How to do application inventory without APM

Servicenow lear
Tera Contributor

‎01-27-2025 10:00 AM

Hello !

 

We are doing a digital transition to ServiceNow from legacy tool.

We have Disocvery,ITAM,ITSM setup for now.

Application inventory is a need but we are not buying APM .

What would the community suggest to tackle or building a MVP application inventory solution ?

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Jonathan Schnei
Mega Guru

‎02-07-2025 09:16 AM

You can definitely migrate existing inventory data into ServiceNow as the base tables for EA/APM are available with your platform license - in particular, the CI classes are available. I'll point out some things high-level below, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that if your legacy tool is doing more than just storing the application inventory, the EA application may be required to completely provide all of the previous functionality (and more).

 

As for APM in SN without the application:

Where to store APM data?

  • The Business App table stores the logical representations of deployed applications. ex/ ServiceNow
  • The App Service table stores the unique deployed instances of the Business Apps (environment, location, air-gapped, etc). These are the operational records. ex/ ServiceNow PROD
  • The Business Capability table can store all levels of your capability tree to as many levels as required. 
  • Important - do not use the Application table for manual records (cmdb_ci_appl)
  • Connect your Business Apps to their App Services with the consumes::consumed by relationship and your Business Apps to the Business Caps with provides::provided by

Important Considerations

  • What is a Business Application (search for this in community for an excellent article from Mark Castoe)
  • Follow the CSDM to put the right records in the right tables and relate them correctly
  • App Services are operational - ITSM should reference them, not the Business App (which is a logical/strategic record)
  • You can use Data Policies in the new cmdb workspace to regularly certify app data
  • You can create custom catalogs for key APM processes (new apps, renewals, decommissions) and add flows to those to ensure processes and policies are followed and completed
  • The Business Apps are version agnostic. The table is not the same as the SW models or the SW products within the SAM application. See CSDM and SAM docs for more info.

 

I could say a lot more but I think that should start you down the path.

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