Asset Management And CMDB Systems Lessons Learned in Accelerating Time to Value Dennis Drogseth Vice...

Asset Management And Asset Management And CMDB SystemsCMDB Systems

Lessons Learned in Accelerating Time to Value

• Dennis Drogseth

• Vice President

• Enterprise Management Associates

• [email protected]

• www.emausa.com

Abstract

• While many IT organizations have already committed to

implementing configuration management database

(CMDB) systems, the industry at large is still struggling

to find appropriate strategies to accelerate time to

value. This presentation looks at real world experiences

in CMDB system deployments with a focus on asset

management and provides some practical guidelines on

how to accelerate and assess time to value.

© 2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.

Agenda

• Next Generation Asset Management

• The changing face of CMDB adoption -- the search for value

• ITIL’ v3’s CMS, SKMS and the Lifecycle Service Management

• EMA’s CMDB System and its roots

• EMA’s two CMDBs

• The drive towards constituencies -- asset Management

• Politics and metrics -- demonstrating value

• Factors for success/ lessons learned

• Conclusion

Traditional Asset Management Is Changing

• IT management is evolving

• IT service management, ITIL

• IT as a value-adding partner rather than cost center

• Visible business results and accountability

• Next Generation Asset Management (NGAM) is emerging

• The IT service becomes the “ultimate” IT asset and traditional

IT assets map to IT services

• Cost and value of services is tracked and managed

• No longer just an asset lifecycle from procurement to

retirement

• “Convergence” of IT asset, IT service and IT financial

management

Slide 4 © 2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.

Managing Services And Assets Together

Slide 5© 2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.

Asset Management Dynamics

37%

34%

29%

1%

Asset management and service planningare managed separately

Asset management and service planningare managed together

Asset management and service planningare managed separately today but w ill bemanaged together in the future

Other (Please specify)

Sample Size = 290

ServiceDesk

ServiceCatalog

CapacityPlanning

Change/ConfigMgmt

Asset Management

Service Management

IT FinancialManagement

Next Generation Asset Management

CMDB System

Next Generation Asset Management

© 2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.Slide 6

Where Is Asset Data Stored?

Slide 7© 2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.

Sample Size = 290, Valid Cases = 290

Storage System(s) for Asset Data

3%

14%

14%

30%

33%

37%

51%

27%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Other (Please describe)

Paper

Outsourced service

CMDB

Local DB

Asset managementproduct from a vendor

Spreadsheets

Centralized DB

% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)

THE CMDB TITLE WAVE


Q17_1 How long has your

CMDB initiative been underway?

12%

31%

30%

17%

9%

1%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Less than six months

Six months to under 1 year

1 year to under 2 years

2 years to under 3 years

More than 3 years

Don’t know

% Frequency

Sample Size = 174; Responses not shown received 1% or less


Financial Services And Healthcare Tend To Lead The Adoption Curve

Which of the following best describes your company's current status

for implementing a CMDB to store your configuration information?

0

11%

22%

30%

37%

29%

25%

24%

14%

8%

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4

We have no plans to implement a CMDB

We are planning to implement a CMDB, but not in the next 12months

We are planning to implement a CMDB in the next 12 months

We are in the process of implementing a CMDB

We have already implemented a CMDB

2008 2006


Q24_1 Which of the following best characterizes

your current CMDB System budget status?

Our system budget…

5%

9%

13%

16%

59%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Is being redirected to support new investmentssuch as application dependency mapping, or


Has diminished

Is being redirected to support more urgent non-CMDB-related initiatives

Has grown

% Frequency

Sample Size = 174


ITIL V3 Configuration Management• Service Asset and Configuration Management Process

(SACM)• Configuration Management combined with elements of

Financial Management

• CMDB • Now includes multiple CMDBs connected to a single

integrated CMDB system

• Configuration Item (CI)• Now Service Asset

• Configuration Management System (CMS) • “Container” for CIs, management data repositories, CMDBs,

and the activities and processes for managing

• Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS)

• Includes the CMS

• Represents perhaps the most exciting advancement in ITIL V3


SKMS Architecture

• The primary purpose of the SKMS is to improve efficiency by reducing the need to rediscover knowledge

