Service Mapping gives you full control over your IT services that drive your business services. The automated capture of assets and their dependencies allow for reduced downtime and better change control, impact analysis and visibility of the IT landscape.
The provision, expansion and introduction of IT-supported services has long since established itself as the core of successful companies in the B2C and B2B sectors. In this constantly reinventing world of cloud hosting, micro services, PaaS, IOT and innovative client devices, reliable operation of IT services requires one thing above all: transparency.
But in many companies, this transparency is hampered by a multitude of distributed management systems, manual processes and incomplete documentation on dependencies. As a result, it is not only unclear which devices, applications and services are actually located in the IT infrastructure of a company, but also how they interact with the business services.
This is where service mapping comes in, which goes beyond pure inventory: based on specifically selected entry points, the complete service tree is mapped with all dependencies between devices, application services and software components. The visualisation and quick access to the related information enable full control over your IT services.
Webinar on IT Operations Management
Would you like to learn more about Service Mapping in ServiceNow® ITOM and know which factors need to be considered for a successful rollout? In our webinar, our experts Fabian Kunzke (iTSM Group) and Alexander Ljungstrom (Einar & Partners) showed you how to map the infrastructure to the application layers in service mapping projects.
From a business perspective, you gain transparency about the dependencies of business services on the underlying application level - and thus ultimately an insight into the critical infrastructure that is directly responsible for maintaining your services to the end customer.
From an operational perspective, this transparency is even more far-reaching. The insight into the dependencies enables the quick identification of the actual causes of disruptions. A collision calculation enables you to carry out changes in a more risk-minimised manner. In the event of failures, affected business services can be identified and the necessary steps for communication and service recovery can be taken.
Think of service mapping like mapping an underground network: You start with your current location: where you are right now, at your local underground stop. Here you first record all the information that helps you understand how to get to the next station: Timetables, train tracks, underground designations and route maps. Once you have gathered this information, draw your starting point on your map and note which track which train leaves from.
Then get on one of the underground trains at a track and travel one station further. There you repeat the procedure of your starting point. And you keep doing this until you have found all the stations. Then you notice that at some stations there are crossovers to other networks: Bus transport, regional rail, long-distance trains, airport, freight transport and others.
First, a starting point is defined - the so-called entry point. The goal here is a top-down view. Unlike an underground network, in service mapping we move exclusively from "top" to "bottom". Our entry point is therefore usually the point at which service delivery takes place: The homepage of your online shop, the SAP system or the load balancing service.
This entry point is now scanned and specific information is read out that points to the next station: The Hosting Server, Containering System or the Micorservices. And these points are then also scanned for further information. This is repeated until finally the complete service map is created.
The main advantage: Because this type of mapping is available on purely technical attributes in the respective entities (devices, applications, microservices, etc.), these service maps can not only be built automatically, but are also kept up to date through regularly performed scans and can also be traced historically. Changes in the dependencies are shown and planned changes can be reconciled.
With its two sub-products Discovery and Service Mapping, the ServiceNow® ITOM Visibility Suite brings transparency to the IT infrastructure - and does so in a largely automated way.
With Discovery - the inventory tool - information on devices and applications is collected by means of scans of the IT infrastructure, stored in a structured way in the CMDB and continuously updated so that it can be used by different stakeholders and in processes.
Service mapping in turn maps the complete service tree and shows dependencies between application services, the underlying software components, the associated devices and the necessary IT infrastructure in terms of network communication.
ServiceNow® ITOM Discovery supports different mapping methods, such as top-down, traffic-based, tag-based or machine-learning.
Connect your cloud infrastructure with your on-premise infrastructure and business services.
Automated and regular mapping and updating of service maps.
Use the ServiceNow® CMDB as a central, service-oriented system with the broad possibility of tool integrations.
Explore the use of ITOM in the expert workshop using your company as an example
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Find out more
We are one of few specialized partners for ITOM- & AIOps in DACH. We deliver local experts to staff your projects in Germany, Austria or Switzerland.
Our certified consultants and architects do not only have experience in ServiceNow® ITOM but also in areas of infrastructure, monitoring, DevOps & cloud.
A big part of unsuccessful ITOM projects fail because of the human factor. We build solutions with the people, organization and broader perspective in mind.
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In IT Operations Management we support our customers in modernizing and transforming their IT operations and help them to reach the next level of automation.