Great Article

The DITY newsletter this week is an excellent piece written by Hank Marquis, in it are some very practical steps, (6 rather than the ubiquitous 10) to improving availability.

The great thing about this article is that he not only details the six steps, but also details (with links) to how each step should be completed.

There is no tool vending going on here either, as he puts it:

All it takes is a spreadsheet, or paper and pen.

Enjoy.
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CMDBf

The announcement today of a standard CMDB specification for the federation of data across multi-vendor environments is a good one.

I have not yet read through the full spec - at 70+ pages it's a few nights work for me, but the working group of companies is satisfyingly complete.

About time really, how long have the vendors been fighting with each other leaving us as casualties? but I digress, I think this (in theory) is a step forward in the population and maintenance of a real CMDB, though I do think it's interesting that they do not call this a CMSf.

All we need now is for all the vendors to adopt this spec quickly, follow their own guidelines, and leverage this to achieve the full potential of the CMS.

I imagine we are a few years away from seeing any impact from this announcement, but I have been wrong before.
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