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ITOM Visibility
Product View
CSDM V3

ITOM Visibility Product View and use cases for CSDM V3

This Product View provides guidance on using ITOM Visibility with the CSDM V3 white paper

Sree Subramaniam, Product Manager

[email protected]
 ITOM Visibility with CSDM V3 Use Case

Table of Contents
CSDM Overview
CSDM Tables Managed by ITOM Visibility
CSDM Tables Used by ITOM Visibility
Products that add value to ITOM Visibility
Products that benefit from ITOM Visibility
SecOps and GRC
Software and Hardware Asset Management
Product Overview
Discovery Use Case
Service Mapping Use Case
Cloud Transformation Use Case
Datacenter Transformation / Consolidation
Frequently Asked Questions
For More Information
Your foundation for digital transformation

CSDM Overview
The Common Services Data Model (CSDM) is ServiceNow’s standard data modeling methodology
representing Digital Products and Services throughout their entire lifecycle; from inception to
operations. The shared set of service-related data definitions are managed and leveraged by different
products , each providing unique value for the many jobs and stakeholders we serve.
CSDM is provides prescriptive guidance that addresses traditional CMDB as well as modeling services,
conceptional planning and development entities, and ties-in the common business data required for
reporting and management activities. These CSDM service-related definitions span the entire
ServiceNow® product portfolio and serve as a foundational component of the Now Platform®.
The data model is a CMDB framework, extended across all products on our platform that enables
multiple level of maturity and configuration strategies. Included are explanations and best practices
related to the proper modeling of data with out-of-box (OOB) tables and relationships. Most ServiceNow
products have dependencies on the common data expressed in this model.
Common Service Data Model
A standard and shared set of service- A CMDB Framework across our products
related definitions across our products and and platform that will enable and support
platform that will enable and support true multiple configuration strategies.
service level reporting.

The CSDM is provided as a series of white papers, specific product views, examples / patterns and cross-
product use-cases to include:

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• CSDM White Paper - The standard and prescriptive modeling Framework

• Product Views and Use Cases - The product oriented CDSM specification and guidance, use cases and
value of the CSDM data
• Examples / patterns - Specific models for common types of architectures

The scope of CSDM is continuously extended to address the underlying data model for our products as
they evolve, are refined, and additional concepts are added. Guidance on how to manage and use of the
data model also evolved to support ServiceNow products, integrations and central data management
practices.

Note: CSDM is NOT a product from ServiceNow that can be purchased. The guidance
within CSDM is meant to help the standardization and modeling of the Digital products and
services ServiceNow products help define and manage. The CSDM is NOT…
• A process or implementation guide for ServiceNow products
• A set of reports
• Code to install
• An automatic fix for past implementations

For more information about CSDM please read the latest white paper, which is V3 at the time of this
publication.

What are the CSDM Product Views and Use Cases? A product specific viewpoint of CSDM and the
Use Cases that leverages the CSDM data to provide specific outcomes.

There are 3 topics covered by a CSDM product view:

• CSDM Tables Managed – Describes the product features and CSDM tables populated or managed
within the product and related use cases
• CSDM Data Used – Specifies the CSDM data required to support the product specific use cases
• CSDM Enabled Use-Cases– Explains how CSDM uniquely provides value to Service Now products and
outcomes that are realized
NOTE:
A CSDM Use Case may encompass 1 or more data types
Data types used may be managed by other products as well
Product dependencies to implement the use case may not be fully described
Activities NOT in Scope of this document
• Product implementation guidance
• Non OOB configuration guidance
• Other ITSM, ITBM, ITOM Processes and guidance
* Non OOB configurations may be referenced but remain out-of-scope for this Use Case

CSDM Tables Managed by ITOM Visibility

1. Application Service tables There are multiple Application Service types, and different tables
used for each type. The specific types and tables managed Service Mapping are as follows:
a. manual service maps: table = cmdb_ci_service_manual
b. tag based maps: table = cmdb_ci_service_by_tags
c. Automated using Service Mapping: table = cmdb_ci_service_discovered

