CMDB

The value of CMDB seldom exceeds the cost of doing it

Let us summarise the skeptical arguments focused around the value of CMDB . [Updated to move some text up from comments]

CMDB federation - making a dead elephant dance

The analysts can beat the drums all they like - they won't make the CMDB dead elephant dance [I'm in training for the World Mixed-Metaphor Championship]. I've talked before about how the analysts are in a symbiotic relationship with the vendor industry: they have to talk new ideas up so as to have some change to write about. Never has this been more clearly illustrated than around CMDB. For one wonderful moment I thought an analyst was going to be skeptical about CMDB but then he beat the drum, or perhaps flogged the dead elephant [there I got another one in!]

CMDB's Dirty Little Secret

Through all the talk about the wonderful benefits of a CMDB, nobody mentions the additional drag a CMDB puts on all change to the IT environment.

The IT Skeptic presents on Owning ITIL

40:52 minutes (8 MB)

Here is a presentation given to the New Zealand Computer Society on 25th June 2009, on the topic of "Owning ITIL". it covers why ITIL is pretty much always a project, what to watch out for in ITIL projects (ITIL the Cult, ITIl the fad, CMDB can't be done...), what to expect from ITIL.

less than 5% of fortune 2000 have an active CMDB installed ?

Can anyone who was at the Gartner conference this week confirm what I saw on Twitter? "Major takeaway from Gartner IOM event is less than 5% of fortune 2000 have an active CMDB installed "

CA CMDBf paper oversells the CMDB Federation standard, as predicted

Apparently CA are working to an entirely different standard for CMDB Federation than the rest of us are. This is the only rational conclusion to be drawn from a recent white paper from them. Either that or they are shovelling the bull excrement at a remarkable rate. The paper is called "The Value of Standards-based CMDB Federation". CA are certainly extracting more value out of the standard than most of us.

ITIL is not brain surgery

The bigger and more successful (and lucrative) ITIL gets, the more we see some consultants trying to create a masonic guild of ITIL "experts". It is a complete myth that one has to be so experienced in ITIL to implement it or run it, or even discuss it.

More discussion of CMDB: not the best use of funds

Lately I've been involved in a fair amount of debate and discussion over CMDB. The lucrative over-hyped CMDB-building industry has closed minds to the possibility that just perhaps this isn't the smartest thing to be concentrating efforts on. I thought I'd gather together here my recent statements as to why CMDB is seldom the best use of funds, i.e. why CMDB can't be done within reasonable business bounds.

On Demand CMDB implications

Recently the IT Skeptic floated the idea of an On-Demand CMDB. Let us consider some of the implications.

CMDB a skeptical view

15:59 minutes (6.41 MB)

This is a podcast summarising all the IT Skeptic's arguments about and against the concept of CMDB. You can find out more about this on the IT Skeptic website's CMDB thread, or in the IT Skeptic's new book The IT Skeptic Looks at CMDB

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