What Are the Dangers of Poor Asset Management and Deficient CMDB?

IT asset management (ITAM) is the process of managing and maintaining IT assets, such as devices, applications, networks, and databases. Cybersecurity best practices require organizations to have complete knowledge and visibility over all assets within their network.

A configuration management database (CMDB) stores all asset data related to hardware and software configurable items (CIs) on the network. CIs are included in the ITAM asset inventory.
The two processes are essential aspects of an IT service management (ITSM) strategy.

Consequences of Poor Asset Management

The risks of a poor IT asset management program include:

• A lack of data to balance costs and determine an asset’s return on investment (ROI).
• Misallocation of resources.
• Gaps in cybersecurity that lead to non-compliance and breaches.
• Lack of operational asset visibility needed to make accurate business decisions.
• Inability to perform preventive maintenance and automated security operations, leading to further wastage of resources.

Risks of a Deficient Configuration Management Database

According to Gartner, 99% of organizations with inaccurate CMDB data quality will face business disruptions. A CMDB is often a trusted source of information for IT managers. If they receive poor-quality data, this trust quickly erodes, leaving them with manual processes and more chances of human error.

In addition, deficient CMDBs may have missing assets or duplicate assets, especially when data is gathered from multiple sources. Asset relationships being poorly recorded leads to a lack of context and an inability to track CIs and their business outcomes. A CMDB that does not keep its data up-to-date may also result in low asset visibility and increased cyber risk.