There's a deep psychological effect at work here. tech people are as blinded by their love of technology and their quest for perfect information as any smitten youth is by the charms of his g/f. I'm sure that even amongst the small number of sites that supposedly have a working CMDB providing real value, many of those conceal one or two passionate people furiously peddling behind the scenes to keep it clean and working. I believe many CMDBs would not bear close scrutiny from a hard-nosed pragmatist manager or auditor.
CMDBs are a way for companies to bleed money.
So Greg, don't dream of still more and better technology to fix the problem - you're only digging yourself deeper. Step back and ask yourself what the real business problem is that is supposedly being solved here and then look for the real solution using a cost-effective combination of people, practices, technology and partners.
