Application and software definitions

[Kevin136]

Hello everyone,

Attempting to work out definitions for the CI classes of 'application' and 'software' with-in our CMDB.

Looking to see what others have done, to differentiate between the two classes.  Currently, anything we have purchased for our business purposes has been classified as an application.  Anything shrink wrapped such as Excel, SnagIt or Follow-Me-Printing is software.   

How do you separate them?  Any definitions you use would be helpful.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Stephen Sturde]

Most orgs I've worked with agree with your approach. Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) products as software, and applications are solutions that provide targeted business services. For example:

Item	Type
Microsoft Excel	Software
Troux	Application
ServiceNow	Application
Google Chrome	Software
Microsoft Outlook	Software
Microsoft Teams	Software
Salesforce	Application
Custom Tax Program	Application
SAP Financials	Application

[Giles Lewis3]

Software [cmdb_ci_spkg], aka Software Packages, will be populated by Discovery if you have Discovery installed, so I recommend that you do not populate cmdb_ci_spkg manually. If are you manually populating Software Packages, then I recommend that you use one or more of the 3 tables which are subclassed from cmdb_ci_spkg: Desktop Software [cmdb_ci_desktop_software], Application Software [cmdb_ci_application_software], or Infrastructure Software [cmdb_ci_inf_software]. In all of these cases, a Software Package refers to a specific version of the software. An example of desktop software would be "Excel for Mac v16.21".

In ServiceNow parlance, an Application [cmdb_ci_appl] normally refers to an endpoint to which you can connect. You can get a good feel for Application by looking at some of the OOB tables subclassed from cmdb_ci_appl.  For example, Application Server, Web Site, Web Application, Database Instance, Active Directory Service, SAP Application and IBM WebSphere MQ Queue are just few of the many tables subclassed from cmdb_ci_appl. I tend to think of an Application as some software that is running somewhere. If the same software is also running somewhere else, then it is probably a different application.

Business Services are a higher level concept. A Business Services may be composed of multiple applications. When I think of Business Services, I like to think of Customer Facing Services (CFS) and Resource Facing Services (RFS). Customer Facing Services are relatively easy to identify, because they are known and their names are known by your customers. If someone calls the Help Desk and says "I'm having a problem with X", then "X" is probably a Customer Facing Service.

[Giles Lewis · Accepted solution]

Software [cmdb_ci_spkg], aka Software Packages, will be populated by Discovery if you have Discovery installed, so I recommend that you do not populate cmdb_ci_spkg manually. If are you manually populating Software Packages, then I recommend that you use one or more of the 3 tables which are subclassed from cmdb_ci_spkg: Desktop Software [cmdb_ci_desktop_software], Application Software [cmdb_ci_application_software], or Infrastructure Software [cmdb_ci_inf_software]. In all of these cases, a Software Package refers to a specific version of the software. An example of desktop software would be "Excel for Mac v16.21".

In ServiceNow parlance, an Application [cmdb_ci_appl] normally refers to an endpoint to which you can connect. You can get a good feel for Application by looking at some of the OOB tables subclassed from cmdb_ci_appl.  For example, Application Server, Web Site, Web Application, Database Instance, Active Directory Service, SAP Application and IBM WebSphere MQ Queue are just few of the many tables subclassed from cmdb_ci_appl. I tend to think of an Application as some software that is running somewhere. If the same software is also running somewhere else, then it is probably a different application.

Business Services are a higher level concept. Most Business Services will be composed of multiple applications. When I think of Business Services, I like to think of Customer Facing Services (CFS) and Resource Facing Services (RFS). Customer Facing Services are relatively easy to identify, because they are known and their names are known by your customers. If someone calls the Help Desk and says "I'm having a problem with X", then "X" is probably a Customer Facing Service.