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IT governance is a main motivator for corporate entities in their decisions to create compliant IT systems that include CMDBs. The CMDB is supposed to model (as closely as possible) a "vision of the truth" about those corporate entities’ IT systems. To that end I would like to discuss the governance of how a CMDB is constructed. By CMDB governance I mean: the performance, risk assessment and compliance of a CMDB to the actual true state of the IT system being modeled; I might also add to this the confidence in that CMDB as it relates to its accuracy in modeling the IT system.

How then are CMDBs constructed? The best way is to tie together existing data and complement that data with discovery tools and old fashioned data-entry. The latter may be done through the use of various scripts or the mining of databases that hold certain aspects of the system, but in large part these would be grouped under ‘formal methodologies.’

At this point the CMDB construction is already fraught with danger, for example holes in the data, or data that is inaccurate or stale. The confidence factor of such a CMDB may be quite low, which makes it rather useless. This problem is exacerbated by that fact that building it can be a very time-consuming and difficult procedure. There is a very well known decision matrix called the ‘Impact/Effort’ matrix. The idea is that if an activity has a high effort, but a low impact, then that activity is not worth doing.

This is a major problem in creating a useful CMBD. What to do?

Well, before I attempt to answer that question, let me introduce a different way that CMDB’s can be created: social networking tools.

The idea is that the IT systems knowledge (at least on a high level) is contained in the heads of many human beings. The raw data can be managed by the discovery tools and formal tools, but the structural knowledge and ability to correct or fill in knowledge requires constant, dynamic human intervention.

That’s why tools like Managed Objects myCMDB that allow ‘Wiki’ like intervention into the construction of a CMDB are so useful. This works by taking the view that the CMDB is a dynamic living entity that never really attains a static ‘state of truth,’ but instead has major portions that are basically static, and ‘outliers’ that are being dynamically changed as network needs change, as virtual machines are created and destroyed, and as complex applications go into and out of existence. The truth in a complex IT system is a living, breathing, and most importantly, changing beast. This is why the traditional methods of creating a CMDB always seem to end up with something that is out of date with the real thing.

To make sure that the data is maintained in the CMDB correctly, a ‘governance’ policy needs to be instituted between the ‘gathering’ of the data, and the ‘structuring’ of the data within the CMDB itself. Obviously there will be many things that can be instituted as boiler-plate within this policy, but there will be many aspects of this policy that will be unique to the corporate entity that is instituting them. The policy is itself stored within the CMDB which introduces an aspect of feed-back that will help to tailor this policy to better capture and structure the dynamically collected data that ultimately forms the CMDB model.

The feedback loop is essentially a human interaction activity and could be compared to idea of domain experts who edit an encyclopedia (or a Wiki).

These experts examine the current structures of the collected knowledge within the CMDB to the real world, and modify the policy so that the collection and structuring of data more closely fits with, and changes with, the real world. The ultimate hope is to get to a policy that produces the closest possible CMDB model to the real world.

As the policy improves within the enterprise, the confidence factor rises and, of course, the usefulness of the CMDB within the enterprise also rises.

- David

Analysts in both the US and UK have been anticipating Microsoft’s move to extend its IT management capability into the Linux and UNIX platforms. For example last fall at Gartner’s ITxpo, one analyst theorized that if application vendors moved into the IT management space, it would be game-changing.

There is little doubt Microsoft’s move will make ripples in the market. The company has incredible influence in so many aspects of IT, that if this proves a serious commitment to IT management, there is a high probability for success. That success will likely come at the expense of incumbent vendors – mainly by way of taking market share from the Big 4.

By expanding beyond the realm of Windows it is conceivable that customers might find it attractive to extend their existing MOM implementations to other platforms. However, this does not guarantee gentle westerly winds nor smooth sailing since there are several market dynamics and competitive factors that will influence how – and how quickly – Microsoft’s initiative evolves.

First, cost reduction and cost containment are perhaps the most substantive pressures on IT decisions today. As such, it’s reasonable to expect the Big 4 will respond to this event with more aggressive pricing. In this approach, Microsoft will essentially be trading space for time, and slowly chipping away at Big 4 revenue streams. This will weaken the Big 4 over time.

Secondly, there will remain some doubts in the market as to Microsoft’s credibility. For example it will have to prove it can manage mission critical environments as well as the incumbent vendors. This means IT decision makers will see tremendous risk in migrating to a Microsoft management platform – which can prove to be a difficult and time consuming sales objection to overcome.

At the same time, the Big 4 are investing in two key product functionalities that will extend the vast distance among product innovation that Microsoft, despite its prowess, will find it challenging to cover. Mainly these investments are in behavioural logic – the detection of unusual activity that provides predictive capabilities – and data centre automation.

Perhaps then, Microsoft has long range plans to move into the BSM space given it’s newly found operating system independence. BSM is still very much a level playing field with the Big 4 attempting to buy (rather than innovate) their way into a space with more agile pioneers, like Managed Objects, where our vendor neutral approach and pervasive integration is proving a difficult capability for them to match.

- Jim

In 2001, when the tech bubble burst, I had just graduated with a Computer Science degree, and was looking for work. To say that things weren’t exactly peachy back then is an understatement. Luckily for me I happened on an interview with a company that was privately funded and which understood that in times of recession some excess fat needs to be trimmed – but not the muscle that drives a company. That company went on to produce very strong results less than a year later due to a superior product – a direct result of continuing to invest in hiring exceptional talent while avoiding the overindulgent tendencies of richer times.

