As businesses grow, their IT infrastructure can gradually become fragmented, resulting in declines of efficiency, planning, and overall control of IT. At the same time, enterprises are increasingly dependent upon IT services and software development to remain competitive. Fortunately, solutions and strategies exist to help. For IT to be in concert with the goals of the business, true integration as prescribed by ITIL is needed.

Today, the best ALM solutions on the market contain a CMDB which stores crucial IT infrastructure components, provides a centralized view on that data and its interdependencies, and then automatically reports on what will happen to the business if any component changes. When it comes to security auditing, change management, process re-engineering, and compliance, a CMDB is an IT organization's lifeline.

CMDBs are fast becoming a prerequisite for a view on how IT can adapt to changing business needs while ensuring those changes will not affect availability and security. Therefore, implementing a CMDB is an important strategic step for IT and the business. Organizations taking CMDB seriously will find themselves in a strong position to take advantage of today's rapidly changing global economy and emerging market opportunities.