We are pleased to announce the following enhancements to ITOM Visibility in the November store release.
The first of these is Automated Service Suggestions for Service Mapping. See a brief demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VALeJza2eJw&ab_channel=ServiceNowCommunity Service maps are the foundation of mature technology service operations. Technology managers and operators need to understand the relationship of applications to the infrastructure and microservices they rely on, because these service relationships are critical in making data-driven decisions across every technology function.
ServiceNow has allowed the creation of these maps using top-down mapping, tag-based mapping, and by analyzing meaningful network traffic. However, these options require preparation and diligence. Some organizations have struggled to find the expertise or documentation to identify the entry points for the applications they care about and to then modify the patterns to delineate complex relationships.
The automated service suggestions feature uses machine learning to make it easy to get started and keep up. ServiceNow scripts analyze network traffic in the background and group connections where there is high confidence that the elements are related. Entry points are no longer required to get started. Nor is it necessary to modify patterns.
Discovery admins can begin to see suggestions just as soon as they have captured enough processes to train the machine learning (ML) routines. And once the suggestions start coming in, it only takes a few clicks to preview the suggested service and add it to the CMDB as an application service using an ML suggested name or your own.
Once patterns are entered, ML routines can distinguish between changes and outages and automatically include new elements or connections that it has high confidence should be included.
The automated service suggestions feature requires the Service Mapping Plus application version 1.6 or higher, coming to the store in November. Check the Application Service Readiness workspace to complete any necessary technical prerequisites.
The second major innovation dropping in the November store release is support for Microsoft Certificate Authority (Active Directory Certificate Services) Certificate workflow automation. ServiceNow has already automated certificate workflow for DigiCert and Entrust, and we’re excited to release support for Microsoft, which was one of our most common requests from customers. See a demo of the capability here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfGlhfhvdDY&ab_channel=ServiceNowCommunity
Absent the ServiceNow automation, fulfillment of certificate requests can be a manual and time-consuming process that lacks governance and is prone to human error. To alleviate these challenges, an automated solution is needed. Certificate Inventory and Management workflow automation enables organizations to reduce time and effort, ensure governance of certificate fulfillment processes, reduce security risk, and improve customer experience, all from a single technology service operations platform. Automation of Microsoft CA requests from ServiceNow is performed natively, using the PowerShell protocol.
Microsoft CA (or Active Directory Certificate Services) is available with the Certificate Inventory and Management Application version 2.3.
Our third and final major innovation becoming generally available in November is Cloud Native Operations for Visibility.
Containers promise scalable and ephemeral architecture. Properly configured, they can also make the cloud transparent and easy to visualize and manage. Existing discovery methods work like radar, allowing customers on the outside to schedule sweeps that penetrate the cloud to bring back information and store it in the CMDB. Managing credentials and permissions can be complicated across multiple cloud providers, containers, and pods.
By contrast, Cloud Native Operations allows you to build cloud containers that already have discovery built in. Preconfigured MID Servers and agents work from the inside out, meaning there is no need for separate credentials and permissions. Discovery scales up and down with the containers and their contents. Agents begin to return horizontal discovery such as clusters, nodes, pods, and sidecars, as well as vertical discovery such as tag-based mapping minutes after coming online. This feature can be used for visibility alone or it can be combined with metric ad event information to provide Cloud Native Operations for AIOps.
Minor innovations in the November store release include enhancements to the performance and scope of the Agent Client Collector for Visibility (ACC-V). ACC-V can now collect more information from virtual servers on the Google Cloud Platform, determine the assigned user of workstations, and bring back local user accounts such as support and admin accounts on the operating system. ACC-V now supports the discovery of more file system types and picks up memory modules on par with agentless Discovery.
