Randy Steinberg
Winning
Strategies
for
Configuration
Management
You Can Do It!
74% Of IT Organizations Cited
Dissatisfaction With Their Configuration
Management (CMDB) Solutions*
*2012 itSMF/Forrester study
Little consideration for business/IT problems to be solved Using tool driven (versus data driven) approach
Focus on asset inventories versus asset relationships Little focus on data accuracy
Information scope way too broad (“boiling the ocean”) Skipped process design
No stakeholder management
IT organization (versus CMDB team) has no accountability for data High variation in how CMDB was populated and used
Little or no value received for IT dollars spent
You can’t simply buy a tool, connect it to discovery tools, and expect everything to work
Tooling Vendors Still Have A Long Way To Go
Too much focus on asset-based versus configuration-based solutions Visualization sells well at demos but may not work in the real world where there are thousands of CIs, upstream and downstream
relationships
Almost no vendor has recognized the value in linking CIs to financials, performance and capacity information
Capabilities to establish relationships between CIs tend to be weak with much manual effort still required
Almost no vendor handles repopulation of data very well – wiping out relationship information when CIs are reloaded
Almost no CMDB vendor provides data staging, cleanup and transformation of data to consumable CI formats
Strategy #1 - Don’t Implement A Tool –
Solve A Business Problem
Operating knowledge is lost when individuals leave
Incidents take longer to resolve (researching configurations or waiting for the right person)
Business impact of incidents and changes cannot always be determined
IT projects and support teams continually repeat efforts to collect configuration information
There is an unclear picture of how IT costs are being consumed to deliver services
Bottom Line: Can IT succeed in delivering IT services with little view for how assets
are put together to deliver them?
Key Takeaway
This Is First And Foremost A Data
Transformation Project…
Strategy #2 - Treat As A Data
Transformation Project
Take Existing Operating Data Gather Data Stage Data Map to CMDB
Data Staging
(Data staging and rule base)
Servers Networks People Databases Spreadsheets and Extracts Applications Storage Facilities Data Cleansing (Automated Cleansing of Data) Populate CMDB (Tables and Objects) Service Architecture Existing IT Discovery Tools CMDB Reports and Dashboards Cleanse Data
A solution architecture is not just the CMDB, it should include how data will be captured, cleansed, populated and reported on
A rule base with lookup tables may be needed to effect and drive the transformation
Rule Bases and Lookup Tables
Common Data Issues
Why stage data? Need a single location to grab and store all information from multiple tools and data sources
Why cleanse data?
• Duplicates
• Multiple formats
• Same CI information from multiple sources • Missing or corrupted fields
• Naming conflicts
Why map data?
• Which CI type does it go to?
• Is it a Router? Switch or Gateway? – or all 3? • What is related to it?
• What is dependent on it? CI Types For Logical
versus Physical items
• Physical items may be automated via discovery tools (e.g. servers, switches, routers)
• Logical items may have to be manually maintained (e.g. services, business functions)
Strategy #3 – Make Sure Stakeholders Drive
Requirements
Unit Stakeholder Initiative Example CI Types To Collect Example Purpose
Operations Seymour Butz Data Center Move and Consolidations
Servers, racks, locations, routers, switches, services, applications
What CIs are where, what CIs make up a service so they all get moved together
Operations Seymour Butz Disaster Recovery
Platforms, servers,
applications, services What CIs need to be recovered? What needs to be recovered to recover a service?
Operations Seymour Butz COOP All of above plus critical business functions Which CIs belong with which recovery tiers? What is the lowest recovery tier for a service?
Service Desk I. P. Freely Incident Management
All of above plus critical business functions
What is the upstream and downstream impact of a CI that has experienced an incident?
Change
Management Bud Wieser
Change Management
All of above plus critical business functions
What is the upstream and downstream impact of a proposed change?
NOC Charity Case Monitoring All of above plus critical business functions
What is the business impact of a failing router or switch?
Technical
Support P. Brain
Technology
Roadmap Planning Platforms, servers, software
What CIs do we have installed today? Which ones are planned for upgrades? Retirement?
Strategy #4 – Use an Agile CMDB Build
Approach
Select a type and scope of information needed
Identify how that information will be
sourced
Populate the CI Types with data
Operationalize data feeds and sources Build reports and
stored searches to
access data e.g. SCCM,
Application Portfolios
e.g. SCCM data feeds into tool objects e.g. Created Server and
Application CIs in the tool
e.g. Servers, Applications e.g. Server
configuration reports and information
Implement solution in cycles with each cycle making increasing amounts of data available to support staff
Add the relationships
e.g. Created Server and Application relationships in the tool …Then Relate! First Populate…
Suggested Agile Approach: Provide
Information Early On And Then Elaborate –
Start Simple Then Build On That
Strategy Data Capture Design Build Transition
• CMDB Architecture • Data Requirements • Data Architecture • Service Architecture • Configuration Strategy • Tool Configuration Strategy • CMDB Support and Governance Model • CMDB Scope and Deployment Strategy • Inventory of data sources for CMDB • Data Capture Plan and Design • Data Capture Operating Procedures • Data Stage Populated With Captured Data • Finalized Back end data design (capture, stage, transform, populate) • Tooling Configuration Design • CMDB Management processes • CMDB roles and responsibilities • CMDB report and dashboard designs • Tooling configuration specifications • Populated back end Databases • Back end and
tool data feeds • Data load and
feed scripts • Installed back end platform • Installed Configuration Management tables and objects • Installed reports and dashboards • CMDB Solution Test Results • Trained CMDB Operating Staff • Go-Live Agreement • Deployed CMDB Solution • CMDB Reports And Dashboards • Next-Wave CMDB Strategic Plan And Roadmap
Strategy #5 – Know Your Service Structure
Department Business Function Business Service IT Support Service System/Web Site Application Radio Printer ServerNetwork Physical Location
Desktop Phone Employees
Identify the CI types, attributes and
relationships that will form the bill of
materials for each IT service
Strategy #6 – Lack Of Funding Is Not An
Excuse
1. Identify sources of trusted configuration information within your infrastructure (i.e. tables, spreadsheets, databases, hand-drawings, etc.)
2. Assign owners to those items (Owners are responsible for their viability and accuracy)
3. Organize configuration information into CI types and associated filing structure
4. Lock those items down under change management (Can’t change them without an RFC)
5. Develop your Configuration Management processes (i.e. Identification, Control, Status Accounting, Verification and Audit)
6. Manage the accuracy and maintainability of those items using the developed Configuration management process
Trusted information now easy to
find
Early practice using Configuration
Management processes
Reduced/eliminated unplanned
labor looking for information
Demonstrates early value to
others that can lead to more funding
ITSMLib™ Download Site
www.itsmlib.com
Log in, go to Service Transition then select
the Configuration Management library
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