Configuration Management Software

Providing good IT services is a challenge. So is the management of complex IT infrastructures. Configuration management helps to successfully master both challenges and lays the foundation for improved operational efficiency and provision of IT services. It records all configuration items (CIs) and supports the inventory and management of devices, their utilization and adjustments as part of change management.

What is Configuration Management?

Configuration Management (CM) is a critical discipline within IT Service Management (ITSM) that ensures accurate and reliable information about the IT infrastructure is maintained – covering configuration items (CIs), configurations, and relationships. It provides the foundation for reliable, efficient, and secure IT operations in complex, hybrid enterprise environments. It also plays a key role in ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) practices and is essential for delivering high-quality, consistent IT services.

Configuration Management involves documenting and managing CIs such as servers, applications, databases, network devices, and cloud resources, tracking relationships and dependencies between these items (e.g., which server hosts which application, what database supports which business service), and controlling and auditing changes to minimize risks and prevent configuration drift across environments (production, staging, testing, etc.).

This process is often automated and centralized via a Configuration Management Database (CMDB).

Main components of Configuration Management

Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

All information about CIs, their attributes, and relationships are stored in a CMDB, a centralized repository that acts as a single source of truth.

Discovery & Inventory Management

By integrating with automated scanning tools, organizations can identify CIs, collect metadata, and automatically populate or update the CMDB.

Change Management and Version Control

Tracks changes made to CIs, ensuring changes are authorized, documented, and reversible.

Visualization and Relationship Mapping

Provides graphical views of CIs and their relationships to improve understanding of the infrastructure landscape.

What are the benefits of Configuration Management?

Shortens downtimes

Visualizations of the relationships between CIs facilitate root cause analysis so that IT teams can react more effectively to faults and minimize operational interruptions.

Improves change management  

With a better overview of all CIs and their dependencies, changes to the digital infrastructure can be assessed more quickly and managed and implemented more efficiently.  

Optimizes IT asset management

Accurate and always up-to-date data helps optimize IT asset management and ensures better resource allocation and cost control.

Supports fast provision of IT services

Service management also benefits from clear presentation of CIs and high data quality. The ideal combination of all properties and settings of the CIs and the optimization of their interaction accelerates service provision and increases support quality. Other ITSM processes can be easily connected via interfaces.

Proves compliance  

The complete documentation of the CIs makes it easy to demonstrate compliance with legal regulations.

Highlights of FNT’s Configuration Management Software

With FNT’s configuration management solution, you can easily keep track of all CIs. This ranges from the passive and active network infrastructure, including structured cabling, server and application structures and the workplace infrastructure through to IT and business services. All information is stored in a central repository, the CMDB.

Configuration management provides an overview of all configuration data and helps recognize the complex relationships between CIs. This allows you to accurately identify CIs across the entire IT landscape, control changes to CIs using defined processes and regularly validate the CI data in the CMDB for accuracy and completeness. The life cycle of the individual CIs is also recorded so that the status, location and configuration can always be tracked.  

The deep integration with the asset management capabilities of our solutions also enables holistic service asset and configuration management in line with the best practices and processes of ITIL v3/v4.

Integrated, centralized data model

All information about the relevant CIs of the IT landscape is documented in a central CMDB, which also contains the passive and active network infrastructure, the server and application structures and the IT and business services. The data model of the CMDB can be easily extended with configuration.

Efficient management of CI relationships

Enables graphical evaluations of database relations for each CI recorded. This makes it easy to visualize all relationships across all CI classes in order to track and understand the connections and dependencies of a CI.

Numerous integration options

A wide range of interfaces for bidirectional data exchange support seamless integration with other IT processes such as change and incident management and enable holistic IT infrastructure management.

Reporting & Analytics

Extensive options for visual analysis and graphical evaluation of data and its correlations.

Automation

Optimization of data capture and updates using automated tools. This significantly reduces manual effort and helps to avoid errors when entering data.

Display of the network documentation tool from FNT on different end devices.

Would you like to see how our solution for configuration management works? Request a demo!

FAQ: Configuration Management

What exactly are configuration items?

Configuration items (CIs) are all available elements and resources that play a role in the operation of an IT infrastructure. These include: 

  • physical hardware: servers, routers, switches, workstation equipment devices, network cabling, etc. 
  • virtualized and logical elements of the infrastructure: operating system and application software with their installed instances, middleware applications, databases, file systems, firewalls, etc. 
  • All surrounding elements of this technical infrastructure: the equipment of buildings and rooms, access rights, contractual documents concerning the infrastructure, etc. 

The information that can be stored in a configuration management software is as complex as the CIs themselves: Dimensions, weights, consumption and performance data, hardware and software settings in terms of set parameter values, versioning, license data, person responsible, current location, current operating status, dates, etc. and, of course, the properties and status of the relationships between them. 

What do you need to consider when implementing configuration management software?

Projects to implement configuration management software are often perceived a difficult task. The reasons for the failure of implementations range from a lack of clear target definitions, exaggerated expectations, too ambitious "big bang" implementation approaches to unclear responsibilities.    However, there is a reliable recipe for success for the introduction of configuration management software: 

  • Management support 
  • A strong interdisciplinary team from all involved domains and organizational silos of infrastructure and service management 
  • Clearly defined, specific, and quantifiable use cases that focus on a limited number of processes for the initial phase 
  • Careful selection of appropriate solutions and technologies for implementation 
  • Identification of CI types relevant to the use cases with quick data acquisition, documentation, and integration with the relevant management systems[nbsp
  • Incremental expansion of the deployment scenario and extension to further processes and CI types in subsequent phases, keeping a strong use case orientation 

Choosing the right software is also crucial. To ensure an efficient implementation, it is advisable to use professional configuration management software with integrated CMS (Configuration Management System) or CMDB (Configuration Management Database) structures. 

Further Downloads

Would you like to know more about Configuration Management? Then you might be interested in the following:

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The Sustainable Infrastructure
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Actions data center and network operators can take today for a more environmental-friendly tomorrow Businesses concerned about sustainability are taking stock of their current situation, identifying areas to target for improvement, and formulating plans for how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There are many strategies that can be used, and not all of them are obvious. This paper is an enlightening look at a number of different actions businesses can take to minimize the impact they are having on the environment.
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Justin Menoche
FNT Software Americas
Contact: Justin Menoche

Leo Koh
FNT Software APAC
Contact: Leo Koh

Claudio David
FNT Software Europe
Contact: Claudio David