ServiceNow Discovery vs Device42

[Henrik Jutterst]

Background

We are looking to implement ServiceNow Discovery for a customer where the customer is already using ServiceNow for ITSM.

There has been some previous attempts with importing data to CMDB from Device42 and there seem to be two sides to this decision. One for Discovery and one for Device42.

I have no knowledge on Device42 and how that can be a more suitable solution compared to Discovery but I'm looking to hear your objective and subjective pro and con to both alternatives.

Question

One argument that I heard for Device42 what that it was easy to limit what goes into CMDB and what should be left out, where the argument was that it was too sensitive to have in CMDB, to revival setup of company infrastructure. How do you reply to such statement as a professional.

[Christopher Hub]

I haven't seen too many non-Discovery data sources that provide the richness of data and relationships Discovery does.  There are edge cases where supplementing Discovery is needed, but I haven't yet seen a case that wasn't a compromise.  You typically set yourself up for limitations down the road when you don't use Discovery.  It can limit Certificate Management, Service Mapping, etc.

In response to having better control over what comes into the CMDB, I think we'd need more detail on that use case.  I agree that there are some things that are more difficult to control (often within cloud discovery), but there's also a lot you can control.  If there are sensitivities that live within certain network ranges, it's pretty easy to configure global IP exclusion or simply not configure those subnets.