Asset Management
CMDB
Security
Best Jira CMDB Alternative - Top 10 Solutions to Know in 2026
What Is Jira Service Management CMDB? #
A Jira CMDB refers to the configuration management database built within Jira Service Management's Assets feature, which stores information about IT assets (configuration items or CIs) and their relationships. This CMDB provides visibility into the IT infrastructure, enabling teams to manage assets, troubleshoot incidents, and assess the impact of changes by linking CIs to Jira issues. It helps centralize asset data, improve incident and change management, and support better decision-making in IT service management.
The CMDB module provides a centralized repository where teams can document details about servers, networks, applications, and other critical IT resources, establishing relationships and dependencies to get a clearer view of their IT landscape. The CMDB is designed to integrate with Jira’s workflows, offering a unified experience for incident, problem, and change management.
This integration allows IT and support teams to link CIs directly to issues and tickets, providing better context, traceability, and control across IT operations. By maintaining detailed information about the current state and history of all CIs, teams can anticipate the impact of changes, simplify root cause analysis, and support compliance requirements more effectively.
In this article:
Key Features of Jira CMDB #
Jira Service Management CMDB (via the Assets module) includes a range of features that support comprehensive asset and configuration tracking. These capabilities help teams maintain up-to-date information, simplify service operations, and improve visibility into their IT environment.
Here are the key features:
- Flexible data structure: Unlike rigid legacy CMDBs, Assets uses an open and adaptable schema that lets teams define and manage any type of asset or configuration item, including hardware, software, people, or facilities.
- Asset linking to workflows: Teams can associate assets directly with Jira issues, such as incidents, change requests, or support tickets, improving context and coordination across service tasks.
- Automation support: Automated rules can update asset records based on Jira activities, removing the need for manual updates and ensuring asset data stays current.
- Built-in query engine: Users can run structured queries against assets to perform audits, track costs, troubleshoot incidents, or identify misconfigurations.
- Predefined templates: Schema templates for common domains like IT, HR, and Facilities provide a quick starting point and help maintain data consistency.
- Discovery capabilities: The system can automatically detect IP-enabled devices, extract their attributes, and monitor changes to maintain an accurate view of the environment.
- Data integrations: Assets supports over 30 data connectors, including imports from flat files and SQL databases, enabling centralized management of data from various systems.
- Reporting tools: Built-in reporting features provide insights into asset usage, health, compliance gaps, and financial impacts, helping guide operational and strategic decisions.
- Reliable data management: With the Assets Data Manager, teams can reconcile and validate information from multiple sources, ensuring that asset records are complete, correct, and up to date.
Limitations of Jira CMDB #
While Jira Service Management CMDB offers strong integration and flexibility, there are some challenges that teams often encounter during setup and daily use. These limitations were reported by users on the G2 platform:
- Complex setup and configuratio: Initial setup can be time-consuming, especially when defining workflows, permissions, or automations. Teams without prior Jira experience may struggle with the large number of options.
- Steep learning curve: Non-technical users often find Jira’s terminology, settings, and interface confusing. Understanding the structure of projects, issues, and queues requires effort and training.
- Overwhelming interface: The UI provides many configuration possibilities but can feel cluttered and difficult to navigate, particularly for new admins and end users.
- Performance at scale: Handling large datasets, complex workflows, or extensive filters may lead to slower performance compared to smaller setups.
- Pricing concerns: Advanced features often require higher-tier plans or additional plugins, which can become expensive for smaller teams.
- Limited out-of-the-box reporting: While reporting exists, many users find it less intuitive and needing extra setup or add-ons to extract useful insights.
Notable Jira CMDB Alternatives and Competitors #
1. CloudQuery #
CloudQuery is a data movement platform that makes it straightforward to sync data from multiple cloud platforms to any destination. This gives you complete flexibility to sync to any destination, allow you to augment data from cloud sources with interneal company information and display it in any platform. Its SQL-based querying makes it easy to quickly get answers to common questions about your setup and ensures continuous enforcement of policies. New, AI-based support for natural language queries also makes it easier than ever to interrograte and understand your data.
Key features include:
- Support for multiple data sources: Information can be imported from over 70 cloud and SaaS services using CloudQuery developed and mainitained integrations. These sources include AWS, GCP and Azure. In addition, the API support means that users can develop their own integrations for any unsupported services.
- SQL-based querying: Queries are written in standard SQL, meaning there is a very shallow learning curve for users, who can ask questions using a language they already know.
