Step-by-Step Guide toBuilding a CMDB - RightStar

The Single Point of Reference
The CMDB provides a single point of reference, making it the definitive reference mechanism
for all IT decisions by providing business-aware visibility into the dependencies among business
processes, users, applications, and underlying IT infrastructure. This raises the awareness level
for operators of the status of real-time business services, such as e-mail availability, Web site
performance, and so on.
The leading CMDB solutions are all built to support a federated CMDB approach, meaning that
not all configuration data must reside in a single physical database. Instead, the primary
systems and data repositories remain the authoritative source for information, while the
CMDB becomes the reference for where this information lives and how to access it. ITIL V3
now recognizes the importance of this federated approach and recommends that it be a core
part of the structure of a CMS.
With federation, core data is stored in the CMDB, which is linked to other, more detailed data
stores. This linkage provides a CMDB access to all configuration items (CIs). Hence, the CMS
includes the CMDB or multiple CMDBs, and through federation, access to all primary data
stores and their respective contents. By adding key functions, such as analytics, dashboards,
and asset management, the CMS extends the value of the CMDB across IT.
Influencing Cultural and Organizational Change
An important point to keep in mind as you start down the path of building a CMDB is that any
successful implementation of process and tools requires a cultural change. One of the most
important keys to this is selling the benefits of the CMDB — not just benefits to the organization,
but benefits to each individual or group impacted by the change.
For different people and groups, these benefits will vary. For the service desk, the benefits of
a CMDB are greater visibility of all the components and relationships that make up the infrastructure,
which in turn enables faster resolution of incidents, less stress, fewer errors, and so
on. For financial managers, a CMDB allows greater accuracy in accounting for all the costs of
IT, and enables calculations of TCO, ROI, etc. For the service level manager, it means visibility
into all the components and relationships that make up an end-to-end service. For the business,
an effective CMDB results in greater efficiency and effectiveness of IT, which in turn means
increased agility in meeting the ever-changing business requirements.
Selling benefits is only the beginning, however. As ITIL points out, just changing IT services
isn’t enough to transform an organization. In the end, the organization will evolve in ways that
allow it to use the changed IT services.
Communication both within IT and between IT and the business can improve dramatically
with the implementation of a CMDB. In fact, the CMDB should become an integration platform
that ties together multiple processes and tools. The organization should put a comprehensive
communication plan into place to assist in managing the cultural changes.
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