A configuration management database (CMDB) has become an essential tool for enterprises to gain visibility and control across their increasingly complex IT environments spanning on-prem, cloud, and hybrid infrastructure. However, with dozens of CMDB solutions on the market, selecting the right software can be daunting.
This comprehensive 2800+ word guide provides everything you need to make an informed CMDB purchasing decision. It includes:
- An in-depth look at what CMDBs are and how they deliver value
- Head-to-head comparison of 15 top commercial and open source tools
- Evaluation criteria tailored to business requirements
- Best practices for developing a CMDB strategy and adoption roadmap
- Real-world CMDB use cases across industries
Let‘s get started!
What is a CMDB and Why Do You Need It?
A configuration management database (CMDB) is a centralized repository that tracks and maps all IT assets across an organization‘s infrastructure along with their relationships.
CMDBs deliver value in several key ways:
- Automated discovery & mapping: CMDB tools use agent and agentless discovery methods to automatically detect servers, devices, software etc. and visualize relationships/dependencies via interactive maps.
- Improved IT visibility & planning: By creating a single source of truth, CMDBs enable better capacity planning, IT portfolio management, and understanding of the impact changes will have.
- Enhanced ITSM efficiency: Seamlessly integrating CMDB data into ITSM processes like incident, problem, change and service level management enables faster root cause analysis and outages resolution.
- Lower compliance risk: Up-to-date inventory and relationships data allows organizations to adhere to software audits and regulatory compliance standards more easily.
With research firm Gartner predicting that 90% of large organizations will use CMDBs by 2025, adopting one has become a necessity for IT leaders.
Key Capabilities of CMDB Software
While core functions like discovery and visualization are common across solutions, you need to assess specific capabilities based on your unique environment and use cases including:
- Multi-platform coverage: Ability to map assets across on-premise, cloud (AWS, Azure etc.), container (Docker, Kubernetes), and legacy environments.
- Integration depth: Out-of-the-box and custom integrations with your existing IT monitoring, ITSM, ITOM stacks to enrich CMDB data.
- Scalability: As your infrastructure grows, can the CMDB handle tens of thousands of CIs without performance issues?
- CMDB health metrics: Data quality dashboards indicating stale/inactive CIs ensure reliability of information.
- Impact analysis: Model complex what-if scenarios to predict outcomes from changes and outages.
Top 15 CMDB Software Solutions Compared
Based on analyst recommendations and Gartner‘s 2022 Magic Quadrant, below are 15 leading options across commercial and open source tools:
1. ServiceNow CMDB
Part of ServiceNow‘s popular ITSM platform, the CMDB provides out-of-the-box discovery and dependency mapping leveraging the ServiceGraph architecture.
Key Features
- Prebuilt integrations with ITOM tools via ServiceGraph
- Agentless discovery supporting over 400 data sources
- Automated reconciliation to maintain data accuracy
- Impact analysis visualization and risk assessment
Pricing: Quote-based depending on instance size and user count
2. BMC Helix CMDB
BMC Helix delivers an AI-driven CMDB offering advanced discovery, dependency modeling, and predictive analytics.
Key Features
- Mean time to resolution tracking
- 120+ out-of-the-box integrations
- Gold data packs for common platforms
- Risk-based impact analysis
Pricing: Quote-based on customized bundles
3. Freshservice CMDB
Freshservice offers a user-friendly CMDB tightly integrated with the Freshservice ITSM and Freshdesk service desk solution.
Key Features
- Auto-generated CIs from tickets and asset data
- Public REST APIs extensibility
- Agentless and script-based discovery
- CMDB health dashboard
Pricing: From $19 per agent per month
4. Device42
Device42 is an agentless IP-based CMDB providing detailed visibility even for complex legacy infrastructure.
Key Features:
- Pre-configured CMDB data model templates
- Monitoring of CI data changes
- CMDB-driven business service catalogs
- REST APIs and PowerShell access
Pricing: Starts at $1,495 per year
5. GLPI
GLPI is a web-based open source CMDB and IT asset management tool designed for IT infrastructure discovery and monitoring.
Key Features:
- Multi-lingual interface supporting 17 languages
- Customizable asset types, fields, and relationships
- REST API for integration with monitoring tools
- LDAP directory synchronization
Pricing: Free open source tool
6. Ralph
Ralph is an open source CMDB framework to map and visualize data center infrastructure. It can integrate with monitoring systems and automate asset discovery.
Key Features:
- Visualizes servers, racks, networks and software assets
- Change logging and notifications
- Multi-tenancy support
- Customizable via Python-based plugins
Pricing: Free and open source
7. NetBox
NetBox is another popular open source tool developed specifically for tracking IP address space allocations along with other core CMDB capabilities.
Key Features:
- IP address management and VRF visualization
- Custom models for devices and virtual machines
- Exportable reports in CSV/JSON formats
- Role-based access control (RBAC)
Pricing: Free and open source
8. iTop
iTop is an open source web-based ITIL CMDB designed to build customizable configuration management and ticketing system tailored to your needs.
Key Features:
- Custom data models using class inheritance
- Agent-based discovery capabilities
- REST API for integration
- Configurable dashboards and reports
Pricing: Free open source
9. Combodo iDoit
iDoit is an intuitive CMDB platform combining open source flexibility with optional commercial enterprise support services.
