Cover Page. Title Configuration Management Database. Category Enterprise IT Management Initiatives

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1 Cover Page Title Configuration Management Database Category Enterprise IT Management Initiatives Contact Dale Richardson, Director Data Center Services Department of Information resources State Texas Project Initiation and Completion Dates July 2012 December 2013

2 Executive Summary Key to any successful service is the ability to track, measure, and manage service components. The Data Center Services (DCS) program, a State of Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) initiative, envisioned Configuration Management capabilities that provided a single source of service truth for services offered to DIR and DIR s Customers. Capgemini deployed their industry-leading service integration architecture with a logical configuration management system to meet the state s needs. This architecture included best practice policies, processes, and tools from technology providers BMC and VMWare, and a talented team of configuration management professionals. At the core of the architecture is a database called the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) that holds the critical service information, with an electronic inventory of the state s centralized Hardware Software Incidents Problems & Known Errors Changes Configuration Management Database CMDB Hardware Software Relationships hardware and software. This hardware and software is scanned periodically and the CMDB data is updated as the environment changes. Additionally, as incidents, issues, and changes occur in the computing environment, they are logged in the state s work management system and are linked to the CMDB items. The CMDB provides a single source of truth for DIR, DIR agency customers, and suppliers to use as they manage and consume DCS services and is at the core of providing sustainable computing services for the state. Operational Reports Billing Reports

3 Description of the Business Problem and Solution Before the Configuration Management project began, information on the assets in the DCS program was incomplete, inaccurate, and difficult to gather. Despite earlier attempts to complete a physical inventory and map servers to applications, the data had so many gaps it was largely unusable. Software compliance audits were very challenging to complete, incident and problem trend analysis was nonexistent, and all future planning, which depends on solid information about the current environment, was inaccurate. At its core, the Configuration Management project consisted of building the database and implementing the processes used to gather, validate, and populate the data. With over 340 physical locations for servers, and intricate application-to-server relationships, implementing the solution was far more complex than it might appear. The team used BMC s Atrium CMDB product as the container to store the CMDB data. To populate the initial data, a wall-to-wall inventory was executed across the state and data was crossreferenced to the legacy asset data. The improved dataset was reviewed with each agency and assessed for completeness. Each week scans are run to identify hardware, operating systems, and off-the-shelf applications and that data is reconciled with the CMDB. Further data enhancement comes from the collection of custom application and disaster recovery data that is matched to servers and updated in the CMDB. To keep the data current, processes and teams throughout the DCS environment review and update the CMDB to maintain data integrity.

4 Significance to the Improvements of the Operation of Government The objective of the DIR DCS program is to provide quality data center services to the State of Texas with a focus on server consolidation, cost reduction, equipment modernization, and increasing security and disaster recovery capabilities. The CMDB capabilities provide key support for these important objectives. For example: Consolidating disparate legacy agency facilities The CMDB provides an accurate data source to track servers that need to be, and have been, consolidated. Since commencement of the consolidation program, over 450 servers have been consolidated, raising the percent of servers operating in the state s consolidated centers from 41% to 54%. Reducing statewide costs for services The source of billing information for server services is the CMDB. By using this single data source, and by billing using VMWare s IT Business Management (ITBM) product, each agency is able to view their invoice at the service level and drill down into the corresponding CMDB-provided server detail records. This linkage and transparency has reduced agency time to verify their DCS invoice, reduced agency server disputes, and allowed the agencies to scrutinize and shut down servers they no longer need, all of which reduce the cost of services to 29 agencies. Modernizing aging equipment The CMDB stores the age of equipment and version of operating system, information that is used to determine when hardware or software needs to be replaced. VMWare s ITBM pulls information out of the CMDB and presents intuitive reports to the agencies showing the age of the equipment and target dates for replacement, thereby simplifying the selection and management of the modernization initiative. Increasing security and disaster recovery capability Agency business application information is stored in the CMDB and linked to their supporting servers. For each application, the agencies are able to request a disaster recovery level, which is also stored in the CMDB, and receive reports that show the level of recovery for each application and server. Additionally, if a server stores or processes sensitive information such as CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services), FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), FTI (Federal Tax Information), PHI (protected health information), or PII (personally identifiable information), it is noted in the CMDB, allowing the operating teams to take appropriate precautions. An accurate and fully functioning CMDB is a key component of the solution that enables the achievement of these DCS objectives.

5 Benefit of the Project This data provides valuable operational and billing reports to the state and is presented at the enterprise level (across all of DIR DCS) and agency levels. The CMDB s value becomes evident in three key areas: operational stability, service transparency, and accurate billing. Foundation for operational stability All incidents and changes to services are linked to an item in the CMDB that allows for proper tracking of service levels, understanding of the scope of an outage, and the ability to understand the potential risk of a planned change. Through this and other best practices, high severity outages in the DIR DCS program have dropped in half over the past 12 months. Full-service transparency Through tools such as VMWare s ITBM, the Capgemini team provides CMDB hardware and software data at the DIR DCS customer and supplier s fingertips by providing browser-based access to CMDB reporting and analytics. This allows key constituents to review and analyze the data at their convenience. Accurate billing The CMDB provides the source of data for invoicing DIR for supplier charges as well as charging DIR DCS services to the agency customers. The same data that is stored in the CMDB is also provided on the customers online invoice statements, allowing easy verification of billing accuracy.