IBM, Next Generation Asset Management, and the CMDB

Why are key vendors taking note of Next Generation Asset Management?

Industry analysis by Beth Schultz, plus the latest news headlines.

While I am intending this to be just a regular column, trying to give today's topic an adequate headline was tricky given modern tastes for brevity. I do remember, however, that titles were allowed to be more robust in the 17th century and prior - so from that perspective, how's this?: "Some considerations on how IBM's announced definitive acquisition of MRO Software reflects the rising importance of Next Generation Asset Management, and on how NGAM's rise is linked inextricably to the surging interest in CMDB adoption, much like two boats moving forward in parallel might pull each other ahead through a barely visible connecting thread."

Never fear, in spite of the longer title's length, the thoughts here are fairly simple and brief.

First, let's look briefly at IBM's $740 million acquisition of MRO Software. Overall, it's a very smart move by IBM, even if it falls short of being the "end-to-end" asset management story that IBM claims. MRO brings IBM one of the industry's strongest, robust and proven lifecycle asset management solutions, along with some basic service desk and help desk capabilities, including support for such ITIL disciplines as service desk incident and problem management. But MRO's Maximo is primarily strong as a lifecycle asset management system, which evolved from MRO's acquisition of MainControl in 2001.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

While I am intending this to be just a regular column, trying to give today's topic an adequate headline was tricky given modern tastes for brevity. I do remember, however, that titles were allowed to be more robust in the 17th century and prior - so from that perspective, how's this?: "Some considerations on how IBM's announced definitive acquisition of MRO Software reflects the rising importance of Next Generation Asset Management, and on how NGAM's rise is linked inextricably to the surging interest in CMDB adoption, much like two boats moving forward in parallel might pull each other ahead through a barely visible connecting thread."

Never fear, in spite of the longer title's length, the thoughts here are fairly simple and brief.

First, let's look briefly at IBM's $740 million acquisition of MRO Software. Overall, it's a very smart move by IBM, even if it falls short of being the "end-to-end" asset management story that IBM claims. MRO brings IBM one of the industry's strongest, robust and proven lifecycle asset management solutions, along with some basic service desk and help desk capabilities, including support for such ITIL disciplines as service desk incident and problem management. But MRO's Maximo is primarily strong as a lifecycle asset management system, which evolved from MRO's acquisition of MainControl in 2001.

IBM's acquisition should particularly strengthen its hand in managing software assets from a lifecycle perspective, providing integrated service desk capabilities with existing next-generation features, such as CMDB and discovery. While Maximo has no true chargeback capabilities, IBM's January acquisition of CIMS Labs provides chargeback for virtualized environments with a focus on integrating usage information across systems and database information.

One thing that's not included to any degree yet in IBM's IT asset management offering is full lifecycle support for hardware assets (Maximo has a narrow focus on hardware inventory and discovery) and network-centric asset management. To some degree, this is a "connect-the-dots" challenge for IBM: Maximo includes network devices in its initial inventory and discovery, and Micromuse, which IBM acquired last year, offers some strong foundations for network asset management, particularly in telecommunications or large and complex network environments.

But both IBM and its customers should feel good about the MRO buy as it fills in some critical pieces and positions IBM much more competitively in the NGAM space.

As to the second point in the headline - is NGAM hot? Well, one would think so since merger and acquisition activity is one barometer of vendors recognizing critical needs. IBM's acquisition of MRO follows HP's purchase of Peregrine Systems, Avocent's acquisition of LANDesk and Opsware's acquisition of CreekPath, which provides application-related insights into storage utilization. This list is not meant to be complete, but it does reflect more than a passing interest in an area that, much like the CMDB, has not been particularly well addressed in the media. It's also a trend that's taking shape - in an almost clandestine fashion - as a larger foreshadowing of trends that defy traditional, siloed market categories.

Schultz is a longtime IT journalist. You can email her or find her here.