EMC expands configuration management for virtualized data centers

EMC Monday unveiled a software application that the company says will help enterprise IT managers better track virtual and physical configuration items from the data center into the cloud.

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EMC Ionix Data Center Insight is the newest application in the company’s recently updated Ionix IT management suite. The software works with other EMC products and third-party configuration management databases (CMDB) to pull data from data center components and build a consolidated view of the IT environment. Data Center Insight doesn’t act as a database but rather pulls data from configuration sources to help IT better visualize application and service dependencies across an IT environment such as a data center or private cloud.

“This product helps customers leverage what they already have to evolve their CMDB into a more modular, practical system,” says Jeff Abbott, senior product marketing manager for EMC Ionix. “By expanding to incorporate network and storage data, Data Center Insight can collect virtualization and cross-domain information across the data center, helping IT to better plan changes and avoid service outages.”

Using organic and acquired technology (such as that purchased with Infra and Configuresoft), EMC also equipped the software with best practices around establishing a CMDB and advancing it to become an ITIL-approved configuration management system (CMS). The difference is in federation, according to industry watchers. A CMDB to some represents a single, monolithic entity, whereas a CMS pulls data from multiple sources across an environment, without requiring that data to reside in a single repository.

“Forrester has been careful to advise clients on the evolution of the CMDB concept: away from a single, monolithic database and toward a federated set of domain-specific management tools combined with metadata and object models known as a [CMS]. The newer ITIL v3 definition is consistent with this model,” reads a recent Forrester Research report, “Inquiry Spotlight: CMDB And CMS, Q3 2009.” 

The software requires one of several EMC Ionix applications to discover data and begin to populate an updated system in near real-time. Industry watchers say the vendor is providing tools to automate the process and eliminate “guesswork” for enterprise IT managers looking to keep data center information accurate.

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.