Why do I need a midserver if i can do integration using rest api?

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sangeetha bondi
Kilo Contributor

‎05-15-2018 03:01 PM

Why do I need a midserver if i can do integration using rest api? 

Thanks

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Mark Scott1
Giga Expert

‎05-15-2018 04:53 PM

The MID server has a bunch of functions that are not necessarily covered by a REST integration. For example, the MID server also runs discovery on network devices behind the firewall, allows for LDAP sync and can connect to databases and execute commands.

The biggest take away from this though is that you don't have to expose yourself to the outside world. Since ServiceNow is cloud hosted and you're (probably) not using an on premise version, you can't always access things behind your company firewall without a port being opened. My security team would have a cow if we ever decided to expose any of our Active Directory servers straight to the Internet. The MID server allows us to remotely pass data as if we were inside the firewall without exposing ourselves. 

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Mark Scott1
Giga Expert

‎05-15-2018 04:53 PM

The MID server has a bunch of functions that are not necessarily covered by a REST integration. For example, the MID server also runs discovery on network devices behind the firewall, allows for LDAP sync and can connect to databases and execute commands.

The biggest take away from this though is that you don't have to expose yourself to the outside world. Since ServiceNow is cloud hosted and you're (probably) not using an on premise version, you can't always access things behind your company firewall without a port being opened. My security team would have a cow if we ever decided to expose any of our Active Directory servers straight to the Internet. The MID server allows us to remotely pass data as if we were inside the firewall without exposing ourselves.