The traditional configuration management database (CMDB) is big, complex, difficult to grow and change, and very expensive. Compiling data through data-driven synthesis gives IT organizations a better and more cost-effective method of providing the capabilities of a CMDB. This article explains data-driven synthesis, how it is used to generate CMDBs, and its measurable benefits.

If you want secure, reliable systems, you need all stakeholders actively communicating. This means involving both IT operations and developers in discussions after deployments, to ascertain if anything went wrong and can be avoided, and what went well or could be refined. Integrating your postmortems and retrospectives facilitates collaboration and improves processes.

Development and operations have fundamentally different goals, so some people are wary about how they can collaborate in DevOps. With increased automation and continuous delivery, operations engineers in particular are worried their responsibilities will become obsolete. Not true! DevOps actually creates opportunities for everyone to benefit.

Balancing time-to-market pressures with regulatory needs and business continuity demands is a challenge for highly regulated large enterprises. Automating processes and mastering proven practices of release management makes developing and releasing software predictable, reliable, and repeatable.