Charlotte, Complexity and the CMDB

Charlotte, complexity and the CMDB

A few weeks back, I attended the ITSMF conference in Charlotte. On the plane ride over I was re-reading parts of an article in the New York times technology supplement.  The article discusses the media buzz (even movies) about the threat of hackers and indicates that, in reality, the biggest cause of downtime and outages is IT COMPLEXITY. This didn't surprise me, but I found it interesting because now IT's problems are being aired to the general public. 

The topic of complexity came up again when I was asking my colleague about what he thought about ITIL v3 as well. We were speaking about it because I told him we are discussing and researching doing some packaging changes to align our solutions with ITIL v3. He has already done his updgrade certification and cautioned me to be careful because he thought the move from ITIL v2 to V3 seemed pretty COMPLEX. Needless to say, ITIL v3 was a key theme at the show. 

Do you think ITIL v3 seems complex?

I started re-reading 'Crossing the Chasm' on the plane while returning from the ITSMF USA show in Charlotte, NC. I picked it up because I was thinking about a new project I have been working on with the BMC Atrium CMDB.  The CMDB is currently at the top of the Gartner Hype cycle.  That's exciting, but you don't have to be Geoffrey Moore to know that hype will only take you so far.  Ultimately, software vendors have to help customers solve real problems to survive and thrive.  If the CMDB is going to be the success it could be, it has to meet the needs of the mainstream market, specifically the group Moore calls pragmatists.

On page 42 Moore writes:
The Fortune 2000 MIS community, as a group, is led by people who are largely pragmatist in orientation. Business demands for increased productivity push them (IT) toward the form of the adoption life cycle, but natural prudence and budget restrictions keep them cautious.

This is the first time I've participated in an ITSMF event of any sort.  I can tell you that it was unlike many other tradeshows as there were far few T-shirt seekers on their weekly boondoggle.  I wasn't able to attend any of the sessions with my staff badge (although I tried), but many of the people I talked to exhibited the air of caution Moore alludes to.  They have things that work now and they don't want to break them. Most everyone wants to get there, but few know the best way.  Some innovators from companies you would expect to be leading are in production or are deep into their CMDB implementation now. The CMDB is moving into the mainstream now. The reason why the CMDB is so interesting is the promise that it holds to address the challenges IT is facing now to deliver Service to the business.  They need to reduce the cost of service, improve the quality of service and improve service responsiveness. Like ITIL v3; its all about service.