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2. Configuration Item table = ci_* (multiple) – 800+ cmdb tables are available that represent
different types of hardware.
a. Applications table = cmdb_ci_appl
b. Server table = cmdb_ci_server
c. Virtual Machines table = cmdb_ci_vm_instance
d. Load balancer table = cmdb_ci_lb
e. Network Gear table = cmdb_ci_netgear

Figure 1: CSDM Elements managed

Figure 2: Typical table structure

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CSDM Tables Used by ITOM Visibility

1. Product Model tables = (for TPM) SW, HP Models - When SAM Premium is installed, Discovery
will leverage the Product Model tables in order to match-up the models used

Figure 3: CSDM Elements Used

Products that add value to ITOM Visibility

None.

Products that benefit from ITOM Visibility

ServiceNow’s CMDB is not just an operational tool, it is foundational for all ServiceNow products.
ITOM visibility is a core product that helps to keep the physical CI’s in the CMDB up to date and
accurate. Maintaining an accurate and complete CMDB provides the foundation for maintaining mission
critical services and drives multiple outcomes important to IT departments. The CMDB and the
Configuration Items that ITOM visibility manages is used by the following products.

IT Service Management
ServiceNow IT Service Management is a cornerstone ServiceNow product. With ServiceNow ITSM and
CMDB native on the ServiceNow platform, customers improve their ITIL processes such as Incident
Management, Change Management, and Problem Management by providing an impact analysis of
configuration items to business applications and business services.

Configuration management systems are an integral part of ITIL Service Asset & Configuration
Management processes. A successful CMDB Implementation is used to understand the impact of change,
and incidents through the CMDB CI’s and their relationships that ITOM Visibility populates and manages.

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Figure 4: Discovery populates the CMDB for ITSM use

Figure 5: Process to populate Configuration Items for ITSM use

Customer Service Management – Converging IT Service and Operations Management

ServiceNow Customer Service Management offers omni-channel engagement with business end-
users, and routes customer cases to appropriately skilled case agents. CSDM platform
incorporates ITOM/ITSM offers across siloed IT / Business processes. ITOM Visibility
populates the CMDB and CSDM model allows common processes across CSM/ITOM/ITSM
products.

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Figure 6 ITOM, CSM, ITSM Product interaction

Event Management
The objective of ITIL-based event management is to detect events/alarms from Infrastructure &
applications, analyze them, and determine the right control action. ITOM Visibility provides the
foundation CI’s required in Event management and improves chances to prevent service outages
with accurate and connected data for Configuration Items and dependencies.

ServiceNow Event Management takes a service-centric approach that correlates events using
Service Maps created by ServiceNow Discovery and stored in the CMDB. It leverages the
structure to drill down into the underlying service map dependencies, showing which CMDB CIs
are experiencing issues or may be the cause of the event.

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Application Services populated by Service Mapping are used by Event Management to help
identify historical activity that could have caused a business service outage. Remediation actions
can be configured triggered simply by clicking on a CI shown in the Application Service map.

Visibility to Multi Cloud / Cloud Native technology stacks

Multi-cloud adoption and deployments have doubled in the last few years with Amazon Web
Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform gaining traction with production workload
deployments from enterprise customers. The availability of serverless computing provides a new
option for customers considering re-writing their legacy apps with Cloud Native micro services
and Function as a Service (FaaS). ServiceNow CMDB/Discovery offers visibility to multi-cloud
infrastructure and offers end-to-end service-aware views spanning hybrid IT landscapes. Below
are the key use cases where customers are leveraging ServiceNow Discovery for managing their
Hybrid IT landscape.

Visibility of AWS/Azure IaaS/PaaS Services

- Visibility to discover cloud resources via service account and update the CMDB on a
scheduled basis
- Event driven discovery support for major cloud providers for near real time updates to
CMDB based on triggers from cloud provider APIs.
- Visibility to tags from major cloud providers.
- Service Mapping dependency views for Serverless infrastructure like Lambda, API
gateway.
- Simplify discovery with AWS organization – Master account.
- Detailed discovery for SecOps/SAM use cases.

