Item: Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB
Rating: 7
Author: Oscar Narváez Del Rio

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

One of the most critical facts for IT operation management is to have a complete view of infrastructure, databases, applications, and services to understand the entire ecosystem and all relationships, which is hard to achieve without the proper tools and the risk of losing control could be high. Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB uses different protocols, connectors, and components to scan the different CI types and dynamically creates the relations between them, keeping all information up to date and allowing centralized management. Universal CMDB is a tool that can be natively integrated with other Microfocus tools for IT operation management like Service Manager, SiteScope, Operations Bridge, etc., and also with tools from different vendors articulating processes to support IT operations.

Pros and Cons

Create a unified map of IT Infraestructure and services
Provide a single source for managing a CMDB
Discover CIs and their relationship from different technologies
Agent-less discovery allows a complete scan withoud dependency on agents instalation

Upgrade proccess throgh versions has a medium-high complexity
Old versions wich do not sopport CMS interface have low performance for reporting
All features are only available with license

Most Important Features

Agent-less discovery and centralized CIs management
Native integration with IT Operation Management tools
Create a service oriented model of IT components

Return on Investment

Provide up to date information of all IT Infrastructure and service for managment level
Support analysis for incident management and capacity planning

Alternatives Considered

BMC Helix Discovery, BMC Helix Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and Zabbix

There are no relevant differences between the most well-known CMDB tools in terms of their features and user experience; however, one of the critical facts to select a specific CMDB product is its capacity to integrate it with all IT operations management tools for ITIL processes (Event, Incident, Problem, Change management, etc.). Implementing a set of tools from the same vendor reduces complexity and enables integrated support. Universal CMDB requires medium-high skill for platform administrators which could be overcome with product training and vendor support.

Key Insights

Do you think Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB's feature set?

Yes

Did Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB again?

No

Other Software Used

Micro Focus SiteScope (formerly HP SiteScope), Micro Focus Operations Bridge (formerly HP Operations Bridge)

Likelihood to Recommend

Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB is well suited for medium to large IT operations after a careful review and strategy definition of all support tools that will be integrated. When it comes to deciding on a set of tools for IT operation management and its different processes like Incident, event, and change management; a good approach would be to create a roadmap with the integrated suite of tools to create a native ecosystem and reduce complexity on the integration and adoption.

Users and Roles

30 - IT Operations: Sysops, DBA, Netadmin, Command Center, Monitoring tools, Capacity Management.

Support Headcount Required

3 - On-premise installation of Universal CMDB requires medium-high knowledge of IT infrastructure (OS) and communication protocols to understand and handle all different components.

Business Processes Supported

Infrastructure Discovery
Service modeling
CIs Reporting

Likelihood to Renew

5

Products Replaced

No

Key Differentiators

Product Features
Product Usability

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I would start with an open tool for infrastructure and services discovery and explore different products, user experience, and the capacity to be integrated with other ITOM tools currently in use or asses other tools in the open-source space that could replace them.

Implementation Rating

6

Upgrades from old versions were really hard to handle.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

No

Implementation Issues

Platform upgrade

Support Rating

7

Some complex issues regarding performance and platform upgrades have been difficult to address and have short time solutions.

Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed Support cares about my success	Escalation required Need to explain problems multiple times

Pros	Cons
Easy to use Well integrated Consistent	Lots to learn

Easy Tasks

CMS

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

No

UCMDB for IT Operation Managemet processes

Overall Satisfaction with Micro Focus Universal Discovery and Universal CMDB (formerly HP Universal CMDB)