Glenn’s latest Forrester report, dated 30-Jun-2008:
is available on the Forrester web site. This report is for Forrester clients only. Its distribution is restricted by the terms of Forrester Research client agreements.
Glenn posted a new Forrester blog entry on 27-Jun-2008, highlighting the human elements of the CMDB:
This blog posting is visible to anyone, but bound by Forrester Research copyright protections.
Hi everyone,
It’s been far too long since I posted something here. I’ve been busy starting the next chapter in my life. I am proud to announce that as of May 5, 2008, I am a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research!
Management tool integration has long been the bane of IT Operations organizations. Getting one tool to communicate with another has always been difficult because there are far too many incompatible data definitions that are used to integrate data from one tool to another. Each vendor has its own data model and various APIs to exchange data. Standards appeared in various forms from such bodies at the DMTF and OASIS as an attempt to address this issue. Despite their clarity and noble ambitions, adoption has proven lackluster.
As many of you now know, I have resigned my marketing position at EMC. I am still a big fan of EMC’s management technology, having played a major role in its evolution and the expansion of EMC’s ITSM market presence. My affinity for Smarts, a company EMC acquired in early 2005, is what compelled me to join EMC a bit later in 2005. Since then, we’ve grown the business significantly, acquiring nLayers and Voyence in the process. The future remains bright for EMC as a credible challenger to the “Big Four” (HP, IBM, CA, BMC) in the management market. Despite all of this wonderful progress, it was time for me to move on. I wish my delightful and brilliant EMC colleagues nothing but the best as they continue to build the future EMC powerhouse.
As many of you have heard by now, EMC acquired Voyence last week. Voyence is a leader in the network compliance, configuration and change management market. I’ve been a long-time fan of Voyence, so I’m delighted to have them in the EMC family now.
I promise this blog will not become a podium for EMC marketing, but occasionally EMC will do something worthy of commentary here. The Voyence acquisition is one of these events. Not only is it an important step for both EMC and Voyence, it is also a notable step in the relentless (and necessary) consolidation in our market.
Every decision we make in IT, indeed every decision we make in life, is based upon accurate information. There are no exceptions to this basic law of nature. Think about examples of decisions big and small, both in and out of the IT domain. None can be made with any confidence unless the right information exists.
This sums up the whole notion of configuration management. It is the process and the system of technologies that ensure the right information exists to make decisions, both automated and manual. For this reason, configuration management is the most important of all the ITIL processes. One can effectively argue that change management is equally important, as the two form the nucleus of every function we perform. If I had to choose one over the other, however, configuration gets the edge.