There’s yet another renaissance happening in IT and what’s “old” is suddenly new again. I’m talking about the time-tested technology of the configuration management database or CMDB. Like many technologies in IT, CMDBs have had a somewhat convoluted past, complete with a rollercoaster ride of sky-high expectations and rock-bottom disappointments. But those who have done their due diligence are seeing the rewards of knowing how hardware and software deliver valuable services.

What I find refreshing is the renewed focus on CMDBs. This interest is driven by the large-scale adoption of cloud in most IT environments. Some analysts predicted increased cloud and DevOps adoption would make the CMDB obsolete—yet the opposite seems to be true.

As more and more enterprises adopted cloud, surprise cloud costs skyrocketed. This caused many CIOs and CFOs to suddenly ask themselves about the value they were getting from their cloud infrastructure. Many organizations also became liable for software installed on cloud or containers, unaware they had exceeded their contracts or violated their licensing agreements. Having an accurate record of what hardware, software, and virtual resources are being used and knowing what services they deliver is critical to make informed cost decisions. And once again, the CMDB is in the limelight.

Recently, OpenText hosted its first Universal Discovery and CMDB virtual forum. This multi-hour, 3-day event highlighted the trends we are seeing around CMDB, along with our product futures and technical “know how” sessions. While I expected the virtual forum to be popular with many of our long-term customers, I wasn’t prepared for such overwhelming interest by existing customers, new prospects, partners, and employees.

The two most popular sessions from the virtual forum were the “Rise of the CMDB” analysis and the Universal Discovery and CMDB overview and futures session.  In the “Rise of the CMDB” session, we explored how gaining “information advantage” was critical to business success not only today, but well into 2030.  However, many organizations experience challenges with maintaining an accurate CMDB for inventory purposes. The key to CMDB success is evolving to “information advantage” where robust discovery, service dependency mapping, and accurate inventory allow organizations to engage in IT service management, IT asset management, application and infrastructure performance monitoring, and vulnerability remediation efforts---all from a single CMDB.

The Universal Discovery and CMDB overview and futures session covered the current capabilities to tackle business problems of today, advancements in the latest product release, and future visions for our solution, along with Question and Answer from Product Management.

Two things really jumped out at me while listening to all attendees during the Question and Answer discussions:

• CMDBs are critical to most organizations’ success, yet many people still need to evolve their configuration management strategy beyond simple on-premises asset inventory use cases. They need to also include multicloud discovery and IT service mapping use cases. The encouraging thing is—interest is high in more complex use cases.
• Echoing one of the things I learned from attending the PINK IT Service Management conference in February, people love the flexibility of Universal Discovery and CMDB. Why? Because our solution supports multiple ITSM platforms while offering one of the most flexible and customizable discovery and CMDB solutions on the market.

Whether you are just starting your discovery and CMDB journey, looking for good ways to get more value out of Universal Discovery and CMDB, or are a long-term experienced practitioner, you’ll find new and engaging content in our Universal Discovery and CMDB virtual forum recorded sessions.