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The CMDB of the Future - Part 1

The Challenge of the Conventional CMDB

The complex software applications that run modern businesses are often referred to as "mission-critical" and must be kept running 24x7. Unfortunately, the complexity of these applications is often so great that keeping them in a healthy state can be challenging, to say the least.

The Configuration Management Database, or CMDB, was conceived a few years back as a way to discover and maintain a repository of all components on which an application is dependent, along with information about their relationships. Apart from its use in asset management, the thought was that combining the CMDB with real-time monitoring metrics obtained from the underlying components could provide insight into the health state of complex applications, with early warning of incipient problems, and guidance to root cause when incidents do occur.

This is a powerful vision with potentially far-reaching benefits. It is a bit like the internal monitoring system in a modern automobile which relies on a complete and well-defined database of all the components on which the vehicle's operation is dependent and how a failure of any one component might affect the mission-critical operation of the vehicle. A soft female voice might warn you, for example, that your tire pressure is low — and she didn't have to "learn" that low tire pressure can cause a blowout by having one first.

Similarly, today's large, complex, mission-critical business applications can have a huge number of moving parts and underlying software components — with lots of things that can go wrong.

Is it possible to identify and maintain a database of all the internal dependencies of a complex application and create a warning system like that in a modern automobile that is highly deterministic and reliable and can prevent incidents from ever happening in the first place?

Sounds like a really great idea. Why then, has the CMDB seen only limited adoption and little commercial success?

Weaknesses of Conventional Configuration Management Tools

We have seen many products in recent years designed to create and maintain such a Configuration Management Database. However, practical challenges have prevented this vision from becoming reality, and the CMDB seems to have lost favor as a realistic contributor to a monitoring solution.

While successful to some extent, the general consensus seems to be that these products have been simply too limited in functionality or too difficult to use for maintaining reliable content. For some detailed criticism, see "IT Skeptic" Rob England's blog: CMDB: What Does It Really Mean?.

Monitoring a complex multi-tiered application involves the collection of data from many different sources, including infrastructure data (host cpu and memory), middleware service data (message flows, session counts), and application data like log file content or data exposed through JMX. Typically, this can include a dozen or more specific types of data for any platform you build.

Using a traditional CMDB or service model a user would either:

1. manually define the dependency relationships between these components and each application that uses them, or

2. use a tool to auto-discover the relationships using some form of heuristic algorithm.

Both of these methods have serious drawbacks. It is impractical to manually maintain a service model when components are continually being added or the system is modified. The heuristic method seems promising but the drawbacks are just as severe although more subtle; minor flaws and inaccuracies constantly plague the system and can cause mysterious errors that go undetected for a long time.

Automobile manufacturers gradually figured out how to manage the information needed to effectively maintain the health and safety of a moving vehicle. In a similar way, developers of complex applications are slowly discovering ways to make monitoring these systems more automatic and reliable. Fundamental changes in the IT landscape are helping as well.

The CMDB of the Future - Part 2

ABOUT Tom Lubinski

Tom Lubinski is President and CEO, and Board Chairman, of SL Corporation, which he founded in 1983.

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The CMDB of the Future - Part 1

The Challenge of the Conventional CMDB

The complex software applications that run modern businesses are often referred to as "mission-critical" and must be kept running 24x7. Unfortunately, the complexity of these applications is often so great that keeping them in a healthy state can be challenging, to say the least.

The Configuration Management Database, or CMDB, was conceived a few years back as a way to discover and maintain a repository of all components on which an application is dependent, along with information about their relationships. Apart from its use in asset management, the thought was that combining the CMDB with real-time monitoring metrics obtained from the underlying components could provide insight into the health state of complex applications, with early warning of incipient problems, and guidance to root cause when incidents do occur.

This is a powerful vision with potentially far-reaching benefits. It is a bit like the internal monitoring system in a modern automobile which relies on a complete and well-defined database of all the components on which the vehicle's operation is dependent and how a failure of any one component might affect the mission-critical operation of the vehicle. A soft female voice might warn you, for example, that your tire pressure is low — and she didn't have to "learn" that low tire pressure can cause a blowout by having one first.

Similarly, today's large, complex, mission-critical business applications can have a huge number of moving parts and underlying software components — with lots of things that can go wrong.

Is it possible to identify and maintain a database of all the internal dependencies of a complex application and create a warning system like that in a modern automobile that is highly deterministic and reliable and can prevent incidents from ever happening in the first place?

Sounds like a really great idea. Why then, has the CMDB seen only limited adoption and little commercial success?

Weaknesses of Conventional Configuration Management Tools

We have seen many products in recent years designed to create and maintain such a Configuration Management Database. However, practical challenges have prevented this vision from becoming reality, and the CMDB seems to have lost favor as a realistic contributor to a monitoring solution.

While successful to some extent, the general consensus seems to be that these products have been simply too limited in functionality or too difficult to use for maintaining reliable content. For some detailed criticism, see "IT Skeptic" Rob England's blog: CMDB: What Does It Really Mean?.

Monitoring a complex multi-tiered application involves the collection of data from many different sources, including infrastructure data (host cpu and memory), middleware service data (message flows, session counts), and application data like log file content or data exposed through JMX. Typically, this can include a dozen or more specific types of data for any platform you build.

Using a traditional CMDB or service model a user would either:

1. manually define the dependency relationships between these components and each application that uses them, or

2. use a tool to auto-discover the relationships using some form of heuristic algorithm.

Both of these methods have serious drawbacks. It is impractical to manually maintain a service model when components are continually being added or the system is modified. The heuristic method seems promising but the drawbacks are just as severe although more subtle; minor flaws and inaccuracies constantly plague the system and can cause mysterious errors that go undetected for a long time.

Automobile manufacturers gradually figured out how to manage the information needed to effectively maintain the health and safety of a moving vehicle. In a similar way, developers of complex applications are slowly discovering ways to make monitoring these systems more automatic and reliable. Fundamental changes in the IT landscape are helping as well.

The CMDB of the Future - Part 2

ABOUT Tom Lubinski

Tom Lubinski is President and CEO, and Board Chairman, of SL Corporation, which he founded in 1983.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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