In order to manage the impact that every entity has on your IT environment, an accurate Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is essential. This tool provides the visibility you need to quickly execute tasks like daily management, determining how to fix an outage, and planning major initiatives like cloud migrations or application changes. To create and maintain an accurate CMDB, automated dependency and discovery mapping (DDM) is key.

IT service desk technology has made tremendous strides over the past decade. Despite this fact, however, a recent survey by Gatepoint Research revealed that 74% of today’s on-site workforce still relies on phone calls to get the support they need. Remarkably, this number is even higher (80%) amongst remote workers. This is placing a heavy burden on support teams that are already stretched too thin.

A well-maintained, accurate configuration management database (CMDB) is the cornerstone of successful IT operations, offering clarity about what’s in your environment and how it all works in tandem. Yet, statistics indicate that only 25% of organizations are actually receiving meaningful value from their CMDB investments. This is due in large part to ever-changing IT assets and the increasing complexity of infrastructure and applications.

In a perfect world, your Configuration Management Database (CMDB) acts as the single source of truth for all your IT device inventory and the relationships between those devices. However, maintaining accuracy is easier said than done. That’s because the traditional method for provisioning and maintaining a CMDB is complex, unwieldy, and outdated the second it's updated. To keep up with the needs of a modern CMDB, an automated discovery and dependency mapping (DDM) solution is a must.

The promise of robots integrating into our everyday lives has long been on the minds of forward-thinkers and visionaries. Perhaps none were quite as bold in their future predictions as American chemist and Nobel Laureate Glenn T. Seaborg, who envisioned a 21st century in which every home would not only have its own robot, but also an intelligent species of animals that could help with household chores.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employers are losing more than four million workers every single month. That, coupled with the record number of 11 million open jobs, has left businesses across the board scrambling to crack the code and find a way to not only attract top talent – but, more importantly – keep them from jumping ship at the next best opportunity.

In today’s lightning fast digital age, I&O leaders across the globe are finding themselves under increasing pressure to find new and innovative ways for improving efficiency, optimizing costs and delivering fast, quantifiable and sustainable value. In order to achieve these goals, these leaders must not only be willing to adopt cutting-edge technologies, but be strategic about what tools in particular they choose to pursue and how they should prioritize them in terms of potential ROI.

Nearly two-thirds of IT executives say they plan to implement automation technology within the next year and a half. Despite this ambitious goal, however, 50% of those IT leaders admit that a lack of automation skillsets is currently hindering their progress. As the demand on IT infrastructures continues to grow at an astronomical rate, an epic increase in complexity has inevitably followed.