HP this week shared details around the company's work to integrate software technologies - some of which were acquired in HP's many acquisitions, - and enlighten customers to the most recent updates to its software portfolio.

The company announced at HP Software Universe 2008 in Las Vegas its Configuration Management System that incorporates existing software products and features enhancements to key applications. CMS includes the HP Universal Configuration Management Database (CMDB) 7.5, Discovery and Dependency Mapping 7.5, a federation software development kit, and Web services-based adaptors that connect relevant information to common third-party repositories, HP says. (See a slideshow of HP product updates here.) 

"What we have done is not only improved the breadth and depth of our discovery patterns and provided a framework, but also enabled the solution to pull in customized data sources into our environment," says Ramin Sayar, senior director of products for business service management.

The ability to gather data from multiple sources will improve customers' ability to more accurately manage the components that make up business services. HP model its CMS against the management best practices laid out in ITIL, Sayar says, by offering a shared-services view with HP's Service Management Reference Model. Also being able to relate the system data contained in a CMDB to business functions will make it clear to IT managers how service disruptions ultimately impact the business, industry watchers say.

"A more reflexive, federated system based on ITILv3 and the CMS concept can help businesses gain better insight into the real service impact implications of changes and change-related processes," says Dennis Drogseth, vice president at Enterprise Management Associates."

And about 2,600 HP software customers traveling to Las Vegas this week will be asking company officials: "Now that you bought all this software, what can you do to solve my business needs?"

"Most of my customers are doing systems and network management proactively, have some process and tooling around [IT service management], but have a gap for CMDB," Jason Kennedy, a senior analyst and partner at Canadian IT consulting firm Tsunami. "It seems everyone’s talking about it, but few are really doing something. I’m looking to see what I can learn about that angle."

The company also hosted its HP Technology Forum & Expo 2008 at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay and reported some 7,000 attendees.

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.