In a market research commissioned by HP to feel the pulse of IT professionals regarding the challenges faced with using and implementing CMDB and the level of implementation has thrown some interesting numbers.
Around 100 IT executives were interviewed with specific survey questions. The respondents were primarily chosen from the middle and top management of IT organizations.
The top consumers of CMDB are surprisingly the IT security operations, followed by ITSM teams and IT monitoring. What is unsure about the survey, though is whether the survey is targeting CMDB alone (centered around IT services) or it could includes an asset database (inclusive of laptops, desktops etc.) as well. Surprisingly, financial reporting consumes the CMDB data the least. Perhaps they maintain their own database after all!
Developing the CMDB and maintaining it is an expensive affair. It is not surprising that most IT executives pointed to the costs as the biggest challenge to using a CMDB. Ensuring the integrity of the database, more specifically in terms of compliance with various standards such as ISO20K and ISO27K1 is also a major challenge faced. Getting the right set of people, with experience in tools such as BMC Atrium and HP uCMDB, and process management pertaining to the configuration management is yet another challenge.
Why does your organization need a CMDB? This question raised a few eyebrows. The biggest need for a CMDB came from the likes of compliance towards certain standards. So, most organizations implemented CMDB for complying with standard and policy controls. The next biggest need is to track and manage the software licenses, which can be burdensome considering the penalty that companies must shell out if they are found to be utilizing more than they are allowed to. I have heard of some CIOs being arrested for this ‘crime’.
Most organizations outsource their IT business to 3rd party vendors. However, it is surprising to note that CMDB was not fully outsourced to IT service providers. Only a fourth of survey responders stated affirmative for outsourcing CMDB. And the rest managed it in-house, with the majority doing it with shared resources across IT teams.
The complete results of the survey can be found here.
