Configuration Management is a unified process that has the main objective to make sure that all the standardized approaches are being followed for the best management of all disparities in order to control IT infrastructure and minimalize the quantity and impact of risks while enabling alterations. The main focus of Configuration Management Solution is the identification, maintenance, and information validation of IT assets and configurations in an enterprise. With the growth in digital transformation across industries, configuration management tools are being deployed by organizations to assist the users to plan, test, implement, and review the changes, and guarantee steady and reliable delivery of IT services. Configuration Management Solution offers benefits such as quick response to customer demands, access to the total impact of change, lowered risk associated with change, and managing cost of change. The solution also increases the efficiency of change implementation by applying a structured framework of methods, tools, and processes, managing the change from a current state to a future state.

Best Configuration Management Software in 2020

1. SaltStack
2. AWS Config
3. Octopus Deploy
4. Bamboo Configuration Management
5. Hashicorp Terraform
6. Codenvy
7. TeamCity
8. AWS CodePipeline
9. BackBox Configuration Management
10. Chef Configuration Management

Market Overview

Best Configuration Management Software is essentially an implementation of a database that includes the details of an organization’s elements that are used in the delivery and management of its IT services. The major benefits of the solution include:

1. Establishing a reliable repository of accurate information about IT components
2. Understanding relationships between CIs, and
3. Determining what components affect which services

These solutions mostly aim at providing accurate configuration information in order to assist decision-making and help resolve incidents and problems faster.

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Simplification and synchronization of IT resources

Configuration Management Solutions enable users to maintain a steady state of IT resources throughout the entire IT infrastructure. The process involves storing of CIs, which have data about versions, patches, upgrades, system downtimes, documentation, and others in a centralized repository called CMDB. Due to the complex IT infrastructures, the need for simplified and synchronized IT resources is increasing at a fast pace.

Storage of CIs in CMDB leads to the formation of a single combined repository for all system-related information. This makes it simpler for IT administrators to manage the status of system components, monitor requirement changes at the infrastructural as well as individual level, and ensure system availability by troubleshooting system issues in real time. By establishing effective ground rules with which they can decrease system stoppages, companies can enhance compliance with guidelines, improve the flexibility of the infrastructure, and automate their processes to a certain extent, enabling them to concentrate on their core business functions.

Growth in the automated management of IT processes and policies

Due to globalization, bigger competition, and demand for personalized products, allocation of resources to essential business functions has become a critical aspect for any organization. Any disruption in the usual functioning of an IT department can cause ripples throughout the business, and organizations are left with no choice but to consume their resources to correct the malfunctioning in the infrastructure.

With the help of the Configuration Management Solution even though an early human interference is essential for establishing the required guidelines and policies, processes like system restoration and network fault management can be automated. Automation of such processes reduces overheads of system administrators and modifies the issues in real time. While following the manual process, the administrator needs to update system-related information every time the network experiences change. The process is very difficult and time consuming, which is why organizations are moving toward configuration automation solutions. This automation of configuration is called Closed Loop Configuration Management (CLCM) and involves templates that contain a certain set of conditions that need to be met and a set of actions that need to be performed. CLCM enables the organization to configure networks effectively and efficiently.

Growth in the need for scalable and flexible systems

The advent of technological trends such as cloud, mobility, big data and analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT) has caused organizations to rethink their IT strategy. Organizations can enhance their spending by outsourcing their IT operations to third-party vendors; though, issues arise when the legacy systems cannot be integrated seamlessly with the applications and solutions being provided by the third-party vendors. The digital trend has led to rapid development of its supporting solutions as well; augmenting these into the current infrastructure can be a painstaking task for any enterprise.

Configuration Management Solution enables backward as well as forward compatibilities, reducing operational overheads for the system operators. It leads to the creation of a dependable and flexible infrastructure, which can withstand the rapid pace of technological innovations.

Restraints

Organizations’ IT infrastructures are quickly transforming from traditional business processes to automated applications to increase work efficiency. This will have an impact on the configuration of diverse applications used for various purposes in an organization. With such diverse IT infrastructure, it would be more difficult to maintain the genuineness of a user using different applications from several vendors while performing the configuration.