• SKMS is responsible for gathering, analyzing, storing, and sharing all types of knowledge and information within an organization

Decisions

Service Knowledge Management System

Configuration Management System

Core CMDB

Citizen CMDB Citizen CMDB

Trusted SourceTrusted SourceTrusted Source

EMA’S TWO CMDBS


The CMDB’s Two Parents


Managing By The Fossil Record


Management By Design


The CMDB System Landscape, Today And Tomorrow

“Process-Centric” CMDBChange Impact Management

Real-Time CMDBService Impact Management

IT & CustomerOwners

Application Development

InfrastructureUtilization

Infra.Topology

QoE

Systems Performance

EventsServiceImpact

Analysis

FlowConsumption

AppDependency

MappingConfiguration Asset Inventory

DSL

CAB CACHE

CMDB Evolution

ASSET MANAGEMENT AND CMDB CONSTITUENCIES


Q31_1 When considering how CMDB software is packaged or

sold, please rate your preference for each of the following

packaging options for core functional areas.

25%

26%

26%

29%

33%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Integrated with security, governance, compliance and riskmanagement capabilities

Integrated with lifecycle service management capabilities

Integrated with release management (deviceconfiguration) capabilities

Integrated with asset management and asset planningcapabilities

Integrated into a service desk solution

Sample Size = 174 ; Top Box Reported = On a 5 point scale, those who said: Strongly Preferred


Asset Management Drivers in 2008

• “We were getting burned badly by changes

that had unknown and unintended

consequences. We’d bring a ‘human CMDB’

into the room and they’d try to resolve the

issues. But too often we got it wrong, or the

person who knew the answer was on

vacation.”

• “One of the drivers was a “pre-existing asset

database -- we wanted to expand it and

evolve it to capture relationships.”

• “The initial driver for this CMDB initiative

was PC asset management – including PC

hardware and software.”

Source: Enterprise Management Associates


Asset Management As A First Phase Goal

“Process-Centric” CMDBChange Impact Management

Real-Time CMDBService Impact Management

IT & CustomerOwners

Application Development

InfrastructureUtilization

Infra.Topology

QoE

Systems Performance

EventsServiceImpact

Analysis

FlowConsumption

AppDependency

MappingConfiguration Asset Inventory

DSL

CAB CACHE

CMDBs Critical For Asset Management

Slide 23


CMDB Linkages to Asset Management

3%

16%

27%

33%

35%

37%

37%

38%

39%

39%

50%

29%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%


Cross-domain collaboration in supporting morestrategic asset management and planning

Mapping assets to security or operational riskexposures

Our CMDB is not linked

Mapping assets to services

Mapping assets to applications specifically

Life cycle asset management over all

Retirement of old assets

Mapping assets to customers

Introduction of new assets

Mapping assets to operational owners

Inventory and discovery

% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)Sample Size = 290, Valid Cases = 147

THE POLITICS OF MAKING IT ALL HAPPEN


2%

2%

3%

3%

3%

6%

8%

13%

13%

45%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%


Service Desk or Help Desk

Inventory and Asset Management

Network Operations

New cross-domain organization

Data Center

Change Management

Strategy and Architecture

Service Management

IT Operations overall

% FrequencySample Size = 174

Q18_1 What organization owns the CMDB mission and strategy?


3%

8%

30%

38%

48%

50%

51%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%


Outside consultant

Internal consultant

Provide overall architectural direction

Manage/oversee the overall project

Provide overall process guidance

Stakeholder in the project

% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)Sample Size = 174, Valid Cases = 174

Q21_1 What’s your specific role in the CMDB project? Select all that apply.


Communication And Cultural Change

• “You can only inflict so much change upon an

organization. Developing a true CMDB System is a pretty

revolutionary thing for people to own up to.”

• “I put out a straw man and used that to start to learn

about the environment and asked all the people across

IT and Operations to tell me what they were doing, what

they were doing manually and how they were using tools

and what tools. I asked them what they would like the

CMDB to do for them – how would they like it to change

their lives? And that’s how I built up investment in the

project and refined the design.”


