Service provider reference architecture

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 1 minute to read

    • Your customers can access service provider (SP) services by using a portal that is designed for them to reach their domain-separated instance.

    Basic attributes of service provider reference architecture

    • You do not assign fulfillers to a domain. Instead, you share them across domains. This makes it harder to audit how many fulfillers you have per domain.
    • You can share and leverage domain administration. This means that there is no overhead and you can optimize licenses.
    • The number of users on the instance can change when you get a new customer. A new customer can result in tens or even hundreds of thousands of new users on the system. The number of total users is virtually unlimited in one shared environment.

    Reference architecture

    The portal for SP services is dedicated or shared to the SP shared instance. Service providers use ServiceNow shared instances to manage their service delivery.

    Reference hierarchy for domain-separated instances

    Reference hierarchy

    Figure 1. SP reference architecture comparison
    Reference hierarchy comparison