Final answer:
Applying cascade-cleanup operations to orphan-dependent CIs is recommended before enabling dependent CI management to prevent data corruption and ensure data consistency, as well as to minimize manual interventions in the CMDB.
Step-by-step explanation:
The recommendation to apply cascade-cleanup operations to orphan-dependent Configuration Items (CIs) that existed in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) before enabling dependent CIs management feature is mainly to prevent data corruption and to ensure data consistency.
This is because when the dependent CIs management feature is enabled, the CMDB begins to enforce new relational rules and dependencies which did not exist before. Without a cascade-cleanup, orphan CIs which no longer have a parent or are no longer accurate can lead to unreliable CMDB data, which can cause errors and inconsistencies across IT processes that rely on this data.
Moreover, cleaning up orphan CIs also helps in minimizing manual interventions since the system can automatically manage dependencies once the initial cleanup is done. It keeps the CMDB up to date and reduces the need for IT staff to manually correct data issues caused by lingering orphan CIs.