Don't fall for the demo: an asset database with bells and whistles is not a CMDB

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2006-08-13 22:09

This article has been podcast

Don't fall for the demo: anyone can set up an asset database with enough relationship bells and whistles on it to fool themselves and others that they have a CMDB.

Get it straight: CMDB can not be auto-discovered

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2006-08-13 02:15

This line in a Butler Group white paper synopsis pressed a button for me:"Service Configuration Management enables quick establishment of Configuration Management Database (CMDB) through auto discovery". I respect the Butler Group more than most analysts, and I am too tight to buy the full text from them, so I hope the synopsis is a bit misleading. Though from the tone of the rest I fear it isn't. This pernicious idea turns up regularly, mostly from software vendors. It must be stamped out.

The pressure on ITIL's future notches up

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2006-08-07 20:57

Further to my "Is ITIL dead in the water?" blog entry about ISO/IEC 20000 developing a life of its own and the center of gravity moving to the USA, the plot thickens. This press release, released today, reveals another potential threat to ITIL's hegemony:

ITIL's CMDB can't be done, no-how

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2006-08-06 22:02

This discussion of CMDB and its total impracticality has got legs. Let me reinforce two points please: (1) CMDB can't be done because of the data and regardless of the implementation and (2) I'm talking about CMDB as specified by the ITIL books, not any old database. It can't be done.

Living without CMDB

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2006-08-05 09:20

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CMDB is positioned as the key underpinning foundation to ITIL:

Configuration Management provides the foundation for successful IT Service Management and underpins every other process. The fundamental deliverable is the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) [Ref 1]

This is wrong. It is a peripheral nice-to-have. In a previous blog we discussed how it is currently an infeasible nice-to-have. Let's talk about doing without it.

VOIP and the anti-competitive behaviours that would logically induce in a telco

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2006-08-02 10:16

These are ugly times for telcos, a topic I look forward to exploring a little more on this blog. Today's topic is VOIP and the anti-competitive behaviours that would logically induce in a telco. Let me share with you a recent email from my broadband ISP. First some background. My ISP is a telco, the big dominant telco. They also provide me phone lines. Actually they try to pretend they don’t, by branding the ISP arm as an excitingly named subsidiary, but it is a pointless sham really when it all comes on one convenient monthly bill.

Is ITIL Dead in the Water?

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2006-07-29 09:30

This article has been podcast

[Updated: mention of COBIT]

In five years time most organisations will consider ISO/IEC 20000 certification as a normal part of operating: a minimum benchmark. The horse has bolted with ISO/IEC 20000: the world sees it as “the ITIL standard” but OGC and itSMF have zero control of it.

Our domain name is changing

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2006-07-22 04:38

The ITIL Skeptic becomes the IT Skeptic. The domain name is changing from itilskeptic.org to http://www.itskeptic.org. The new address works now: please update your links.

IBM: the company with such a firm grasp of ITIL strategic issues that they sold their service desk

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2006-07-17 07:41

Is it just me or does anyone else think it is a bit rich IBM lecturing ITIL vendors?

After all, this is the company with such a firm grasp of ITIL strategic issues that they sold their service desk product to Peregrine, abandoned to an inevitable brutal death. That's a bit like GM getting out of making engines and then telling other auto makers what they need to make cars.

Life beyond ITIL

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2006-07-17 06:59

Sorry about the lack of heavy entries lately folks - a trifle busy right now. I'll get time to work on "living without CMDB" soon I promise.

The observant ones amongst you will note the banner at the top has changed from "the ITIL Skeptic" to "the IT Skeptic". I'll gradually change the name everywhere. This move was inspired by Web 2.0. I decided Web 2.0 involves too much silliness for the Skeptic to resist. I had already been itching to have a go at SOA and other targets but Web 2.0 was the last straw.

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