IBM Adds New Choice on Configuration DBs

Computerworld - When IBM last week detailed plans to release a database for consolidating information about system configurations and other IT settings, it claimed to be the first management tools vendor to announce "a truly federated approach" for pulling together such data.

But that claim unleashed a torrent of reactions from competitors that said they already offer what IBM plans to roll out later this year. And two technology analysts said IBM's Tivoli unit is playing catch-up to other vendors on the configuration management database (CMDB) concept.

Tivoli's upcoming Change and Configuration Management Database software and other products like it aim to give IT managers a central repository of data about their technology installations. The use of a single management database is recommended as part of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a set of IT management guidelines.

Wayne Fowler, director of server and systems management at BMO Financial Group, said the Toronto-based banking firm is devoted to ITIL practices. "We're a pure-play ITIL shop, and we take a religious approach to it," he said.

But he added that BMO plans to use six to 12 management databases from different vendors to help administer the more than 2 million components of its global network. IBM's forthcoming offering will be part of that mix.

BMO has been a Tivoli customer for six years. But it also uses BMC Software Inc.'s IT service desk management tools and Peregrine Systems Inc.'s asset management software, Fowler noted. "The approach you want to ask from any vendor is, 'How do you fit in a federated environment, or would you rather try to rule the world?' " he said.

Lender's Service Inc., which provides property valuation, title and closing services to lending companies, doesn't use a federated database yet. But Marc Machin, a senior systems engineer at LSI's Santa Ana, Calif., office, said it would be desirable to have one so he could have "one entry point to look at everything." He added that he needs to research how well the available databases integrate with other tools.

BMC today will announce plans to combine its Patrol and Patrol Express software to create a product called Performance Manager that's designed to offer users both agent-based and agentless management tools.

The two Patrol products will be bundled under a single license next month, and BMC plans to integrate them with its CMDB next year, said Tom Bishop, who was named chief technology officer at the Houston-based company last week. BMC announced its CMDB in January and has shipped the database to 65 customers, according to Bishop.