Linking Up: Understanding the Difference between Integration Apps (Solutions) and Spokes

[Shreya Shah]

Are you an Integrations Developer?

Are you trying to integrate external systems with ServiceNow? Look no further! We have 1000+ integrations available in the ServiceNow Store from ServiceNow and our partners. Some of these integrations can be installed directly from the store whereas others are included in the product suites you purchase. 

You will see various integration Apps and Integration Hub Spokes (these are apps too) – but there is a slight difference between them.

Integration Apps 

The various integrations apps you see are end-mile implementations of your uni-directional and bi-directional integrations between external systems and ServiceNow. These integration apps will typically have some configurations, pre-defined flows that perform integration automation based off of these configurations and some reporting. These help you to map ServiceNow entities with those in external systems without having to develop the integration automation on your own. Most of the time, these integration apps are using Integration Hub Spokes (behind the scenes) to perform integration operations. The advantage, they're turn-key integration solutions.

Integration Hub Spokes 

The various Integration Hub Spokes are scoped applications that is shipped with a default Connection & Credential Alias to authenticate and authorise the Spoke to talk to the external system, various Actions to mimic entity operations that you perform on an external system e.g.: Create a User, Post a Comment, Send a Message, and so many more.

Consider Integration Hub Spokes as blocks – Actions within Integration Hub Spokes as different types of blocks, and using these blocks you can create structures like a Tree, a House, Helicopter, etc. Similarly you can use Actions from Integration Hub Spokes inside Flows that are part of your custom applications to implement any integration use case. You assemble your automation using the capabilities provided in the Automation Engine product suite. The advantage, there is no limit to what you can build. It is useful if you do not want to purchase the full integration solution or when an integration app for the use case you are trying to build doesn't exist.

In either case, Integration Hub Spokes provide Actions that help you automate your use case. If you do not find an Action within a Spoke – you can take a look at pre-existing Actions and build your own custom Action using the existing Action as an example or guideline. If you do not find a Spoke, you can quickly build one on your own using Spoke Generator. 

Example

We have various integration apps that connect with Atlassian JIRA. These integration apps make use of Jira Spoke to achieve the end-mile integration use case.

1. Vulnerability Response Integration with Atlassian Jira 
2. Atlassian Jira Integration for Agile Development 
3. Jira Integration for DevOps 

We have various integration apps that connect with Docusign. These integration apps make use of Docusign eSignature Spoke to achieve the end-mile integration use case.

1. DocuSign for HRSD
2. Document Template integration with DocuSign

These are examples, I invite you to explore the ServiceNow Store for integration apps or Integration Hub Spokes that match your requirements. You can try out the majority of our Spokes on your sub-production environments without a license requirement. You get helpful in-product descriptions for each Action using the "?" icon along every Action you add to a Flow to see if its fits your use-case.

Hope this helps in making decisions on when to use the available integration apps and when to build your own using Integration Hub Spokes on your overall integration journey with ServiceNow.

Happy Integrating!