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A Configuration Management Database (CMDB) project never really ends. As long as an organization continues to evolve, the CMDB needs to adapt to the associated IT infrastructure changes. Most people consider a CMDB to be a failure if it contains largely un-used or unreliable stale data or it just takes way too much effort to maintain.

 

Some of the key factors that are most commonly associated with failed CMDBs are detailed in the “Failed CMDB Initiatives” white paper linked here. This white paper discusses:

 

  • The need to control the solution definition, organizational scope and governance
  • The pitfalls to avoid, such as not considering the expected business value, the importance of data quality processes and not defining what good data looks like
  • The importance of getting qualified and reliable data into your CMDB and maintaining its accuracy on an ongoing basis

 

One way to resuscitate a failing CMDB is to embark on a Data Quality Management (DQM) initiative, which will analyze and validate the Configuration Item (CI) data already in an existing CMDB. This process will check that all the CI’s in the CMDB are still around and all the associated attributes and interrelationships are valid.

 

Many organizations who happen to be switching their Infrastructure management provider or ITSM tool provider may choose to migrate to a new CMDB as the company standard. The “Best Practice CMDB Migration” white paper linked here steps through the CMDB migration process highlighting:

 

  • The importance of setting the right success criteria
  • The selection of appropriate data sources for configuration items and associated attributes
  • Filling data gaps and handling data conflicts
  • Gaining and maintaining ongoing data quality for long term success

 

Both the documents I have referenced above point to factors that support the 5 key CMDB imperatives. These are:

 

  1. Control the scope of the CMDB initiative
  2. Only populate the CMDB with verified configuration items
  3. Store only the most accurate attributes by ranking multiple sources
  4. Keep the data current. Validate the operational status of an asset at least monthly
  5. Automate maintenance of the data, so the CMDB remains relevant and authoritative

 

Blazent’s primary mission is to help organizations improve and maintain the quality of the IT data they rely on for informed decision making. Blazent provides services to automate the maintenance of data quality from a customer’s existing data sources.  To learn more about these and other services, please visit blazent.com