision-making and enhanced overall operational efficiency.

To learn how to get clearer visibility into your CMDB, get a free IT Visibility analysis.