Figure 7: Sample Cloud based Application Services

Detailed Discovery: Oracle deployed in an EC2 Compute for SAM use cases

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Figure 8: Example Oracle cloud Application Service

Visibility to Kubernetes (K8S Cluster /Services /Pods/ Containers/ Docker image)

Figure 9: Example container based Application Service

SecOps and GRC

The serious cybersecurity events of 2017—WannaCry and NotPetya—led to many attempts to
emulate them in 2018. As data-related activity by good guys grows, data breaches, hacks, and
ransomware from bad guys seems to grow even faster. The latest McAfee Labs Threats
Report suggests that malware exploiting software vulnerabilities grew by 151% in the second
quarter of 2018. A service-aware CMDB which works natively for core SecOps use cases like
security incident response, threat detection and vulnerability management is a powerful tool to
combat the increasing threat level.

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Figure 10: Value to the SecOps and GRC use cases

Before the incident is assigned to an analyst, the affected asset / CMDB CI is matched against the
ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB) to determine priority based on how
critical the asset is to your business.

Figure 11: Vulnerability Response overview

The ServiceNow CMDB contains compute and installed software data populated by trusted
installed discovery sources like ServiceNow Discovery, Microsoft SCCM, Tanium, JAMF and can
be used to detect software vulnerabilities.

Software and Hardware Asset Management

Gartner reports Global IT Spending in 2018 experienced the highest increase at 6.2% up from
3.8% in 2017. ServiceNow research with our existing customer base concludes that on average
80% of overall software spend now takes place within the datacenter. It is imperative to get full
visibility to track enterprise software deployed in the datacenter for software compliance and for
other ITOps use cases like inventory management and hardware asset management.

ServiceNow Discovery acts as the foundation for datacenter software asset management product
and use cases. Having a good Software and Hardware Asset Management (SAM) strategy will not

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only eliminate unused high-value software assets, but also helps in software license optimization.
Discovery provides an accurate inventory of hardware and software you have installed across your
IT estate as the vital Information required for a successful Asset Management and to support
software vendor audits.

Figure 12: Publisher Packs used by SAM during Discovery

End point management products like Microsoft SCCM, IBM BigFix, Tanium, JAMF are
complimentary inventory sources to ServiceNow Discovery to populate the ServiceNow CMDB.
End point management solutions are a good source of inventory data for enabling Asset
Management (HAM/SAM) use cases for workstations.

Figure 13: SAM software spend calculation

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IT Business Management (Application Portfolio Management)

ITOM Visibility provides accurate current-state details used by IT Business Management. The
Scope of a plan, and knowing all deployments of Business Applications are essential to digital
transformation. ServiceNow’s Application Portfolio Management depends on ServiceNow
Discovery with Software Asset Management to help customers to provide service context in the
decision-making process with Portfolio rationalization and investment decisions.

Technology portfolio management consumes data from ServiceNow Discovery and Service
Mapping along with lifecycle data based on normalized licensable software from Software Asset
Management to provide a comprehensive view on technology lifecycles to proactively monitor
and mitigate use of unsupported, end of life hardware and software.

Review this video for more details.

Figure 14: Technology Portfolio Management use of ITOM Visibility

Figure 15: Technology Portfolio lifecycle view of software and hardware

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Product Overview
ITOM Visibility solution bundle comprises of ServiceNow Discovery and Service Mapping These
products are responsible for creating Configuration Items (CIs) in CMDB and relating them.
Discovery offers comprehensive content coverage to discover on-prem infrastructure /
virtualized resources / cloud resources and containerized deployments.

Discovery
ServiceNow Discovery populate 800+ CMDB CI Class Models and 50,000+ critical attributes.
Refer to docs.servicenow.com to get detailed documentation on the list of pattern / CMDB CI
class models which are supported with out of box offering.