In the near future, most of the employees will be using their own devices as the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is on the rise in the present industry scenario. All those devices will have numerous applications, which will only increase network complexity. Tracking and monitoring the configuration of the devices may upsurge the possibility of losing their integrity. Hence, difficulties in configuring the transformed and integrated applications for diverse environments while keeping the best performance will affect the growth of the market.

Challenges

Complexities due to third-party integrations, acquisitions and collaborations

As a large number of organizations are considering digital transformation, it becomes enormously crucial for system administrators to maintain the control of all infrastructural components. Proper management of resources becomes critical with the involvement of third-party service providers, since this paves the way for additional expenses and loss of operational flexibility.

Furthermore, acquisitions, collaborations, and outsourcing are central to any big organization’s strategies. Integration of IT infrastructures in such scenario is complex due to differences in policies of the companies and system integrators in sharing and accessing IT resources. Similarly, creating an environment where resources and their states can be controlled accurately and effectively becomes a challenge.

Managing larger volumes of data

Configuration management is essentially a process of monitoring and tracking software changes. The process involves storing CIs in the CMDB. CIs hold information related to the states of the various components, history of failures, updates, versions of software, documentation, and others. The data is critical to the functioning of every IT department in today’s age; it is a powerful tool for ensuring the success of agile implementations and DevOps.

With systems becoming more and more dispersed, customizable, and heterogeneous, the quantity of data collected with regards to CIs is vast. The data collected from different components of the infrastructure keeps piling up and deriving any sense from the data becomes a challenge for any IT department. Just collecting and storing the data is not enough, extracting meaningful information from the database is important for the IT ecosystem.

AWS Config, Bamboo Configuration Management, Octopus Deploy, and HashiCorp Terraform have been identified as Visionary Leaders.

SaltStack and BlackBox Configuration Management have been identified as Dynamic Differentiators.

CodeEnvy, AWS CodePipeline, and Chef Configuration Management have been identified as Innovators.

TeaCity has been identified as an Emerging Company.

What are the possible future opportunities in the Configuration Management market?

Combination of configuration tools with DevOps will improve the demand for best Configuration Management solution

In today’s fast-paced world, the time to market is a critical aspect for application developers; project managers generally use the waterfall approach for the development of their applications in a sequential, step-by-step process. Any iteration to the product or application in the waterfall approach generally proves to be costly in terms of time and resources.

In the DevOps methodology, developers collaborate with the operations teams to use a combination of practices, tools, and philosophies to reduce an application’s time to market. DevOps, unlike the traditional waterfall approach, allows for the evolution of the application, enabling the organization to remain competitive in the market. This is where best configuration management software comes into the picture; it possesses the ability to integrate production, development, and test environments, which makes the DevOps environment more controllable and manageable. The tools also render consistency to the coding environment, wherein bundles of the code can be carried through various stages of the life cycle as per the needs of the developer. While performing these operations, the tool gains inherent knowledge of the dependencies between the logical and physical world, allowing for automation of the entire process.

Growth in the usage of agile systems will trigger the demand for best configuration management software

Due to the rapid pace of innovation, faster and improved technologies keep coming to the forefront, and organizations’ IT infrastructure needs to match the pace of this innovation to ensure smoother and better functioning of business processes. This implies rapid changes to the physical as well as virtual components of the IT infrastructure, impacting the operations of the entire enterprise. These rapid changes make it difficult to create a process, which is flexible and reliable as it requires the coming together of professionals not only from the IT background but also from operations functions.

Best Configuration Management solutions can assist with the creation of a more agile and scalable IT infrastructure by maintaining system integrity and consistency across a diverse enterprise ecosystem and analyzing relevant information with regards to patches, upgrades, versions, downtimes, and repairs.

What are the most important features of a Configuration Management Solution?

Below mentioned are some of the most common features available in the best configuration management software:

Automation Framework

Each Configuration Management solution offers a precise syntax and a group of features which can be used to write provisioning scripts. Most configuration tools possess features that make their language comparable to conventional programming languages, but in an easy way. Variables, loops, and conditionals are the most common features offered to ease the formation of more multipurpose provisioning scripts.