Key Features:
- Custom object types and attributes
- Multi-tenant capable
- AD and LDAP integration
- REST API and webhooks
Pricing: Starts at €350 per year
10. NetDisco
NetDisco is a free network management and discovery application built using Java and other open source tools. It can map your network topology and integrate with platforms like Nagios, Cacti etc.
Key Features:
- Auto-detection of running services and open ports
- SNMP, SSH, HTTP probes
- Export options to XLS, PDF, HTML
- Network topology and layer 2/3 mapping
Pricing: Free and open source
11. Rudder
Rudder is an open source CMDB tool specifically focused on infrastructure audit and compliance via technician-friendly web interface.
Key Features:
- DevOps-ready compliance procedures
- 300+ preconfigured audit rules
- Change requests with Git versioning
- REST API for CI integrations
Pricing: Free open source
12. Cloudiscovery
Cloudiscovery is a cloud-based CMDB option ideal for AWS customers providing agentless discovery of cloud resources and mapping interdependencies.
Key Features:
- Agentless discovery of AWS EC2/VPC resources
- Cross-account AWS resource visibility
- CI relationship modeling
- REST API integration
Pricing: Free 14-day trial, paid plans started at $14 per month
13. EasyVista
Part of EasyVista‘s IT Service Manager platform, the CMDB module offers automated asset discovery, 360-degree mapping, and intelligent alerting capabilities.
Key Features:
- Integration bus for third-party data synchronization
- Custom CI attributes and relationships configuration
- Impact analysis visualization
- REST API access
Pricing: Quote-based on modules and user count
14. ManageEngine
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus provides comprehensive CMDB capabilities tightly coupled with ITIL process support within an affordable package.
Key Features:
- Predefined and custom relationship mapping
- Integration with LDAP/Active Directory
- File import for bulk CMDB population
- Change log tracking
Pricing: Starts at $1,245 per year
15. SolarWinds
SolarWinds offers a CMDB add-on module fully integrated across its network monitoring and ITSM tools for consolidated infrastructure visibility.
Key Features:
- Automatically generated CI relationships
- Impact analysis risk ratings
- Accelerated troubleshooting with monitoring tool integration
- Custom data synchronization jobs
Pricing: Starts at $2,505 first year; 20% renewal discount
Comparing Open Source vs Commercial CMDB Tools
While commercial solutions like ServiceNow and BMC Helix Excel in ITSM integration capabilities, open source CMDBs offer a flexible starting point at zero license cost.
We can compare the two approaches across 4 key evaluation criteria:
As you can see, going the open source route appeals if you have in-house development resources to customize and extend system capabilities. Larger enterprises often find commercial CMDBs easier to adopt quickly despite the premium price tag.
Your ecosystem also plays a key role here – if standardized on ServiceNow or Cherwell for ticketing, opting for their respective CMDB offers the deepest integrations.
Developing Your CMDB Strategy
Getting full benefits from your CMDB software requires planning the adoption roadmap factoring in integration, data accuracy and user adoption considerations, including:
Understand Relationship Dependencies
Map out the types of configuration items in your environment, their attributes and the key relationships you want the CMDB to visualize. This ensures your data model captures the most critical dependencies.
Integrate Monitoring and ITSM Systems
To enrich CMDB data accuracy, identify key systems like ITSM, monitoring, IPAM, CM tools etc. that need integration. Automated feeds from these around incidents, changes etc. is essential.
Clean Up Data Before Migration
Leveraging your existing spreadsheets/database lists as a starting point for CMDB population? Clean up stale assets not tying back to a specific CI or relationship to ensure accuracy.
Verify CIs and Relations via Discovery
Configure discovery scans during initial CMDB rollout and on a periodic basis to validate captured CIs and mapped relationships, updating wherever deviations occur.
Reconcile CI Data Regularly
Set up automated reconciliation jobs to periodically scan for deactivated configuration items and purge them from the CMDB after user verification. This ensures optimal system performance.
Analyze Usage Metrics
Review usage metrics around CI activity trends, query rates, data edits to target potential adoption issues or gaps in configured relationships needing user training.
Real-World CMDB Deployment Examples
Let‘s see how different organizations have successfully leveraged configuration management databases:
Financial Services Firm
A leading stock exchange implemented ServiceNow CMDB to create an accurate repository of thousands of hardware and software assets across global data centers for better change control and risk analysis.
Technology Manufacturer
A hardware vendor integrated their ServiceNow CMDB with the in-house ERP system to link shipped products to customer accounts for improved service and license renewals management.
Retail Enterprise
An eCommerce retailer configured BMC Helix discovery to map dependencies between apps, database, and caching layers across cloud and on-premise to prevent holiday peak sales outages.
Healthcare Provider
A large hospital network tapped Freshservice‘s CMDB capabilities minimizing patient record system downtime by mapping interdependencies ahead of major facilities IT infrastructure upgrades.
Get Full Visibility and Control with CMDB Software
A properly implemented CMDB is invaluable for modern digital enterprises to effectively track assets, govern changes, speed up service issue resolution and reduce risk.
Hopefully this guide has provided you a foundation to start developing your CMDB strategy tailored to your unique environment and use case requirements leveraging both commercial and open source options. Reach out if any questions arise on your CMDB selection and adoption journey!
