In fact, vendors are taking two main architectural approaches to CMDB. Some offer standalone products, which let IT roll out a CMDB without having to buy another application, such as an asset-management system. But don't confuse standalone with independent. A standalone CMDB will federate more successfully with products from the vendor's own family than with third-party systems.
Other vendors embed the CMDB in one or more management-suite components, such as a service-desk application. Enterprises that use multiple applications in the suite will find integration vastly simplified, but will still struggle to federate third-party data stores. Several vendors have plays in both categories.
What of those hardy IT shops committed to maintaining heterogeneous toolsets? For now, they must put their faith in a dubious prestandard CMDB working group that pays lip service to the notion of interoperability without inviting all stakeholders to the table.
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Mission: Control
IT management vendors are architecting their product suites around CMDBs for one reason: control. They understand that a CMDB is the key to influencing the purchase of management software. "If you own the CMDB, you'll own the management infrastructure," says Arlen Beylerian, director of product management for CA's Business Service Optimization unit.
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