Idempotent Behaviour

Best Configuration Management Software helps users in keeping a track of the condition of resources which also helps in avoiding monotonous tasks that were performed before. If a package was previously installed, the tool will not install it all over again. The goal is that after every provisioning run the system reaches the anticipated state, even if the users run it for several times. This is what personifies these tools as having an idempotent behaviour. This behaviour is not essentially compulsory in all cases, though.

System Facts

Best Configuration Management Software typically provide users with thorough information about the system being provisioned. All this data is made available via global variables, referred to as facts. They comprise things like network interfaces, IP addresses, OS, and distribution. Every configuration management tool provided a different group of facts, which can be used to create provisioning scripts and patterns more flexible for numerous systems.

Templating System

Most of the Best Configuration Management Solution come equipped with templating systems which can be leveraged to set up configuration files and services. Templates generally act as support for variables, loops, and conditionals which help users in enhancing adaptability. For example, users can simply set up a new virtual host inside Apache, by reprocessing the same template for numerous server installations. Rather than having only hard-coded, stationary values, a template offers placeholders for values that can amend from host to host.

Extensibility

Though, the provisioning scripts can be precise for the requirements and demands of a specific server, there are many situations when a user has similar server arrangements or parts of a system that could be common amongst many servers. Many of the provisioning tools provide techniques in which users can simply reuse and share minor portions of the facilitating arrangement as modules or plugins. Third-party components and plugins can be found on the Internet, particularly for common server arrangements like installing a PHP web server. Best Configuration Management Solution typically have a stronger community created around them and users are fortified to share their routine extensions. Using extensions offered by other users can help in saving a lot of time, while also proving to be an outstanding way of learning how other users resolved common problems.

What are the benefits of implementing a Configuration Management Solution?

While the use of the best configuration management software generally demands more preliminary planning and exertion as compared to the manual system management, the benefits provide by the solutions are worth the effort. Some of them are:

Rapid Provisioning of New Servers

Every time a new server needs to be installed, a configuration management solution can be used in automating most, if not entirely, the provisioning process for the users. Automation makes provisioning much faster and more effective since it enables monotonous tasks to be executed rapidly and more precisely as compared to the humans. Even with correct and detailed documentation, physically installing a web server, for example, could take days as compared to only a few minutes with the help of a best configuration management software.

Speedy Retrieval from Perilous Events

With rapid provisioning comes another advantage: rapid retrieval from critical events. When a server goes disconnected due to unidentified situations, it might take quite a lot of hours to correctly audit the system and find out what really caused it the disconnection. In cases like this, organizing a spare server is typically the safest way to get the services back online while a thorough inspection is done on the impacted server. With best configuration management software and automation solution, this can be done in an instant and dependable manner.

No More Snowflake Servers

At first glimpse, manual system management may look like an easy way to install and quickly fix servers, but it regularly comes with a price. With time, it may get very challenging to know correctly about what is installed on a server and what modifications were made, when the process is not mechanized. Manual hotfixes, configuration tweaks, and software updates can convert servers into exclusive snowflakes, that are tough to manage and even tougher to imitate. With the help of a configuration management solution, the process essential for setting up a new server or updating the present one will be all documented in the provisioning scripts.

Version Control

Once the users have their server setup interpreted into a set of provisioning scripts, they will have the capacity to apply to their server environment several of the tools and workflows they would generally use for software source code. Version control tools, like Git, can be used help users in keeping track of all the alteration made to the provisioning and to preserve distinct branches for legacy versions of the scripts. They can also make use of version control tools to implement a code assessment policy for the provisioning scripts, where any variations should be submitted as a pull request and sanctioned by a project lead prior to being accepted.

Simulated Environments

Best configuration management software make it inconsequential to simulate environments with the exact same software and arrangements. This allows users to successfully construct a multistage ecosystem, including production, development, and testing servers. They can even leverage local virtual machines for creation, built with the similar provisioning scripts. This practice will minimalize glitches caused by environment inconsistencies that often occur when applications are installed to production or shared between co-workers with different machine setups.

How to choose the right Configuration Management Tool?

