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A Configuration Management Database (CMDB) provides a centralized data source to support Service, Asset, Operations and Datacenter management functions.

 

Based on data from hundreds of CMDB stand-ups and data quality initiatives, we compiled a list of the most frequent data source types that Blazent commonly configures. The top 5 sources are:

 

  1. CMDB: For a CMDB data quality initiative or migration, a CMDB is the seed data source. Examples of CMDBs we encounter are BMC Atrium and ServiceNow’s CMDB. When improving the quality of an existing CMDB, the records of a CMDB are validated against multiple sources; gaps are filled; and purified records replace existing records. Any records that cannot be validated or are outdated are flagged for removal, leaving only high-quality  data.

 

  1. Discovery: Discovery tools crawl a corporate network to locate and identify IT assets, such as servers and client computers. Discovery tool examples include IBM TADDM and BMC Discovery/ADDM. Blazent validates discovery data against other sources, such as asset management databases, to verify these assets, so that e.g. potentially rogue or unmanaged hardware is highlighted for investigation. A major benefit of validating discovery data is that discovery gaps can be illuminated and fed back to the discovery tool to improve its coverage.

 

  1. Monitoring: IT operations depend on management tools, such as Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, IBM Tivoli Monitoring and SolarWinds. These tools often provide the most up-to-date information about IT resource availability because they frequently monitor heartbeat data to ensure essential servers are always online.

 

  1. Endpoint Protection: Security software from vendors, including Symantec and McAfee, depend on having the latest signature information about potential threats to be effective. A CMDB is useful for recording whether security software is current, or highlighting systems that are missing endpoint protection software altogether.       

 

  1. Virtualization: Hypervisors, such as VMWare and Microsoft’s Hype-V, provide a valuable source of management data about real-host systems and virtualized guests. Every data center makes extensive use of hypervisors to maximize the use of available hardware and ease IT management.

 

Sources vary by organization. While source types remain the same, CMDBs and discovery tools are typically from the same vendor, while IT Management tools tend to vary the most. Blazent uses whatever data sources are already in use, making them more valuable by validating the data they provide. In this way, downstream IT functions receive dependable information, improving their ability to achieve their service-level objectives.

 

You can learn more about Blazent’s data quality solutions and available data sources at blazent.com/technology/