--- sourceDocument: Australia IT Operations Management sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-operations-management Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Australia IT Operations Management ft:clusterId : - itom bundleId : - itom workflow : - Technology --- # Exploring Service Mapping # Exploring Service Mapping {#ariaid-title1} * Release version: Australia * * Updated March 12, 2026 * * ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 3 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 Exploring Service Mapping Service Mapping in ServiceNow Australia release enables IT departments to discover all service instances within an organization and create comprehensive maps showing devices, applications, and configuration profiles involved in these services. It provides a service-aware view of infrastructure, crucial for both internal and customer-facing services, allowing clear visualization of dependencies and impacts of issues within service instances. Show full answer Show less ## Key Features * **Top-down Mapping:** Unlike traditional horizontal discovery that lists devices and applications independently, Service Mapping uses top-down mapping to reveal connections and dependencies between components within a service instance. * **Dynamic Service Maps:** Service instance maps are regularly regenerated to stay updated, highlighting faulty objects and their impact visually. * **Multiple Mapping Methods:** Includes pattern-based mapping (using sequences to detect device/application attributes and connections), tag-based mapping (leveraging organizational asset tags), traffic-based mapping (following network traffic between components), and predictive intelligence-based discovery. * **Integration with Discovery and MID Server:** Relies on the Discovery product and MID Server to gather data; MID Server facilitates communication between Service Mapping and network devices/applications. * **Visibility Across ServiceNow:** Data from Service Mapping integrates with Event Management (for event-driven recovery actions), Dependency Views (to explore component relationships), and Application Portfolio Management (to monitor business application performance). * **Support for Domain Separation:** Ensures administrators and users only access application services within their domains, maintaining security and organizational boundaries. * **Cloud Environment Support:** Provides critical visibility into application dependencies within IaaS and PaaS cloud platforms, enhancing service management in cloud contexts. * **Traversal Rules:** Define how configuration items relate and connect, ensuring accurate and comprehensive service maps. ## Practical Considerations for ServiceNow Customers * Service Mapping requires the Discovery product to be activated and configured, including user credentials for accessing network devices and applications. * Choosing the appropriate mapping method depends on your organization's environment and asset management practices. * Service Mapping enhances incident response by visually showing how faults in one component affect the overall service instance. * Integration with Event Management and APM enables proactive monitoring and management of business-critical applications. * Understanding the flow of Service Mapping tasks and traversal rules helps administrators optimize mapping accuracy and completeness. Service Mapping discovers all service instances in your organization and builds a comprehensive map of all devices, applications, and configuration profiles used in these service instances. ## Who uses Service Mapping {#service-mapping-get-started__section_htc_yzd_x1b} Service Mapping enables IT departments of companies, organizations, and cloud companies providing platform as a service to create a service-aware view of infrastructure. ## How do you use Service Mapping {#service-mapping-get-started__section_et2_zzd_x1b} A service instance is a set of interconnected applications and hosts that are configured to offer a service to the organization. Service instances can be internal, like an organization email system or customer-facing, like an organization website. For example, creating financial reports through a web-based application requires a computer, web server, application server, databases, middleware, and network infrastructure. These applications and hosts are all configured to offer the service of financial reporting. Typically, IT departments create and maintain an inventory that treats devices and applications as standalone, independent objects. Connections between the devices and applications are not included. This is usually referred to as horizontal discovery. This method does not address the biggest challenge for IT departments, which is understanding the connection and dependencies between each object. Service Mapping maps dependencies, based on a connection between devices and applications. This method is referred to as top-down mapping. The top-down mapping helps you immediately see the impact of a problematic object on the rest of the service instance operation. Figure 1. Comparison of horizontal and top-down mapping results Service instance maps show infrastructure objects and semantic connections between them. Service Mapping regenerates service instance maps regularly, to keep them updated and relevant. Any faulty objects are shown along with the devices and applications they affect, providing a visual clue of the state of the service instance. ## How does Service Mapping work {#service-mapping-get-started__section_gvv_11t_cbb} Service Mapping can deploy different methods for creating application services. The main method