There are numerous Configuration Management tools currently available in the market, each one with a diverse set of features and dissimilar difficulty levels. The below mentioned pointers should be taken into account prior to making a choice:

Infrastructure Management

Most of the configuration management tools demand a least hierarchy that comprises of a controller machine and a node that will be handled by the controller machine. For minor projects, an easy infrastructure might appear to be a better fit, though it is important to take into account the aspects like flexibility and security, which may not be imposed by the tool. Some tools can have more constituents and moving parts, which might maximize the complexity of the infrastructure, impacting on the learning curve and perhaps increasing the overall expenditure of implementation.

Learning Curve

Best Configuration Management Software offer a custom syntax, occasionally using a Domain Specific Language (DSL), and a group of features that include their framework for automation. As with orthodox programming languages, some of the tools will need a higher learning curve to be understood. The infrastructure necessities might also have an effect on the complexity of the tool and the speed at which the return of investment is delivered.

Cost

Many of the Configuration Management tools offer free of charge or open source versions, with paid subscriptions for progressive features and services. Some tools have more restrictions as compared to the others, so depending on the specific needs and how the infrastructure grows, users might have to pay for these services. Users should also think of training as a possible extra budget, not only in financial terms, but also concerning the time that will be essential to get the team up to speed with the chosen tool.

Progressive Tooling

Maximum number of configuration management tools offer paid services that can comprise support, additions, and progressive tooling. It’s imperative for the users to assess their specific needs, the size of their set-up and whether or not there is a requirement for using these services. Management panels, for example, is a popular service provided by these tools, and they can considerably simplify the process of handling and tracking all their servers from a central point.

Community and Support

A strong and friendly community can be very resourceful in terms of support and documentation, since users are normally happy to share their knowledge and their extensions with other users. This can be helpful in speeding up the learning curve and also avoiding additional costs with paid support or training.

What are the different modules of a Configuration Management Tool?

Best Configuration Management Software can be deployed either on-premises or by a third-party service provider on the cloud. Deployment by a third-party vendor will lead to savings in operational costs but at the same time, expose the organization’s sensitive information to security hazards. The deployment models require a set of several modules to ensure the configuration management tools are operational with desired results. The market segmentation of configuration management modules covers CMDB, service catalog, service definition, and others.

Configuration Management Database

CMDB is a complete database that includes all the pertinent info relating to software and hardware constituents installed with an organization’s IT facilities. It offers an extremely planned pictorial of configuration data and resources to inspect the data from any necessary viewpoint. CMDB can also be termed as ITIL, which ideally caters the following configuration process: identification of CIs, data monitoring and control to ensure security, reporting CIs, and auditing to check the accuracy. CMDB is considered to be the support of configuration management and is generally integrated third party solution providers.

Service Catalog

The service catalog is an assortment of business and IT associated services, which may contain service alterations, footprint service catalog, and other important business services, like email. the IT technician can monitor the service requests. Service catalogs are technically one of the integral parts of the best configuration management software, ideally deployed for large-scale implementations.

Service Definition

Service definition is a comprehensive map of devices and applications deployed to provide services in an organization. It is important for the decision-makers to keep in mind that any error in the processes or policies of best configuration management software can lead to issues with availability, capacity planning, and problem solving, which may further impact other business processes.

Others

Other modules considered for configuration management include workflow management of service requests and financial management. CMDB reconciles and consolidates distinct sources IT-related data in the framework of business priorities. CMDB offers visibility for CIs, which include resource attributes, relationships, and dependencies.

How are the Configuration Management solutions segmented based on systems?

The best configuration management software market is segmented on the basis of systems into applications, storage, and servers. Deployment of configuration management tools within the systems mentioned above ensures smooth operation and optimization to cope-up with advancing technicalities within the systems.

Software and Applications

The configuration management for software and applications offers a standard process or technique to manage the changes introduced to software products/applications. It defines a mechanism to deal with varied technical snags or hitches. Configuration management tools for software and applications further help control other programming components, such as program code, User Interface (UI) algorithms, design documents, test data, and others. Software developers tend to deploy configuration management tools to improve productivity by increased coordination among the programmers in a team, ensuring swift deployment at the end-user’s premises. Configuration management for applications complements the testing phase as well, by assisting in version control and easing the process of delivery of a test code into a test environment.

Servers

Server configuration management methodically manages alterations to a system in a way that it upholds integrity over time. It allows servers to attain the anticipated state by making use of the tool’s precise language to allow the server with rapid automation. Server orchestration plays a vital role in server configuration management for managing hundreds of servers from a central controller machine. Some of the major tasks covered by server configuration tools include prevention of snowflake servers, recovery of critical events, quick-provisioning of servers, replicated environments, and others.

