How to Populate Your CMDB in Four Steps

How to Populate Your CMDB in Four Steps
A WHITE PAPERBy Brad Serbu
The secret to a successful CMDB
lies in meaningful informationHow to Populate Your CMDB in Four Steps
The tire-kicking phase is over for configuration Prohibitive Misconceptions management databases (CMDBs). Spurred by early Underlying many CMDB disappointments are misconceptions that are adopter success stories, which often report an ROI of likely to misguide implementation efforts.1200 percent, 400 percent, or more, more than 65 percent of enterprise IT shops are currently in the process of A CMDB is a "thing." As EMA's Dennis Drogseth emphasizes, the 2 CMDB is "a system in which politics, culture, organization, technology, implementing a CMDB solution. 5and products all come together." Organizations assuming that Besides being billed as a must-have for IT Infrastructure Library® a CMDB is a "thing" run the risk of not investing enough in pre-(ITIL®) adopters, a CMDB brings an attractive assortment of implementation planning, which is one of the chief reasons EMA operational benefits, including improved service levels, reduced identifies for CMDB failures. Instead of properly planning the downtime, and fewer outages. These cost-saving advantages, along CMDB project, IT teams frequently become overly focused on 6with the high cost of not deploying one, have incited companies to the technology. As a result, their expectations for the CMDB's start CMDB projects. performance typically run high. However, as Drogseth cautions, "You can purchase software that may be strategically useful in creating a There is, however, a flip side to this sunny scenario. A significant CMDB system, but it's not a matter of opening a box.and plugging number of organizations have experienced disappointing results 7in a new model train."from their CMDBs. According to independent research from leading analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), 44 percent The CMDB will solve data quality problems. Many organizations of enterprises rated the overall success of their CMDB effort as "fair" rush to implement a CMDB because they believe that having a single 3or "poor." And then there are troubling failure rates. EMA's survey of source of record will solve the problem of poor data quality. But even IT infrastructure and operations leaders at Fortune 500 companies with periodic audits for refreshing data in the CMDB, the information shows that 77 percent of respondents experienced a partial or failed is actionable only when it is 97 percent accurate, according to data 4CMDB implementation 18 months after purchase. management experts. Because change requests are constant, the data in the CMDB is able to maintain this accuracy level for brief time These findings have discouraged some CMDB evangelists, but periods, immediately after the audits are complete. After several unnecessarily so. Generally speaking, it's not a CMDB's technology experiences with misleading data, many users decide that the CMDB that is insufficient, but rather, how it is populated. If the appropriate is unreliable and stop using it. To avoid this outcome, implementation information model is not built into the CMDB before it is populated, it teams must achieve continuous data quality assurance before, during, will fail-simply because it will contain massive amounts of irrelevant and after CMDB implementation. information. For CMDBs to be effective, they must be useful; they must be able to access data that answers business questions and The CMDB must contain every configuration item (CI). The solves business problems. CMDBs that are populated with discovery thought of populating the CMDB overwhelms some businesses data alone do not function in this way. because they believe they must store every piece of data in the CMDB. While autodiscovery tools take the proposition of manual population off the table, they, too, can confound professionals with Steps to a Successful CMDB Population 8the tremendous amounts of data they can capture. However, not every CI is appropriate for CMDB storage; accordingly, populating 1. Identify the scope of your CMDB project the CMDB is not entirely an automatic, tool-driven process. IT organizations must determine which CIs are important to monitor for 2. Determine the discovery data this is relevant the business; these CIs belong in the CMDB and should be built into to your project its information model.3. Build a busi... [download for more]