- Built in reports and dashboards The SaaS option includes out of the box support for common CMDB reports.
- Augment your data with internal information: CloudQuery's flexible, integration-based architecture makes it easy for you to sync data from any sources, making it straightforward to add useful, contextual data to your CMDB.
- Runs on your own infrastructure By using CloudQuery CLI, you can run all of your syncs on your own infrastructure, making it far easier to comply with security policies.
2. ServiceNow CMDB #
ServiceNow Configuration Management Database provides a centralized, cloud-based system of record for IT infrastructure and digital service data. It is designed to address the complexity of managing modern IT environments, which often include cloud platforms, containers, virtualized infrastructure, and rapidly changing applications.
Key features include:
- Consistent data model: Built on a unified schema with predefined semantics, ensuring data consistency across all ServiceNow applications.
- Discovery and integration: Automatically populates CI data through ServiceNow ITOM Discovery, Service Graph Connectors, and third-party integrations, covering both physical and cloud resources.
- Service mapping: Links IT components to business services, showing dependencies and helping assess the impact of incidents or changes.
- Data quality and health tools: Provides dashboards, automated duplicate prevention, reconciliation, and data certification to maintain accurate and complete CI records.
- Scalable cloud support: Supports real-time discovery of AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, and serverless platforms.
3. BMC Helix CMDB #
BMC Helix Configuration Management Database serves as a central, business-aware repository for managing assets and services across on-premises and cloud environments. It helps unify data from multiple sources, automatically enrich records with discovery tools, and provide accurate service models at scale.
Key features include:
- Automatic population and updates: Integrates with BMC Helix Discovery, BMC Helix Client Management, and other connectors to update records in minutes.
- Data federation and integration: Supports importing and federating data from diverse sources using APIs and integration tools.
- Service and asset modeling: Maintains accurate models for hardware, software, and cloud services, handling hundreds of millions of configuration items.
- KPI-driven data quality: Provides a KPI-based user experience to monitor and improve data reliability and policy compliance.
- Graphical visualization: Displays CI relationships and dependencies in visual maps for better understanding of infrastructure and service impacts.
4. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus #
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is an AI-powered IT service management (ITSM) platform that combines ITSM, IT asset management, and CMDB capabilities with enterprise service management for HR, finance, and facilities. It is available on-premises and in the cloud, offering flexibility for organizations of different sizes.
Key features include:
- Full-stack ITSM: Covers incident, problem, change, release, project, and service catalog management with ITIL-certified best practices.
- AI and GenAI capabilities: Supports predictive ticket triage, sentiment analysis, virtual agents, response generation, summarization, and low-code script creation.
- Configuration management (CMDB): Provides visual modeling of configuration items and service dependencies to assess the impact of changes and outages.
- Asset management: Tracks hardware, software, and licenses, ensuring optimized usage and compliance. Enterprise service management: Extends ITSM workflows to HR, finance, and facilities with a multi-instance model for process segregation.
5. Device42 CMDB #
Device42 Configuration Management Database provides an automated, continuously updated view of IT environments across legacy, virtual, and cloud platforms. It uses automated discovery to eliminate manual data entry and dependency mapping to uncover relationships across applications, services, and infrastructure.
Key features include:
- Automated discovery: Continuously captures configuration items across hardware, software, network devices, end-user systems, and cloud resources.
- Dependency mapping: Maps relationships between applications, services, and infrastructure to predict change impacts and accelerate root cause analysis.
- Complete inventory: Maintains a single source of truth for IT assets, simplifying audits, compliance, and governance efforts. Data enrichment and flexible configurations: Enhances discovered data with contextual details and allows customization of CI structures. Reporting and dashboards: Provides visual dashboards, roll-up numbers, and distribution reports for operational and strategic decision-making.
6. Solarwinds CMDB #
SolarWinds Service Desk CMDB centralizes asset information from manual entry, network discovery, and connectors such as SCCM, Jamf, Intune, and vCenter. It links assets to incidents, offers dependency mapping with a visual map, and integrates with SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted for synchronized alerts and incidents.
Key features include:
- Centralized asset repository: Ingests assets via manual entry, discovery scanner, and connectors like SCCM, Jamf, Intune, and vCenter into one CMDB.
- Dependency mapping and visualization: Creates relationship links between assets and displays them in a visual map to assess change and incident impacts.
- Incident correlation: Links CMDB assets to tickets to identify recurring issues and trigger problem or change management workflows for remediation.