Storage

Storage configuration manifest defines the storage environment by making the workflow faster and more documentable. Best configuration management software are deployed on existing storage-centric workflow and further audited and controlled with storage definition manifests to analyse what it requires as part of the course to build the full stack. The use of configuration management leads to a flexible automated process that always delivers accurate, actionable information.

What are the various services by a Configuration Management Solution provider?

The services offered by best configuration management software providers are broadly categorized into professional services and managed services. The professional services are offered through specialists or professionals for business support and are offered specifically by the configuration management vendors. The professional service teams offer comprehensive services through the deployment of the latest techniques, tools, skills, knowledge, and strategies to address the organization’s configuration management needs. These services have been essential for ensuring easy coordination for the implementation of configuration management systems. With the help of these services, an organization can audit, track, evaluate, and analyse the requirement of the enterprises, so that they can make informed decisions.

Managed Services

There is an increasing need for companies to upgrade their systems regularly. As a consequence, businesses are quickly subcontracting some activities to dedicated service providers known as Managed Service Providers (MSPs).The MSPs offer provide several managed services, such as server management , client management , security management , and database management. These services deliver quick and effectual resolution to IT incidents and requests, increase enterprise productivity, and decrease the total cost of IT operations.

Professional Services

The configuration management professional services enable businesses in scheduling, designing, executing, and training, auditing, and handling solutions to modernize the business growth. Professional services are mostly required in the IT industry at the time of solution implementation or after the deployment. This service is segmented into training and consulting, integration, and support and maintenance services. These services help in enhancing efficiency and achieving the desired level of expertise to effectively manage the IT infrastructure and reduce resource losses. Puppet is one such provider of professional services.

Training and Consulting

Consulting service providers assist in identifying the right platform for client requirements to lower risks, reduce complexities, and deliver timely services to help organizations achieve a competitive market edge. Consulting services are instrumental in providing associated processes for implementing configuration management solutions. They also help mobilize the generated data, making it securely accessible to enterprises. Additionally, they provide the technical expertise required to set up, manage, and run configuration management solutions.

Integration

Integration services help ensure satisfactory user experience for best configuration management software, adhere to IT standards, and maintain budgetary guidelines. Deployment and integration service providers understand the requirements of companies in various verticals and accordingly deploy configuration management solutions. Service providers also design customized services based on clients’ needs and budget to manage workflows and offer ease of use to customers and employees.

Support and Maintenance

The operations of the IT industry are complex and require many IT systems to carry out the processes. Configuration management plays a crucial role during the acquisition of material, maintenance, and management of the life cycle of the IT infrastructure. Thus, support and maintenance services are important for appropriate configuration, enhancement, and extension of the life cycle of applications. These services focus on seamless maintenance and transformation of business-critical applications and meet their changing demands. Support and maintenance services include 24/7 troubleshooting assistance, upgradation of the existing software solutions, problem-solving, outage management; and engineering skills for configuration, repairs, and modifications.

How is the configuration management solution different for a SME than that of an Enterprise?

Best Configuration Management Software has a direct impact on the cost and complexity of the implementation of applications. For SMEs, the automation provided by configuration management tools can allow the businesses to divert their resources to the more important functions, ensuring greater efficiency and streamlining of processes. The large enterprises segment is expected to hold the highest market share in the configuration management market during the forecast period, due to their affordability and acceptance of emerging technologies.

SME

An SME is defined as any organization with employee strength lower than 1,000 people. There is continuously a pressure on resources for SMEs; in such a situation, the degree of suppleness and automation permitted by configuration management solutions can be extremely helpful. Efficient configuration management guidelines can also be helpful when associating with larger establishments, as they might assume such practices to be in place while seeing companies to partner with, to decrease their expenses.

Enterprises

Enterprises with employee strength greater than 1,000 are considered as large enterprises. They have the necessary resources to carry multiple operations but may face issues while deploying new applications or solutions due to the variety of solutions and applications already in place. Acquisition is a key feature of many of the big players’ strategy, as it provides them a means of overcoming the gaps in their portfolio. A major issue with acquisitions for large enterprises can be the aligning the IT infrastructure of the acquired organization with that of itself. Another issue can be the maintenance of products and services due to the sheer size of the organization’s portfolio. In such cases, configuration management can be of great help to large enterprises.