A Failure To Communicate

• Information is political

• Sharing information is also therefore

political

METRICS TO SHOW VALUE


9%

44%

47%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Don’t know

Yes

No

% FrequencySample Size = 174

Q39_1 Do you have any defined metrics that you are currently using or plan to use that are directed at

monitoring and publishing the growth of your CMDB System and/or its business impact?


One Set Of Metrics “Currently there are about ten different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) mostly focused around cost, reliability and accuracy in populating the information in the CMDB. Some of the specific examples are:

• Increase of CIs managed by change -- percent increase

• Decrease in application CI’s audited manually

• Percentage of CIs auto discovered

• Percent reduction of CIs missing from CMDB

• Percent reduction of cost of maintaining CIs in CMDB -- monthly

• Number of employees owning -- CIs”


3%

41%

57%

62%

66%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%


Cost savings from SW/licensing agreements in termsof compliance penalties

Savings on superfluous devices on license, supportand maintenance costs (devices that no longer exist

or need to be supported)

Reduction in operational costs for integrating andretiring new assets

Cost savings from SW/licensing agreements in termsunneeded licenses

% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)

Sample Size = 174, Valid Cases = 76

Q45_1 Which of the following metrics relevant to CMDB support for asset management does your company measure

or plan to measure?


Retroactive ROI For An Asset Audit • Two surveys -- audits on owners, devices and

resident software including application

dependencies

• One for $5 million and the other for $10 million

for a total of $15 million

• “The project managers on the one for $10

million had given me estimates that at least

40% of our costs could have been avoided if we

had an operational CMDB. I would estimate that

at least 75% of the second survey’s costs could

have been avoided with a CMDB, so that would

total $7.5M in savings.

• “Once the CMDB is in place, there is simply no

need to run the surveys, the data would be

available through simple reports.”

©2008 Enterprise Management Associates

Wall of Metrics -- False Insights On Real Assets

• Large banking customer

• Implemented management dashboard

• No underlying reconciled data

• No CMDB

• No automation processes

• Extensively used

• Software/hardware purchases

• Employee bonuses

• Wall of metrics was worse than no data -- it was bad data!

• Commonly seen in scorecards and Service Level Agreements


1.39

1.44

1.46

1.48

1.48

1.55

1.56

1.58

1.74

0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2

Executive commitment in terms of leadership and vision

Budget, money, solidly in place

Good metrics

Good detailed requirements

Good communication across IT

Enthusiastic stakeholders

Process (best practices) education

Solid project planning

Good outside strategic consulting

MeanSample Size = 19

Q48_1 What are the top two (2) process and organizational factors that contributed to the success of your CMDB initiative to date?

Please rank the top 2, where 1 is the greatest contributing factor.


Lessons Learned

• “If you wait for all the information to be 100% perfect and complete you’ll never get started. You have to flesh out the project as you go along.”

• “If I were to start all over, I would have started with more thorough ITIL training instead of doing the reading as we went along.”

• “Get management buy in. That can make such a huge difference. If you don’t get the funding you can’t make it happen.”

• “I would have done a lot more advertizing up front. We started bringing in vendors without communicating what we were doing very well and it threw a lot of people off guard. They really didn’t understand what was going on, and since then I’ve found myself having to explain the same thing over and over.”


Lessons Learned (Continued)

• “We would recommend that you have more than one source for your data, and if possible combine some form of manual and automated discovery. Whatever you should do, you should take the time to find out what you’ve got.”

• “We clearly underestimated the complexity of our infrastructure and should have applied more people to that task.”

• “I think the biggest thing I’d recommend would be to start small, and get quick wins. I think it’s very important to achieve some early success and get some quick wins under your belt.”

• “We should have started this CMDB initiative sooner -- I wish we could have started it years ago.”

Conclusion -- Key Takeaways

• Next Generation Asset Management requires a CMDB System

• CMDB Systems are still early in the evolutionary curve

• As per ITIL v 3’s notion of the CMS, CMDB Systems are not a

“thing” but a landscape for working together differently

• Asset management is one of the core drivers for CMDB adoption

• Sharing information is 40% technical, 60% political

• Metrics, ROI and time to value can be dramatic, but are

similarly in the early stages

• Recommendations -- start small, focused, with executive buy in

and pay attention to process

Slide 38 © 2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.

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