USEM Unlocked: Critical Changes and Your Action Plan for Future-Proofing ServiceNow SecOps

mohammad karimi · 3 hours ago

If you're involved in ServiceNow Security Operations, you've likely heard the term Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM).

This isn't just a new feature; it is the most significant architectural transformation of our Vulnerability Response (VR) suite to date. As solution architects, our mandate is clear: we must understand this change, anticipate its impact, and prepare our customers and development teams for the future—a future heavily centered around the new, unified workspace.

I recently followed the "Live on ServiceNow: Unleash the future of Vulnerability Management with USEM" event, and the message is resounding: the time to transition is now.

What is USEM, and Why Does it Matter?

USEM is ServiceNow’s strategy to consolidate the management of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across the entire technology stack—infrastructure, cloud, containers, and applications—under a single, simplified, and modular data model.

The "why" is simple: Exposure Management. In today's complex environments, security risk isn't just about missing patches; it's about exposure. USEM moves us from managing siloed lists of Vulnerable Items (VIs) to managing the complete risk profile of an asset.

The Core Change: The New Workspace and Deprecation

The most visible change for end-users—the analysts—is the introduction of the Security Exposure Management Workspace.

Old Workspace (Deprecated)New Workspace (Future Standard)

Vulnerability Manager Workspace	Security Exposure Management Workspace
Focuses primarily on VIs (patch findings).	Unifies VIs, Application Findings (AVR), Container Findings (CVR), and Configuration Compliance in one view.

This new workspace is built on UI Builder components, prioritizing a fast, analyst-centric experience. It facilitates crucial processes like grouping, bulk actions, and rich contextual data—all in a single, streamlined interface.

The Call to Action for Architects and Customers:

The existing Vulnerability Manager Workspace will be superseded. We must treat this as a mandatory migration. Any customizations, reports, or training materials tied to the old workspace need to be transitioned to the new unified structure. This is a primary planning item for all future development cycles.

The Brazil Release and the Migration Plan

While USEM components have been progressively released via ServiceNow Store apps, the Brazil release (or subsequent platform versions) is expected to bring the full adoption and normalization of this architecture into the platform, making the unified workspace the default and accelerating the depreciation of the legacy components.

How Customers and Developers Must Prepare Today:

For Customers and Security Leaders (The "What"):

Shift Mindset to Exposure: Stop thinking about separate VR, AVR, and Compliance scores. Start asking: "What is our total security exposure score for this critical business service?"
CMDB Context is King: USEM relies heavily on the quality of your Configuration Management Database (CMDB) data to correctly calculate business risk and priority. Next Step: Prioritize CMDB completeness and correctness, especially for business service mapping.
Start Using the New Data Model: If you have access to the latest Store versions, begin exploring the new data structures that support unified exposure records, even if you keep the old workspace active for now.

For Developers and Administrators (The "How"):

Embrace UI Builder: The new workspace is a UI Builder-based application. Next Step: Developers need to upskill immediately on extending or customizing the workspace using UI Builder components and the underlying Next Experience framework. Avoid building new functionality in the old Agent Workspace or classic UI that will soon be retired.
Modular Development: USEM is modular. Solutions are now delivered via focused Store applications (e.g., specific modules for Cloud or Application Exposure). Next Step: Adopt a modular development approach, ensuring code updates are easily managed and isolated via smaller, targeted update sets or apps.
Validate Integration Points: Since the underlying data structure is being unified, review any custom integrations or scripting that directly query or modify the tables.
Next Step: Ensure your logic is prepared to handle the broader scope of "exposure records" and continues to respect the new risk prioritization logic.

The move to USEM is an opportunity to eliminate the friction and complexity that has plagued vulnerability management for years. By embracing the Security Exposure Management Workspace and prioritizing the architectural readiness steps above, we can ensure our customers are not just keeping pace with change, but truly transforming their security posture.

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