The configuration data in your Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is some of the most complex data your company generates. With list after list of records and complex webs of dependencies, even technology experts have difficulty comprehending its complete scope and many nuances. Adding to the difficulty is the data that is continuously changing, as your IT environment evolves and its pace is rapidly accelerating. A visual CMDB helps solves these challenges.
Why is this important? The systems this data represents are critical to your business operations and you can’t support them effectively if you don’t understand what you are working with.
Humans Understand More If They Can Visualize It
As the saying goes – “A picture is worth a 1,000 words.” Whether it is exactly 1,000 or not, the concept is accurate. The human brain can understand much more data in visual form than as numbers and words. Not only are we able to understand the data, but also, we have the ability to:
- Understand context
- Identify relationships
- See patterns and trends
- Resolve gaps and redundancies
- Recognize changes
Most Data Analysis Tools Aren’t Capable of Completing the Task
Unfortunately, most IT departments are trying to analyze and make decisions on their highly-complex configuration data using IT Service Management (ITSM) systems and other rudimentary tools that lack the power and precision to give them a true understanding of the complexities they must address. What makes most data analysis tools ineffective in this context is they don’t allow you to see insightful information, only the lists of data.
It Was First a Picture, It Can Be Again
A visual CMDB houses a digital representation of physical environments, tangible services and components with which people can touch and interact. Yet, we try to use rows and columns of data and basic analytical reporting tools which are designed to summarize information to render that data into something useful – it isn’t working!
What IT teams actually need is the ability to transform the configuration data to a visual format, enabling them to see the objects in the context of the environment. This will allow them to use their natural cognitive abilities to interpret how components interact with each other and how the environment overall is changing.
Using Our Brains for Which They Were Designed
Through visualization, not only can we better understand our IT environments, but also develop that understanding with much less accurate and complete data than we would need for computer analysis. The human brain has a keen ability to play “connect-the-dots” and fill voids in the pictures we see.
Our brains are also skilled at resolving the overlaps of stereo images – filtering redundant information and creating compound images. These cognitive capabilities help us consume much larger and more complex data sets – just like the data we would find in a Configuration Management Database
Virima is one of the industry leading platforms for capturing, managing, and visualizing data about your IT environment. Imagine the questions you could answer if you could visualize the data and dependencies stored in your Configuration Management Database and if you could trust the data to be accurate and current initially. A picture may be worth a 1000 words, but a picture of your visual CMDB data rendered with Virima is worth much more.
Learn more about these steps by watching our Webinar, 6 steps to CMDB Success.
Virima features can automatically discover and map your critical IT resources and the interconnections that link them to one another, your applications and services, and your users.
Virima is here to help. To get started, contact us today to schedule a demo and explore the possibilities!
