Third-Party Product Brief by EMA: ASG-Discovery and Dependency Mapping (ASG-DDM)

ASG-Discovery and Dependency Mapping
(ASG-DDM): Automating Data Collection
for Change and Configuration Management

Overview Configuration Management is at the heart of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and forms the foundation for Business Service Management (BSM). In Vendor name: ASG fact, it is safe to say that neither the ITIL IT Service Management (ITSM) Product name: ASG-DDM processes nor the BSM functions that leverage ITSM can be efficiently carried out without accurate configuration and dependency information. Lacking a Production function: clear understanding of the ways in which hardware and software assets Application and Configuration interconnect, and which ones depend on others, IT organizations must resort Discovery and Dependency to managing today's complex business services via trial and error. Mapping
Supported by the notions of the Configuration Management Database Operating systems: Windows, (CMDB) in ITIL v2, and the Configuration Management System (CMS) in v3, UNIX (multiple flavors) the configuration repository provides complete, accurate, and up-to-date Vendor contact: Beth Parker: information about business hardware and software assets, their Beth.Parker@asg.com characteristics, and their interdependencies. However, wholesale adoption of comprehensive Configuration Management has been hindered by the Availability: Immediately difficulty and expense of gathering and maintaining such information. EMA's most recent Configuration Management research found that only 15% of companies surveyed were in full production with a Configuration Management System. Twenty four percent (24%) were in the process of deploying a first-phase CMS and another 18% were still in the planning stages. There are multiple reasons for these low numbers, but the most compelling revolve around data. How does a company go about the process of locating and documenting hardware and software assets, determining interrelationships and dependencies, storing, and reporting this information? And once such information is in place, how can it be kept current without expensive manual labor and a host of IT specialists? The good news is that, while ITIL was evolving from v2 to v3, specialized Discovery and Dependency Mapping solutions were evolving as well. ASG's innovative Today, there is no reason why deploying and maintaining an accurate, Discovery and federated CMS must rely on manpower and manual processes. ASG's innovative Discovery and Dependency Mapping (ASG-DDM) solution, Dependency Mapping combined with ASG's industry-leading ASG- metaCMDB, provide a basis (ASG-DDM) solution, for efficiently executing the ITSM processes, and a foundation for carrying out the BSM functions. combined with ASG's
ASG-DDM leverages sophisticated discovery and mapping algorithms to industry-leading ASG- solve the challenges of gathering, modeling, and maintaining metaCMDB, provide a configuration data. Integration with third party management solutions enables customers to extend the value proposition of management basis for efficiently products already in place. Integration with business platforms such as IDS executing the ITSM Scheer ARIS connects process information with technical configurations and metrics. This comprehensive approach forms a solid foundation for processes, and a virtually every aspect of business service performance and availability foundation for carrying out management, leading to improved operational efficiency and organizational maturity through automation. the BSM functions.
PRODUCT BRIEF - 1 - ©2010 Enterprise Management Associates
ASG-Discovery and Dependency Mapping
(ASG-DDM): Automating Data Collection
for Change and Configuration Management
ITIL and Change and Configuration Management ITIL v2, originally developed in the 1980's, tightly linked Incident, Problem, and Change Management with Configuration Management. It described a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) as a "single repository of information to be accessed across the Service Management processes."1 Not surprisingly given its time-frame, it focused on personnel-intensive IT Service Management processes, with entities such as the Change Advisory Board (CAB) being ... [download for more]