of Service Mapping discovering and mapping devices and applications is using patterns. A pattern is a sequence of operations whose purpose is to detect attributes of devices and applications and their outbound connections. If your organization uses tags for asset management, you can use these tags to map service instances. Service Mapping can also discover devices and applications by following traffic connections between them. This method is referred to as traffic-based mapping. For more information, see [Choose the right method for discovering and mapping services](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/uppJX~ygOjGNmUJMz0JQ4w "Service Mapping deploys different methods for collecting information about configuration items (CIs) and organizing them into application services. The available mapping methods are: pattern-based, tag-based, traffic-based, and discovery based on Predictive Intelligence. Learn about the mapping methods to use the ones that best suit the needs of your organization."). ## What to know before you begin {#service-mapping-get-started__section_jqz_b12_x1b} You can use Service Mapping only if the Discovery product is activated and set up. You must define users and configure credentials to allow Service Mapping and Discovery access to applications and devices inside your organization network. For more information, see [Configuring Service Mapping](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/W6xGY_P0Zd_x26naDX6xVg "You get started with Service Mapping by configuring roles, credentials, and MID Server connections."). ## Service Mapping on the ServiceNow AI Platform {#service-mapping-get-started__section_s2d_d12_x1b} Service Mapping relies on Discovery and the MID Server to discover devices and applications. Service Mapping uses results of horizontal discovery performed by Discovery. The MID Server facilitates communication between Service Mapping and devices and applications it discovers. Data collected and organized by Service Mapping is visible in Event Management, Dependency Views, and Application Portfolio Management (APM). With Event Management, you can view events to take actions for recovering your organization application services. Dependency Views shows relationships between devices and applications in the context of application services they belong to. When integrated with APM, Service Mapping provides information about components making up a business application and helps APM users to monitor business application performance. Service Mapping supports domain separation. If your ServiceNow AI Platform uses domain separation, administrators and users can only see and manage application services belonging to their own domain. To view a list of Service Mapping plugin dependencies, see [Plugins or applications installed with ITOM Visibility](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/75d1Tix4~BSpibBomfiDbQ "Tables that list the plugins or applications that are installed with ITOM Visibility applications. When you update your application, any newly required application dependencies are installed."). * **[Choose the right method for discovering and mapping services](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/uppJX~ygOjGNmUJMz0JQ4w)** Service Mapping deploys different methods for collecting information about configuration items (CIs) and organizing them into application services. The available mapping methods are: pattern-based, tag-based, traffic-based, and discovery based on Predictive Intelligence. Learn about the mapping methods to use the ones that best suit the needs of your organization. * **[Discovery of application services on cloud using Service Mapping](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Zgi~00Dquj6xQVsCJv10ow)** Service Mapping in cloud environments provides critical visibility into application dependencies and connections. By identifying how different application components interact within IaaS and PaaS environments, your organization can gain better insight into its application services and improve overall service management. * **[Service Mapping flow](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/RWiNc6YdzlBcOSBjQ6d8kQ)** Learn about high-level tasks users having different roles perform in Service Mapping. * **[Traversal rules in Service Mapping](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/JhQ_t78ep0XJihqrEB5Rww)** Traversal rules identify and map relationships between configuration items to create comprehensive application service maps. They connect relevant configuration items based on predefined relationships, promoting accurate service mapping and visualization. **Related concepts** * [Event Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/AE5RLvL4UreQt0AlLV77Pw "ServiceNow Event Management is a robust application that helps keep your IT systems healthy by spotting problems quickly and fixing them. It collects events from different sources, figures out what's causing the issues, and converts them into alerts. These alerts are then analyzed, grouped, and acted upon to resolve issues and maintain system health.") **Related topics** * [Service instances (Application services)](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=application-services&version=australia&pubname=australia-servicenow-platform&ft:locale=en-US) * [Application services](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=application-services&version=australia&pubname=australia-servicenow-platform&ft:locale=en-US) * [Dependency Views](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=c_BusinesssServiceManagementMaps&version=australia&pubname=australia-servicenow-platform&ft:locale=en-US)