ServiceNow

ServiceNow ITOM Simply Explained

Lukasz Szumilas

21 Oct 2023 — 2 min read

Just recently I earned my ServiceNow ITOM "CIS-Discovery" certificate !

But what's actually ITOM, and how does it function?

Let's break it down as a metaphore of city, where your IT organization is a bustling metropolis.

Picture this:

In the city of IT, each vehicle is a service, roads are the network, and traffic signals are the processes ensuring smooth operations.

Without centralized traffic management, chaos ensues.

This is where ServiceNow's ITOM comes in.

ITOM

acts as the brain of your IT city:

monitoring services (vehicles)
maintaining the network (roads)
managing processes (traffic signals) to prevent service outages (congestion).

It keeps your IT organization (city) efficient, predicting issues before they escalate.

Now, let's dive deeper into the applications within the ServiceNow ITOM suite:

Service Mapping:

Think of it as the city planning department, drawing an entire map of the city.

It provides a detailed blueprint of all IT services and their connections to other configuration items (CIs) in your infrastructure.

Event Management:

It's like having surveillance cameras around the city to detect and respond to incidents.

Collects data from various tools about events across your IT infrastructure.

Cloud Management:

Imagine coordinating not just your city, but neighboring cities (cloud environments).

It manages cloud resources and services from multiple providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Discovery:

Acts like the city's survey department, constantly updating the city map.

It automatically identifies all hardware and software present in your IT environment.

Orchestration:

It's the traffic control center, automating routine tasks across your IT infrastructure, such as resetting passwords or deploying applications.

Operational Intelligence:

This tool is like your city's data analysts, predicting future traffic problems based on past data.

It uses machine learning to forecast potential IT service failures.

These tools enable your IT team to maintain high service quality and availability.

They allow you to:

1) anticipate issues before they impact users

2) automate tasks to save time

3) make informed decisions about your IT environment.

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