Modeling
After jobs gather content and populate the database, you can define modeling meta-data so the system can build and update logical models. IT Service Management tools enable modeling at various levels; here’s where Open Content Platform (OCP) stands out:
- OCP enables multiple layers of context and customization between the high-level, logical context (e.g. non-discoverable Application/Service) and the low-level context (e.g. discoverable software component). The idea is to create a model complete enough to be used by all consumers downstream. For example, why would you want to create one model for Configuration Management (and related work through Help Desk tools), a second version for Monitoring (because they need context to determine criticality), a third for the Application or Service owner (because they want additional logical context extended to the dashboard tools), etc? It’s less work to onboard an app or service once (not once per tool), and expose a shared model all the way through.
- Coupled with the packaged dynamic discovery, the quality of generalized software fingerprints enables detailed mapping from simple objects. That means you can generate rich models by just running a few content gathering jobs.
- Discoverable objects on the tooling side are not guaranteed to remain; they can be intentionally removed or quietly cleaned up over time. On the contrary, Configuration Items (CIs) in IT Service Management have life cycles outside of any particular tool. If a CI modeled within an application disappears without following processes in said life cycle – it causes downstream problems. This is why OCP modeled CI context is intentionally represented in separate/related objects to the discoverable objects.
- OCP tracks changes over time to both a) the model instance (changes to the model topology, any included CIs or attributes, retains deleted CIs, etc) and b) the meta-data objects describing the model. This enables comprehensive reports of changes over time, including full details on deleted objects as well as changes to current ones.
OCP modeling is data driven. After creating meta-data objects that describe how to construct models, the logical modeling jobs take over. Whenever new components of the model are found from jobs, they are modeled appropriately.
Sample model snapshots
Screen captured demos
Note: these were created by CMS Construct; we were given permission to link them here:
