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The CMDB alternative that maintains itself
A CMDB is only as good as the way it gets its data. There are three models in common use, and the differences between them are architectural rather than cosmetic.
| Agent-based inventory | Credentialed discovery | Parascope | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How data arrives | Software installed on each managed host reports what it finds back to a central service. | A collector inside the network authenticates to targets with supplied credentials and sweeps them on a schedule. Nothing is installed on the target. | Read-only sessions against each system's own API. On-prem and security-conscious sources are read through a lightweight appliance you run; cloud-native sources connect directly from Parascope. |
| Coverage boundary | Coverage follows the agent. Kit that cannot host one (switches, storage controllers, hypervisor fabric, sealed appliances) has to arrive by another route. | Coverage follows the credentials the collector holds and the ranges it is pointed at. Widening either is a change request. | Coverage follows the sources you connect, each read through its own API with its own credential. What a source does not expose, Parascope does not claim to know. |
| How current the record is | As current as the last check-in from each host that has an agent. | As current as the last sweep. Between windows, the record is what the previous sweep found. | As current as the last collection cycle, and collection runs continuously. Every change is kept, so you can ask what a system looked like on a date inside the last 365 days. |
| Time to first answer | Follows the rollout. Hosts appear as their agents land, so the picture fills in at the pace of the deployment. | Follows the standing up of the collector: network placement, then credentials, then the first sweep. | First source connected in minutes; a usable map of your estate within the hour. |
| Work it creates | Packaging, deploying and upgrading an agent fleet, and chasing the hosts whose agent stopped reporting. | Keeping credentials, scan scope and schedules current, and maintaining the mapping from scan output onto your model. | Connecting a source when something new appears. The data model is built from what collectors observe, so there is nothing to design up front. |
| Role in your stack | Feeds the inventory that ITSM workflows treat as the system of record, which puts the accuracy pressure on that record. | Same shape: discovery output lands in a record downstream, and the record is what the workflows trust. | Explicitly non-authoritative and observational: a data source that complements your ITSM. Read-only by design, it observes your systems and has no write path to them. |
The first two columns describe architectures, not particular products. Suites are built from these models in different mixes, so read a vendor's own documentation for what theirs does, and ask the questions below.
Questions worth asking, whichever model you pick
- What unit is metered?
- Users, endpoints, discovered items, or a mix. Ask whether discovery is part of the licence or a module beside it, and what happens to the bill when the estate grows. Parascope charges one fee based on how many configuration items it discovers, with users, sources, collectors and API access included.
- Can machines query it on the same terms as people?
- Ask whether an automation or an AI agent consumes a seat, and whether the full record is reachable by API rather than only through the console. Parascope issues read-only API keys and ships an MCP server, and agents query the same map the team uses without counting as seats.
- What does it write to the systems it inventories?
- Discovery that can also act on a target is a different risk conversation from discovery that only reads. Parascope has no write path to the systems it observes, which is what makes read-only credentials a reasonable ask of a security team.
- What happens to the record between collections?
- Every model has a staleness window. Ask how wide it is, whether it is visible in the product, and whether history is kept once a value changes.
Already running ServiceNow, BMC Helix or Ivanti for service management? None of this asks you to replace it. Use Parascope as the discovery source behind it: better data, into the workflows you already have, via the API.