--- sourceDocument: Australia IT Operations Management sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-operations-management Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Australia IT Operations Management ft:clusterId : - itom bundleId : - itom workflow : - Technology --- # Cloud accounts # Cloud accounts {#ariaid-title1} Release version: Australia Updated March 12, 2026 ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 2 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Cloud accounts A cloud account in Cloud Provisioning and Governance represents all or part of your managed cloud infrastructure, potentially spanning multiple service accounts from different cloud providers. Each service account includes specific datacenters, called logical datacenters (LDCs), which host your cloud resources. Cloud accounts enable centralized management and governance of cloud resources across these LDCs. Show full answer Show less ## Key Features * **Add and Manage Logical Datacenters (LDCs):** You can add multiple LDCs, each representing a region-specific virtual cloud under a service account, to a cloud account and run Discovery to update the CMDB with resource lifecycle changes. * **Capacity Limits:** Set capacity limits on cloud resources such as virtual machines, CPUs, virtual networks, and storage volumes for each LDC. This helps enforce provisioning scales, especially in capacity-constrained environments like private clouds. * **Multi-Provider and Region Control:** Cloud accounts can group multiple service accounts with selected datacenters, enabling control over which regions resources may be provisioned in. This supports compliance and security policies by limiting resource deployment to approved regions. * **Publishing Cloud Accounts:** After configuring and running Discovery, you can publish a cloud account to make its datacenters and capacity limits available for use in blueprints and the Cloud User Portal. ## Cloud Account Structure and Rules * A cloud account can include the same service account multiple times if each entry is linked to a different LDC. * The same LDC from different service accounts cannot be added to a single cloud account. * Different LDCs from different service accounts can be combined in one cloud account, provided the regions do not overlap (e.g., us-west-1 from serviceaccount1 and us-west-2 from serviceaccount2 is allowed). ## Managing Cloud Accounts * Cloud accounts remain in a Draft state during configuration and Discovery. They become Published once ready for use. * Logical datacenters can be added to an existing cloud account at any time. * Capacity limits can be adjusted per LDC to control resource requests effectively. ## Discovery and Supported Services * Discovery automatically identifies and imports AWS and Microsoft Azure cloud services and their categories, keeping the CMDB updated with current configurations. ## Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers Using cloud accounts, ServiceNow customers can logically organize and govern complex multi-cloud environments with precise control over regions and capacity. This improves compliance, resource planning, and operational efficiency by allowing tailored resource provisioning policies and accurate CMDB synchronization across diverse cloud infrastructures. A cloud account is the logical representation in Cloud Provisioning and Governance of all or part of your managed cloud infrastructure. A cloud account can include multiple service accounts --- even service accounts from different providers. For each service account, you specify which datacenters to include in the cloud account. From a cloud account, you can: * Add LDCs. A logical datacenter (LDC) is a region-specific virtual cloud that is associated with a service account. The datacenter hosts your cloud resources. * Run Discovery on LDCs to update the CMDB with configuration changes or life cycle changes (create/modify/terminate). This applies to each resource in each logical datacenter (LDC) that is associated with the cloud account. * Set capacity limits on cloud services like virtual machines, virtual CPUs, virtual networks, aggregate storage volume size, and others. Set limits to help ensure that cloud resources are provisioned at appropriate scales. Limits are especially important for capacity-constrained environments like private clouds. * Publish a cloud account to enable business teams to deploy stacks. {#cloud-accounts__ul_e1m_qps_wy} ## Structure of a cloud account An advantage of cloud accounts is that you can group specified service accounts with only the regions (datacenters) that you want to allow cloud resources in. For example, your AWS account could have more than a dozen datacenters globally. However, you might use only one or two regions. To conform with your security and compliance rules, you might not want any resources provisioned to additional regions around the world. A cloud account can contain as many service accounts as necessary in the following scenarios:{#cloud-accounts__table_mkd_wfp_l2b__entry__3} | Structure | Supported | Not supported | |-|-|-| | Add the same service account as many times as necessary, provided each entry is associated with a different LDC. | X | | | Add the same LDC from different service accounts in one cloud account. | | X | | Add different LDCs from different service accounts to a particular cloud account, provided the regions are not the same. Example: You have us-west-1 in serviceaccount1 and us-west-2 in serviceaccount2. Both can be added to cloudaccount1. However, both us-west-1 in serviceaccount1 and us-west-1 in serviceaccount2 cannot be added to cloudaccount1. | X | | [Table 1. Possible cloud account structures] {#cloud-accounts__table_mkd_wfp_l2b} ## Update a cloud account You keep a cloud account in the Draft state until you are ready to make the datacenters and capacity limits available for use --- in blueprints and the Cloud User Portal, for example. You can change the state to Published after you run Discovery. ## Set up an additional cloud account {#cloud-accounts__section_vxr_2w2_wdb} See [Set up an additional cloud account](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/yzKPzLu_zp1Nn5JPziXnqw "During initial installation, you set up one cloud account. To organize and compartmentalize your infrastructure, you can set up additional cloud accounts to include different providers or service accounts or datacenters."). ## Add a datacenter to a cloud account {#cloud-accounts__section_obd_kw2_wdb} At any time, you can add a logical datacenter to the cloud infrastructure that is represented by a cloud account. See [Add a datacenter to a cloud account](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/UgiDnaRwHwJgFNOWLp2DVQ "At any time, you can add a logical datacenter to the cloud infrastructure that is represented by a cloud account."). ## Set capacity limits on user requests for resources {#cloud-accounts__section_qhj_bmf_wdb} Capacity limits place restrictions on the attributes of cloud resources such as the number of virtual machines, virtual CPUs, or aggregate storage. You can set limits on resources separately for each logical datacenter in a cloud account. [Set capacity limits on user requests for resources](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/MbCJxVfHDpYj9bWk5nucMQ "Capacity limits place restrictions on the attributes of cloud resources such as the number of virtual machines, virtual CPUs, or aggregate storage. You can set limits on resources separately for each logical datacenter in a cloud account.") * **[Service categories discovered in AWS](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/iSx01OPo08_Lm1v_Tk9OrA)** The Discovery process discovers AWS services. * **[Service categories discovered in Azure](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/044smio9xmFOMDRXv~W7xQ)** The Discovery process discovers Microsoft Azure services. **Related concepts** * [Domain separation and Cloud Provisioning and Governance](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/AEtIGY9xKkhVD6ZX3T9Olw "Domain separation is supported in Cloud Provisioning and Governance. Domain separation enables you to separate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical groupings called domains. You can control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.") * [Domain separation in Cloud Provisioning and Governance - considerations for service providers](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/MDIZGZ04VHAvOXnbvpSCHA "Review the following considerations to effectively create, implement, and maintain domain separation for Cloud Provisioning and Governance services in the instance that you are setting up for your customers.") * [Cloud Admin Portal](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/jdLzwiHFu54gwqRuof~UUQ "The Cloud Admin Portal is a role-based portal. You can manage, design, govern, operate, and analyze all your cloud resources from a unified base.") * [Moving Cloud Provisioning and Governance content across environments](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/vDKel1enO6bu0V13~S0EQg "You can move the content in the Cloud Provisioning and Governance application from one environment to the other. For example, develop an application in an environment and then move the application and all its dependencies to another environment for testing or production.") **Related reference** * [Cloud Provisioning and Governance Recipes](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/37W2Zud7f4TZMcvABTDnEA "Multi-cloud recipes provide ready content for typical cloud deployment and common operations scenarios across cloud platforms.")