Service Mapping
The ServiceNow® Service Mapping application discovers all application services in your
organization and builds a comprehensive map of all devices, applications, and configuration
profiles used in these business services. 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 application service operation.

ServiceNow Service Mapping detects IT infrastructure dependencies in the context of business

services. Service Mapping also maintains a complete history of the service topology that allows
users to see IT changes made to a service between any two points in time. Machine learning
helps to reduce noise levels from traffic-based discovery and is native to the ServiceNow
CMDB, thereby creating a service-aware approach to single system of record.

Discovery Use Case

Overview
Get complete visibility into your on-premises and cloud resources. Keep track of changes
occurring within your on-premises, cloud, and serverless infrastructure in the Configuration
Management Database (CMDB). Set a strong foundation with accurate data and relationship
views for ITSM change management, Software Asset Management, Customer Service
Management, Security Operations, and more.

Key Features
• Setup and manage discovery jobs
• See IT resources and dependencies at a glance
• Build queries to validate discovered IT resources
• Manage your PKI certificates in one dashboard

Outcomes Realized:
CSDM provides the Discovery product a prescribed model for how infrastructure and software
CI’s relate to other areas such as Application Services, Business Applications, and IT Assets for
example.

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Service Mapping Use Case

Overview
All application Services that you create manually or by using an API, or that are discovered by
Service Mapping, are stored in the Application Service [cmdb_ci_service_discovered] table.

Outcomes Realized
Service Mapping automates a critical aspect of CSDM with a consistent, automated approach to
connect the logical layer of the CSDM model to the physical model CI’s in the CMDB>. This
allows customers to more effectively manage every deployment of Business Application and
automate the modeling of them for subsequent impact assessments and analysis using Change,
Incident, and CMDB Query Builder for example.

Figure 16 Technology Portfolio Management View

Application Services View in Operator Workspace

Application Services with Operational Status = Operational will be available for consumption of service
maps for its consumers like AIOps workflows.

Figure 17: Lifecycle Status of Application Services

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Figure 18: Operator Workspace

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Figure 19: Service Map diagram

More detail on how Service Mapping determines relationships would ideal.

Cloud Transformation Use Case

Overview
“Journey to cloud” / “cloud first” strategies are leading to an industry wide datacenter
transformation. Visibility to application dependencies with infrastructure holds the key to
successful datacenter transformation / consolidation projects. ServiceNow Service Mapping
offers visibility to application dependencies and can auto detect relationships with infrastructure
components via entry point information like a URL or running process.

Key Features
• Discover cloud resources (Discovery)
• Map cloud resources (Service Mapping

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Figure 20: SaaS based application Service

Outcomes Realized:
Keep the CMDB updated as your resources used in the cloud change.

Datacenter Transformation / Consolidation

Frequently Asked Questions

The following are frequently asked questions related to ITOM Visibility with elements of the CSDM.

• Can I define Application Services without using Service Mapping?

Yes, Application Services can be defined using 4 methods:
o Use Service Mapping to define the full map as illustrated in Figure 19: Service Map
diagram above
o Define them manually
o Use a Dynamic CI Group based on a query
o Use a Tag based approach, common for Cloud integrations
For more information, see the Paris release notes here.

For More Information

The CMDB Framework as documented by the CSDM provides with ITOM:
• Discovery product documentation here
• Service Mapping product documentation here

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Your foundation for digital transformation

The Common Services Data Model (CSDM) should be used as a reference for mapping your IT services
in ServiceNow. Additionally, we will be using CSDM to drive standardization and further strengthen the
value proposition of using ServiceNow products, integrations, and services.

ServiceNow brings enormous value for enterprise customers that want to run IT as a business. CSDM,
combined with the Now Platform, creates a standard blueprint for automated and integrated IT services.
With streamlined supporting activities and value streams fully integrated on the Now Platform, you can
realize full-value chain alignment, improved quality, transparency, better insights, increased automation,
and lower costs. Ultimately, the combination of CSDM and ServiceNow serves as the foundation for
digital transformation.

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States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

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