CMDB and the CDB

Recently, I was standing in my disorganized pantry checking to see if I had all the ingredients required to make enchiladas. Since I've been researching and writing about the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), it occurred to me that it might make sense to arrange things by how they relate to each other. So, instead of arranging spices alphabetically, maybe they should be arranged by type. Spices for making Indian food would be in one section: curry, cardamom, and so on, while chili powder would be in the Mexican food section. But wait, what about the other ingredients - the ones that stay in the freezer or fridge? How could I track all those ingredients and simultaneously know that if I ran out of one, it would affect my overall dinner plans? My mind leapt to the CMDB.

It's all about relationships

Okay, so a CMDB would be overkill for my kitchen, but I draw this analogy to bring it to practical, human scale. Tracking servers and CPUs on the scale of thousands is hard to wrap your head around. What about the utilization on those CPUs? What if you have virtual machines with more than one OS, each having one or more CPUs? What about transactions, workloads, and applications? All these items are tough enough to track individually but once you start thinking about how they relate to each other and your business needs, it can be overwhelming. This is where a CMDB comes in. The CMDB accounts for items, referred to as configuration items or CIs, and shows how they relate to each other and to business needs. A CMDB, with its reconciliation engine and federation capabilities, is the key to aligning disparate IT functions with business priorities.

Planning for tomorrow

Combine the features of the CMDB with a Capacity Management Database (CDB) and you're really cooking. The CDB is the basis for the production of all capacity management reporting on existing and future capacity issues. Information stored in the CDB can be delivered to management and technical personnel in the form of current performance and capacity usage information, as well as future capacity forecast needs. The CDB houses the data that forms the basis of information for capacity management and a capacity plan. It is no wonder that the CDB is called the cornerstone of capacity management.

Putting it all together

With the CMDB, your finance department knows what the company has, where it is, who owns it, and how much it costs to operate. And because the CMDB shows relationships, the service desk can determine which calls have the greatest business impact. This knowledge enables them to prioritize issues more effectively, instead of operating in a first in/first out fashion. If your capacity manager wants to report on the cost savings of consolidating or virtualizing existing servers, he or she can use the CDB data that is federated with the CDMB to produce reports with that information. These are just a few examples, but these technologies provide the ingredients required to keep your business running well. The information about your resources is at hand, along with how each resource affects and is affected by the other, allowing you to succeed today and plan for tomorrow.