Unfortunately in times of economic uncertainty such wisdom is uncommon. With all the recent talk about a recession being around the corner there is a lot of fear in the tech industry, especially among startups which are struggling to compete with new attractants for venture capital such as the likes of alternative energy exploration. The problem with this approach is that when the economy slows or stalls, some corporations think only of near-term. This usually leads to cost cutting across the board, but most prevalently in initiatives such as technology, software and IT staff that are not perceived as necessarily contributing directly to the bottom line.

This is a mistake for the simple reason that these cuts inevitably lead to a less motivated workforce that finds it self stretched beyond its means as a result of trying to maintain the same level of service, less budget and therefore with less tools and less people.

Technology is a key driver of business these days, so dramatically cutting IT budgets can actually cost more in the long-term than the benefit of savings achieved in the short-term. This long term loss manifests itself in many ways, but most immediately in the loss of knowledgeable IT staff and the shaky infrastructure that accompanies a departure from IT maintenance.

This takes us back to the title of this post. In times of financial uncertainty it is necessary to tighten belts and trim some fat off an organization. This can be achieved by cutting back on unnecessary items like kickoff meetings in exotic locations, business class travel when coach suffices and so on. But to trim the muscle that drives an organization by failing to maintain infrastructure and letting go qualified staff that will only need to be rehired and retrained once the economy turns around is a long term mistake.

If we have learned anything from the first tech bubble, it is that these are the times to consider projects like automation, integration and federation, as some of the highest costs of running an IT reliant company are in the high levels of obsolescence that accompany the good times. Corporations need to use a slowdown in the economy to their advantage and build a stronger, more resilient, infrastructure that will help them overtake the competition when the economy turns around.

-- Jonathan

Anyone who has ever had to hike a long mile to the nearest gas station to call AAA will attest to the fact that the world can sometimes seem very large. These days it is almost unheard of for someone to have to walk anywhere to make a call. Last month I arrived at the scene of a car accident and my first action, after ensuring the occupants of the car were safe, was to dial 911 from my blackberry.  The mobile device also provided me with the altitude, latitude and longitude of the accident to better inform first responders.

The world has gone mobile. Nobody can dispute this fact.

The ramifications of a mobile world are broad. Motorola’s fad has turned into a cultural phenomenon with rural villages in developing countries now having mobile phone service, but no sewage. The steady buzz of the blackberry can be heard everywhere from ski lifts in Colorado to weddings in India. In major economies, the workforce is now steadily becoming more mobile, where just a few years ago – it was unheard of to work from home. These days I work out of my home full time, for a company based on another coast, and hook into client systems half a world away on a daily basis.

The advent of the mobile workforce has created a huge infrastructure that requires a somewhat high level of maintenance. If I work remotely in Denver our IT staff in Virginia need to be able to push patches to my laptop, maintain my blackberry and keep my VPN secure, all without affecting my ability to produce the work for which I was hired to do in the first place. Stuck on a client site with no access to the internet, but need to urgently send an email? No problem. Pull out the blackberry and the email has been securely forwarded in a matter of seconds.  Need to quickly get online and log into a clients system to fix an urgent production issue? No problem, the mobile broadband card that came with your laptop will get you on there in seconds.

But what happens when things break? What if security has been compromised or if the new patch that Microsoft just put out renders other work critical software inoperable? What then? I can no longer log into my network let alone my clients’ networks.

This drives the need for a high level of automation, exception based monitoring and what the medical field might call Preventative Care. IT is now a business service and must be treated as such.

Working for a company that pioneered BSM puts me in a unique situation, as I watch this transformation firsthand. In some cases the transformation has been dramatic, with entire workforces becoming mobile. The fact that this has made these workforces more productive is no surprise and to maintain this trend, it is essential that corporations move towards practices like exception based monitoring, Service Level Agreements and proactive interdiction. The future of the mobile workforce lies in managing the business of IT as a service to its customers.

Many years ago, when I was deployed as a soldier, my mother would write me a letter twice a week to help me keep up with what was happening back home. My replies were brief and didn’t do much to assuage the worry that most mothers feel in that situation. When I would finally come home, my mother didn’t always recognize my face – this was a time before digital photos – and it had been so long since she had seen me.

My how times change, because by contrast, I recently was able to follow my friends as they traveled around the globe for 12 months, receiving almost instantaneous updates on where they were and what they were doing that day, including photos, video and comments from several of our other friends. It’s perhaps an understatement to say we live in the world of Web 2.0, where the Web has become a tool that helps people stay in touch, collaborate or just post random thoughts that others may want to read. The network truly has become the computer.

In this new world of continuous information flow, software has become abstract, moving away from the computer in favor of Software as a Service (SaaS) based applications. SaaS applications have many advantages over traditional applications, in terms of mobility (you need never migrate your information when you move to a new computer) and very basic system resource requirements (they are designed to run on your browser, and are powered by a server that could potentially be on the other side of the globe), but most importantly, SaaS applications have a very broad market appeal due to the low overhead involved with not having to design, implement and maintain the system. It is this low overhead that lowers the entry bar for many small to medium sized businesses into realms that would otherwise be outside of their financial and technical capabilities.

Interestingly enough, for Business Service Management (BSM) vendors like Managed Objects, this opens up new opportunities to deliver SaaS-based BSM offerings that will have broad market mid-tier market appeal -- especially through its partner channel.

With so many businesses entrusting mission critical data and applications to remote service providers, SaaS based businesses, more than ever, need to examine their service management architectures in order to continually improve the service being provided to end users who are increasingly reliant on these services. Seeing as many SaaS based applications are still in their infancy, it remains to be seen whether this will indeed happen. - Jonathan Golan