- Observability integration: Synchronizes alerts and incidents with SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted and imports assets and dependencies using configurable automation rules.
- Configurable CI model: Offers out-of-the-box CI types with parent–child inheritance, plus custom CI types when predefined structures are insufficient.
7. CloudAware CMDB #
CloudAware CMDB provides a unified inventory across multi-cloud and on-premises environments with extensive integrations. It supports discovery of thousands of cloud services, software asset cataloging with SBOM, policy compliance assessments, change management workflows, and cost reporting.
Key features include:
- Unified multi-cloud discovery: Discovers over 3,000 cloud services with on-prem support through APIs and network discovery to maintain complete, accurate CMDB data.
- Integrated infrastructure view: Provides a single pane across cloud, data center, and desktops using over 50 integrations, with compliance reporting derived from CMDB attributes.
- Software asset cataloging: Builds a centralized software catalog and SBOM to track adoption, prepare for vulnerabilities, and tailor reports for stakeholders.
- Change governanc: Scores lower-environment changes, integrates with Terraform, and automates workflows to block non-conforming promotions without reducing deployment velocity.
- Policy compliance and audits: Delivers automatic assessments against PCI, HIPAA, NIST, and ISO, with out-of-the-box reports to support audit evidence collection.
8. Turbot (steampipe) #
Steampipe is a SQL-based tool for querying live API data without ETL. It exposes services as tables through plugins and is available as a CLI, Postgres FDWs, SQLite extensions, export tools, and as a hosted option via Turbot Pipes.
Key features include:
- SQL-based live queries: Uses standard SQL to query APIs and services in real time, enabling concurrent access to many data sources.
- Extensive plugin ecosystem: Maps services like AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, and GitHub to tables, providing thousands of documented tables for exploration.
- Multiple distributions: Offers CLI with bundled Postgres, native Postgres FDWs, SQLite extensions, and export tools to fit varied development and operations workflows.
- Lightweight deployment: Ships as a single binary suitable for local machines and CI/CD pipelines, emphasizing fast execution and parallel query performance.
- Hosted collaboration option: Provides Turbot Pipes workspaces to run Steampipe, visualize results with Powerpipe, and automate workflows using Flowpipe in the cloud.
9. AWS Config #
AWS Config records configuration states and relationships for supported AWS resources, maintains history, and evaluates compliance using rules. It delivers configuration data to Amazon S3 and publishes notifications to Amazon SNS for configuration and compliance events.
Key features include:
- Resource discovery: Discovers supported resources and creates configuration items, preserving historical records from the moment recording begins in the account.
- Change tracking: Monitors changes using Describe and List API calls and periodic checks, recording related-resource details as configurations evolve over time.
- Compliance evaluation: Runs AWS Config rules backed by AWS Lambda functions, flagging noncompliant resources and updating rule and resource compliance statuses.
- Data delivery: Sends configuration history files to Amazon S3 every six hours and supports on-demand configuration snapshots for all recorded resources.
- Event notifications: Publishes Amazon SNS notifications for configuration changes, snapshot deliveries, evaluation starts, compliance changes, and oversized item handling.
10. Google Cloud Asset Inventory #
Cloud Asset Inventory is a global metadata inventory for Google Cloud resources, policies, and OS inventory runtime data. It supports search, export, monitoring, and analysis, with up to 35 days of history and options to view relationships and effective access.
Key features include:
- Global asset inventory: Maintains resource, policy, and OS inventory metadata with up to 35 days of history for create, update, and delete events.
- Search and query options: Supports custom query language and BigQuery SQL to search resources and IAM allow policies across projects, folders, and organizations.
- Export capabilities: Exports asset metadata to BigQuery or Cloud Storage for analysis, reporting, or archival workflows across environments and time ranges.
- Granular content types: Provides IAM_POLICY, ORG_POLICY, OS_INVENTORY, RESOURCE, and RELATIONSHIP content types for targeted metadata retrieval and relationship visibility when available.
- Change monitoring and insights: Supports feeds to monitor changes and generates insights to improve security posture, with eventual consistency guarantees on current data.
Related content: Read our guide to CMDB tools
Conclusion #
A Jira CMDB helps organizations consolidate IT asset data, establish dependencies, and integrate configuration management into day-to-day service workflows. By combining asset tracking with incident, problem, and change management, it provides context and traceability that improve operational resilience. However, success depends on careful design of the data model, governance processes, and integration strategy to ensure the CMDB remains accurate, scalable, and valuable over time.