Discovery of application services on cloud using Service Mapping

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated November 6, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Discovery of application services on cloud using Service Mapping

    Service Mapping in cloud environments provides essential visibility into application dependencies across Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) models. This enables ServiceNow customers to understand how application components interact within cloud infrastructure, improving service management, resource allocation, and remediation efforts.

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    IaaS and PaaS Environments

    • IaaS: Offers virtual computing resources where organizations manage their own apps and operating systems. Service Mapping uses traditional discovery processes similar to private networks—locating hosts, identifying applications via patterns, and performing top-down discovery to map relationships.
    • PaaS: Provides a platform to build and run applications without managing underlying hardware. Discovery depends on cloud platform tools and dedicated service accounts to access cloud resources. It involves horizontal discovery with probes and pattern-based methods, followed by top-down discovery to map application services.

    Discovery Process in Cloud Environments

    • For IaaS: Discovery locates hosts and applications through patterns, then performs top-down discovery to create detailed maps of application services.
    • For PaaS: Discovery uses service accounts to access resources, performs horizontal discovery using probes to identify infrastructure devices, and patterns to find applications. It concludes with top-down discovery for comprehensive service mapping.

    Discovery Methods and Capabilities

    The discovery approach varies based on environment:

    • Top-down service mapping: Supported in IaaS requiring OS-level access; rarely supported in PaaS due to limited OS access.
    • Tag-based mapping: Supported in both IaaS and PaaS, leveraging cloud-native tags and metadata for mapping.
    • Machine Learning-based mapping: Available with deep discovery access to OS or container runtimes in both environments.

    Practical Customer Benefits

    Using Service Mapping for cloud discovery, customers can obtain a clear, detailed view of application infrastructure and dependencies regardless of cloud model. For example, in an e-commerce scenario, Service Mapping identifies virtual machines, databases, and their connections in IaaS, while in PaaS it maps managed services like databases. This visibility supports improved performance monitoring, resource optimization, and faster issue resolution.

    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.

    IaaS and PaaS environments

    To navigate the discovery process effectively, you must first understand the fundamental differences between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) environments.
    • IaaS - IaaS gives organizations virtual computing resources over the internet, enabling them to manage and deploy their own apps and operating systems. In IaaS, Service Mapping uses a similar discovery process as in private networks, identifying hosts and applications through patterns.
    • PaaS - PaaS offers a complete platform for building, launching, and running applications, removing the need for organizations to manage hardware or servers directly. In PaaS, Service Mapping must use cloud platform tools and service accounts to identify devices and applications.

    Performing Discovery in IaaS and PaaS Environments

    The discovery process in IaaS environments mirrors that used for private networks.
    1. Locating hosts - Service Mapping starts by using Discovery to locate hosts.
    2. Identifying applications and connections - Patterns are used to identify applications and the connections between those applications and the discovered hosts.
    3. Top-down discovery - Service Mapping performs top-down discovery to map the relationships and connections between devices and applications. It then creates a comprehensive map of the application service.
    In contrast to IaaS environments, PaaS environments require a distinct discovery process.
    1. Using cloud platform tools and service accounts - The process begins with a dedicated service account configured for the cloud environment hosting the application service. Service Mapping and Discovery use this service account to access devices and applications. To learn more about setting up an account, see Set up a cloud service account.
    2. Horizontal discovery - Discovery performs horizontal discovery in two steps:
      1. Probes are used to help identify infrastructure devices. See Horizontal discovery process flow with probes and sensors for detailed information about the four phases of discovery using probes.
      2. Patterns help find the applications and services running on those devices. See Pattern-based discovery in Service Mapping and Horizontal discovery process flow with patterns to learn more about discovery using patterns.
    3. Top-down discovery - Service Mapping then performs top-down discovery, creating a comprehensive map of the application service.

    Discovery methods for cloud environments

    Service Mapping/Discovery Approach IaaS (Virtual Machines, Servers) PaaS (Functions, Databases, Queues) Key requirement difference
    Top-down service mapping Supported (Requires OS credentials or deep agent access) Not supported (or rarely supported) by cloud metadata discovery alone Access to the OS layer to trace live connections
    Tag-based mapping Supported (Using collected tags from the cloud resources and containers) Supported and highly applicable (Uses cloud-native tagging/metadata) Availability of organized metadata (tags)
    Machine Learning (ML)-based mapping Supported (Requires capturing running processes and network traffic, thus requires deep discovery) Supported, but requires deep discovery (Only available when using methods that access the underlying OS/container runtime) Access to application process data

    Consider an e-commerce application hosted on a cloud provider. In an IaaS environment, Service Mapping identifies virtual machines, databases, and their connections, providing a comprehensive view of the application's infrastructure. In a PaaS environment, it uses cloud platform tools to map application components like managed databases, revealing critical dependencies that impact performance and reliability. This visibility enables better resource management, remediation, and optimization of the application service.