ITOM Content Service use case
Summarize
Summary of ITOM Content Service use case
The ITOM Content Service enhances organizational visibility into application environments by improving the discovery and classification of Application Configuration Items (CIs) within the Common Service Data Model (CSDM). Application CIs are crucial for logging software activities and supporting IT operations across multiple ServiceNow products such as Service Mapping, ITOM Health, IT Asset Management (ITAM), IT Service Management (ITSM), and Enterprise Architecture (EA).
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Challenges Addressed
Organizations with extensive and diverse application portfolios often struggle with maintaining accurate and comprehensive visibility. Traditional ITOM Visibility methods, including Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns, rely heavily on pattern-based identification which may not cover all applications. Applications lacking dedicated patterns are only recorded as running processes without corresponding CIs, leading to incomplete infrastructure visibility. This gap hampers:
- Binding CIs to monitoring alerts and incidents
- Scheduling automated software upgrades
- Automating optimization or troubleshooting scripts
- Performing impact and change analysis
- Creating security workflows
Solution Details
ITOM Content Service addresses these challenges by tagging and classifying process fingerprints, including publisher, product, and essential component information, directly within the environment. Unlike pattern-based discovery, it does not require pre-published pattern classifiers and supports continuous content delivery independent of release schedules.
For example, a process like E3DBEngine.exe (Elipse Software E3 Database Engine) that would normally be recorded only in the Running Process table without triggering a pattern can be identified and classified by ITOM Content Service. This enables Discovery to create a corresponding application CI during subsequent scans.
Key Outcomes
By integrating ITOM Content Service with Discovery, organizations achieve:
- Comprehensive creation of application CI records through enhanced tagging and classification
- Continuous and improved visibility into the full application landscape
- Better support for monitoring, incident resolution, proactive management, and optimization across IT operations
This results in more accurate infrastructure insight that supports critical IT processes and improves operational efficiency in managing applications at scale.
This ITOM Content Service use case demonstrates how organizations can achieve enhanced visibility into their environment.
Use case overview
The Application Configuration Items (CIs) class is a key component of an organization’s data platform within the Common Service Data Model (CSDM). Application CIs help log software activities and support critical IT operations.
- Service Mapping: Uses application CIs to create service maps
- ITOM Health: Monitors application health and resolves incidents using application CIs
- IT Asset Management (ITAM): Tracks and manages software applications and their associated licenses with application CIs
- IT Service Management (ITSM): Analyzes service impact and calculates blast radius with application CIs
- Enterprise Architecture (EA): Leverages application CIs to generate business outcomes
Challenge
A large organization with numerous applications requires accurate discovery. Managing application CIs is essential, yet the IT team finds it challenging to maintain visibility over its growing infrastructure.
ITOM Visibility offers several methods for discovering products within an organization’s infrastructure, such as Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns. This method provides detailed visibility into a product's information. When a wide range of applications is in use, not all can have a dedicated pattern. If an application does not have a dedicated pattern, discovery populates only the Running Process [cmdb_running_process] table without identifying the product or creating a CI for it.
- Bind CIs with monitoring alerts and open incidents regarding the CIs
- Schedule automated software upgrades
- Automate scripts to optimize or troubleshoot the product
- Perform impact assessments and change impact analysis
- Create security workflows
Solution
ITOM Content Service enhances the discovery process by tagging and classifying process fingerprints. This service provides details about the publisher, product, and the essential component of the CI. Unlike pattern-based discovery, ITOM Content Service identifies applications directly within the organization’s environment without requiring published pattern classifiers. This approach enables the continuous delivery of content without being constrained by a scheduled release cycle.
For example: Discovery identifies the Elipse Software E3 Database Engine process (E3DBEngine.exe) and lists it in the Running Process [cmdb_running_process] table. If the E3DBEngine.exe process classification condition isn’t set to trigger a pattern, it doesn't launch a pattern and a CI isn't created. However, with ITOM Content Service, the E3DBEngine.exe process is tagged and classified, enabling Discovery to turn the process into a CI during the next scan.
Result
Discovery using ITOM Content Service creates a CI record by tagging and classifying the publisher, product, and essential component for all applications in the organization’s environment. This method provides enhanced and continuous visibility into the application landscape, enabling effective monitoring, proactive actions, and ongoing optimization.