Thanks to the evolution of best-practice frameworks, IT service providers manage services through a set of organized operational functions. Below are some of the more common services that rely on a foundation of data that is typically provided by a CMDB (Configuration Management Database):
- IT Service Management (ITSM): The service desk is the customer face of IT, which is why it is so critical to minimize the time it takes to resolve tickets. In the best case, a call to the service desk is resolved during the first call, which is why it is important for the analyst to have accurate and up-to-date information about the systems involved. If the issue is rolled over to a level-two analyst, then he or she has an even greater need for accurate configuration data in addition to dependency data, since easy access to reliable configuration data can significantly reduce search times. The consequent improvement in resolution times associated with tickets and requests that come to the service desk results in tremendous overall cost savings and productivity gains.
- IT Asset Management (ITAM): ITAM is primarily concerned with managing a system from procurement to disposal. If a system is to be managed by a service provider, then it is important to keep track of when the system is deployed or retired to ensure billing accuracy and correctly depreciate IT assets.
- Software Asset Management (SAM): To optimize software license spend, Asset Managers must know that a license is deployed and being used. A CMDB can be used to verify that licenses associated with retired systems are reused. By tightly controlling license use, an organization can ensure proactive compliance with potential vendor audits. In today’s virtualized environments, it is all too easy to become a victim of IT sprawl.
- IT Operations Management (ITOM): IT operations uses many monitoring tools to ensure application availability, performance and security. Accurate configuration information about managed systems ensures they are properly maintained to satisfy service levels, with the larger downstream benefit of improved visibility and making IT Operations more effective. As an example, the CMDB is a great solution for highlighting blind spots in the coverage of IT discovery tools.
- Service Integration and Management (SIAM): When multiple service providers are managing IT infrastructure and services, it is important to know which asset is related to which service and which service provider is responsible for managing the service or asset. An accurate and well planned CMDB can track the relationship between assets and services, as well as which third-party is responsible for managing them.
The above processes and functions rely heavily on the information that a CMDB provides; however, most CMDBs are incomplete and have unresolved data conflicts, which diminish the value they can provide. Ensuring a CMDB is complete and accurate requires a focus on data quality; the end result of a CMDB data quality initiative improves the effectiveness of all the above processes and raises the perception of the IT organization within a business.
Learn how Blazent maximizes the effectiveness of any CMDB through the application data quality management technology here.