Which verticals majorly implement Configuration Management solutions?

Best Configuration Management Software helps organizations’ to normalize their IT control ranged with general corporate strategy, which further pushes business routine. For instance, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is the new network architecture concept that abstracts technologies of IT virtualization that integrate the complete classes of network node functions into building slabs that may connect or chain together to support communication services.

Various end-use verticals considered in this report are BFSI, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing, government and public sector, telecom and ITeS, retail and consumer packaged goods, and others. Over the years, there has been increasing awareness of configuration management tools leading to a greater number of organizations across a variety of industries adopting configuration management practices. In order to guarantee the efficiency within operations of IT infrastructures, configuration management is used. It helps businesses in monitoring and maintaining the flow of project with consideration on technical support that is required for product delivery.

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance

Banks and other financial institutes are being forced to restructure their IT strategies with highly advanced technologies penetrating the BFSI vertical. The development of mobility technologies has given greater control to BFSI institutions to augment the service experience for their end-use customers. The operations of the industry are sure to change in the long run with multiple technology trends emerging. Facilities such as phone and internet banking are forcing these institutions to now focus on their IT infrastructures as well, making the adoption of configuration management tools and practices critical to their operations.

Telecom and ITES

The telecom and ITES vertical has been experiencing quick innovations and latest technology adoption on a routine basis. Owing to the speed of these innovations, IT set-ups in both the industries need a high level of adaptability and suppleness to effortlessly integrate with latest applications and solutions. Therefore, it becomes a hard task for designers of the telecom and IT vertical to preserve the balance amid staying updated and enhancing their spending; this is exactly where configuration management solution come into the scene.

Healthcare and Life Sciences

Technologies such as video conferencing enable doctors to view patient information from remote locations and take decisions without any delays. All these aspects lead to improved diagnostics and ultimately, quality healthcare. Best Configuration Management Software will become an essential aspect for any institution in the healthcare and life sciences vertical to evolve their IT infrastructure with the adoption of digital technologies.

Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods

E-commerce and analytics have transformed the look of the retail industry, by changing the way customers purchase their product. With the help of configuration management solutions, businesses can trace data in instantaneously and change the customer’s purchase decision at any time of the buying course due to better accessibility. Integration of innovative technologies has become a requirement for brick-and-mortar organizations to pave the way for this new digital age. As an outcome, configuration management practices will become even more important for these organizations.

Manufacturing

The manufacturing vertical includes a large number of operations, such as quality assurance, remote testing and monitoring, efficient resource utilization, and others. Automation of the above processes has become mandatory to reduce repair downtime and increase efficiency. Configuration management solutions and services reduce the cost of technical staffing, provide improved accessibility, and ensure better business productivity in the manufacturing vertical.

Government and Public Sector

Governments around the world need to evolve to counter physical as well as cybersecurity threats on every front, such as defense, economy, and energy and utilities management. This often means incorporating IT technologies even before they are adopted by the masses at a large scale. Keeping in mind the size of any nation’s IT infrastructure, configuration management practices need to be adopted to enable governments to effectively function with the newer technologies.

Others

The above-mentioned verticals are some of the major contributors to the configuration management space. Several other verticals, such as utilities, travel and hospitality, and media and entertainment, will also benefit from a successful configuration management practice. With the adoption of configuration management solutions and services, organizations can achieve low operational cost, low management overhead, freight and fare management, planning and scheduling applications, better performance, and better IT practices.

Latest Developments in the Configuration Management Space

Sep 2020 - VMware acquires SaltStack for security and configuration management capabilities.

June 2020 - ServiceNow to buy Sweagle, a configuration management company based out of Belgium.

Nov 2019 - Microsoft introduced Endpoint Manager to revolutionize device management.

Oct 2019 - Facebook Hydra has now been made open source to allow faster creation of applications on Python programs

Sep 2019 - Sectigo introduces innovative PKI DevOps integrations for wide-ranging configuration management and orchestration platforms.