At HP Software Universe in Barcelona, HP introduced a new release of its configuration management tool, incorporating a module for policy-based topology and inventory configuration analysis, as well as greater integration with the vendor's discovery and mapping platform. HP's UCMDB-Configuration Manager (UCMDB-CM) is an instant-on module that is part of the UCMDB product delivered with UCMDB 9.10.
The UCMDB provides a picture or a map of how everything relates to each other and the associated dependency all the way from the application software layer all the way down the server and the network infrastructure level so users can see how everything is connected to each other, Jimmy Augustine, marketing team lead, HP CMS, tells 5 Minute Briefing. With the UCMDB providing the necessary visibility to run IT as a business, the new UCMDB Configuration Manager allows clients and users to then set policy.
The new module introduces policy-based topology and inventory configuration analysis and its user interface was built specifically to allow UCMDB users to work with the rich configuration item data provided by HP's Discovery & Dependency Mapping solution. UCMDB-CM is automatically entitled to existing and new UCMDB owners.
With the Universal CMDB 9.10 release, HP is now packaging the product so that the UCMDB will be comprised of three components: the Foundation component, the Discovery component, and the new UCMDB Configuration Manager (UCMDB-CM) that provides new capabilities that target the configuration managers and configuration owners.
Augustine notes, for example, that a mission-critical, e-commerce application with a requirement for high availability may require that there are at least five servers in production. "You could quickly set up baseline that you need to have least five servers and then you can go into the hundreds of servers within the UCMDB and quickly analyze and determine where you are out of compliance, and under-provisioned." The tool enables users to do the opposite, so if they want to run a "lean and mean" server infrastructure for back-office applications, such as email and ERP applications, they may decide only two servers are needed in production for every one application. "You can define that policy in UCMDB Configuration Manager and then quickly determine where you are out of compliance."
For a blog about this release by HP's Beth Parker, go here.