Johannesburg, 23 May 2005
BMC Software maintains it is about a year ahead of competitor IBM in terms of configuration management database (CMDB) systems, and expressed surprise at IBM`s claims that its Tivoli systems management software is more suitable to industry needs.
BMC spokesman Brian Emerson tells ITWeb that the BMC Atrium CMDB product takes a more holistic approach to system management, pointing out that IBM`s product does not offer many of the solutions available with Atrium.
While IBM`s CMDB system has a strong focus on change configuration, Emerson argues that it lacks BMC`s proven strategy and solutions that have been developed for the IT environment.
"Change configuration is an important aspect of CMDB systems, but BMC`s product also offers order entry processing, asset management, problem management and impact management," he explains, adding that IBM is partnering with other vendors to provide these solutions.
"IBM is getting there, but they are about a year behind us," Emerson notes, saying the BMC Atrium CMDB also includes a reconciliation engine, which enables companies to combine input from multiple data sources and identify and reconcile any differences to establish a true configuration profile.
Launching its product last week, IBM said it believes a federated approach makes more sense because many companies have infrastructure databases already, and federation allows more flexibility and scalability and the ability to implement faster process-oriented improvements to IT more quickly.
Earlier, BMC said it is the first enterprise management software vendor to release a purpose-built, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-inspired CMDB, addressing the ITIL requirement for a single enterprise CMDB to ensure data consistency and simplify integration between differing service management processes.
The group explained that BMC Atrium is an open-architected foundation that enables information sharing and centralised management across BMC Software solutions.
It added that, as the core infrastructure for business service management (BSM) routes to value, BMC Atrium provides a common data repository shared service model and unified user and reporting interfaces to accelerate attainment of BSM.
Share