Thought for the day:
The first successful ERP for IT system will be built on a combination of a metadata repository (Rochade, Adaptive, etc) and a management framework (Unicenter, OpenView, Tivoli, etc). The management framework is the best and most accepted way to instrument and scan an IT infrastructure, and most support ITSM to some degree; a metadata repository would provide a sound foundation of information architecture and a bridge to the software development lifecycle.
No tools out there currently do this. Two vendors have product coverage to attempt it: IBM and CA. Of these, CA doesn't invest much in their tools and has had some dismal results when they do attempt an investment, cf. Erwin 4.0. IBM is the one to watch, if they started moving their Tivoli architecture towards the eMOF framework Eclipse is based on.
Or, standalone management tools vendors (HP, BMC) might partner with metadata repository vendors (ASG/Rochade, Adaptive).
Such a combination of base infrastructure is what is needed. Goals like Model Driven Configuration Management won't happen without it.
I don't forsee a happy future for the non-instrumented tools. IT Service Management suites without management framework backing are heading down a dead end, and while repositories have some ability to scan software and data assets, they are never going to get the buy-in of operations staff for full-fledged production environment scanning. Management framework agents are what those folks trust.
Regards,
Charlie
PS. Sorry it's been so long!
