In ESM service delivery, the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) process ensures that you identify, baseline, and maintain selected components of a complete IT service, system, or product as Configuration Items, and you control changes to them by requiring formal approvals. The demand for this level of accountability for managing IT infrastructure has steadily increased as dependency on CMDB as a single source of truth across all industries.

With the advent of cloud computing, the traditional methods of configuration management Database (CMDB) implementations are no longer scalable as more IT servers are migrated to the cloud to meet the present demand. Community Colleges now must implement cloud-based Enterprise Service Management (ESM) solutions for their configuration management process implementation projects that also align with the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework. In this paper, we have taken a closer look at various cloud-based ESM solutions vendors and study cloud-based ESM adoption challenges and utilization of CMDB within New Jersey community colleges.

We establish a theoretical background of cloud-based ESM solutions cybersecurity threats. We include a comprehensive analysis of the various security protocols like SAML authentication that various ESM vendors develop to counter Cybersecurity threats for cloud-based ESM implementation. We also provide develop a CMDB Selection Matrix Model (CSMM) that will be a useful model to mitigate Cybersecurity threats by ensuring the reviewed ESM system has strong protocols and encryption to protect against Cybersecurity threats in cloud ESM implementations. The main aim of this paper is to provide a tested model for configuration management implementation to ensure CM is impactful in reducing IT Service outages despite the increasing Cybersecurity threats.

Keywords Configuration Management Database (CMDB), ESM, ITIL, Cybersecurity and Software as a Service (SaaS).