Oracle Enterprise Manager CMDB, a data center management package, includes a CMDB for storing and tracking CIs. It has a strong focus on applications and middleware (both Oracle and third-party software) and OS information, less so on network infrastructure elements or asset information, such as software licenses. Thus, like Opsware OMDB, Oracle Enterprise Manager CMDB will likely play a role as a trusted data store that feeds CI information to a CMDB with broader enterprise coverage.
Symantec also is getting into the CMDB market by way of data center automation. In February 2006 the company acquired Relicore, which, along with nLayers, was regarded as a leader in application-dependency mapping. Symantec bought Relicore to automate discovery in the data center and tie in configuration management with real-time change tracking. Relicore's built-in CMDB provides information that other data center tools can then use to automate management tasks.
The company wouldn't comment on plans to expand the CMDB outside the data center, but it's unlikely Symantec will fail to exploit what it regards as the market's premier configuration management technology. We expect the company to ramp up its CMDB strategy in 2007.
Finally, Tideway offers a CMDB as part of its Tideway Foundation 6.1 product, which is the last independent application-dependency mapping system on the market. It features strong visualization of dependencies among network infrastructure, applications and business services, and provides a reporting engine to help IT professionals track configuration changes.
Independence is both a blessing and a curse for Tideway. In green-field accounts it can go toe-to-toe with other application-dependency mapping products without forcing organizations into an overall IT management suite. But the company will have a harder time convincing potential customers who've already invested in management products from BMC, CA, HP or IBM to forgo the benefits of an integrated portfolio.
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