ServiceNow Architecture

Achieving optimal efficiency is the primary aim of the IT sector today. But this is not easy as IT has to face many roadblocks on its way. The Legacy systems that are used even now can slow them down considerably. ServiceNow is the latest cloud solution that can help achieve efficiency. This blog delves into the architecture of ServiceNow in great detail.

Table of Content - ServiceNow Architecture

What is ServiceNow? ServiceNow Architecture What is the ServiceNow Platform Architecture? ServiceNow is Single-Instance Multiple Tenant Architecture IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) PaaS (Platform as a Service) SaaS (Software as a Service) ServiceNow Applications Resolving Security Threats IT Service Desk HR Service Delivery  Why Choose ServiceNow?

What is ServiceNow?

ServiceNow is a cloud-based software platform for IT Service Management (ITSM). It helps automate IT Business Management, and it follows and is designed on ITIL guidelines to deliver service orientation for processes, activities, and tasks. To authorize data and workflows, machine language is used by ServiceNow for speedily growing and scalable businesses. ServiceNow offers features such as dependability, power, and flexibility to achieve incident and problem management goals with a support interface. There is no dependency on emails and spreadsheets to store information about recognizing and repairing issues. 

If you want to enrich your career and become a professional in ServiceNow, then enroll in the  "ServiceNow Online Course" - This course will help you to achieve excellence in this domain

ServiceNow Architecture

Presently, the cloud service offered runs on multi-tenant architecture like Salesforce, AWS, Oracle, Azure, etc. The multi-tenant architecture provides a single instance that serves multiple customers. This leads to complex databases that require huge maintenance costs, and sometimes the resources may not be available to the customers. ServiceNow offers the latest by adapting multi-instance architecture.

What is the ServiceNow Platform Architecture?

In ServiceNow platform architecture, the packaged solutions are represented by applications designed to deliver and help manage business processes like Change Management, Incident Management, Knowledge Management, and Problem Management.

ServiceNow is Single-Instance Multiple Tenant Architecture

The multi-tenant architecture uses a single instance of software application services, tenants, or multiple customers. This architecture is economical because software development and maintenance costs are shared.

The updates are shared with all of its 'tenants' in a multi-tenant architecture only once. A software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor can run applications and databases on a one-to-one instance to provide web access to multiple customers. In this scenario, every customer's data is isolated and invisible to other tenants. This way, the data of the customers are safe and secure.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a service)

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a fully automated feature that offers computing resources that a service provider owns and offers storage and networking capabilities to the customers on demand. Resources are measured in real-time and metered by use. Resources can be single-tenant or multi-tenant and are maintained by the service provider.

In the IaaS model, IT infrastructure that includes server, storage, and networking resources are managed by cloud providers and delivered to the organizations virtually. The benefits of IaaS are it makes the workload flexible, more accessible, faster, and cost-effective.

Related Article: ServiceNow Ticketing Tool

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Platform as a service (PaaS) offers an entirely cloud-based environment for the development and deployment of resources that enable the delivery of simple to complex cloud-based applications. The resources can be purchased from a cloud service provider on a pay-as-you-go basis and accessed over a secure Internet connection.

Like IaaS, PaaS includes infrastructure such as servers, storage and networking, development tools, middleware, business intelligence (BI) services, database management systems, and more. The design of PaaS supports a complete web application lifecycle: building, deploying, testing, managing, and updating. PaaS is cost-effective, thereby reducing the complexity of buying and managing software licenses, development tools, other resources, and the underlying application infrastructure and middleware. Here everything is governed by the cloud service provider.

 

SaaS (Software as a Service)

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a software license model to access the software on a subscription basis, and the software could be located on external servers.

Software-as-a-Service can be accessed through a web browser, and the users can log into the system with a username and password. This service does not require the software to be installed on a computer; instead, it can be accessed virtually.

The multi-tenant architecture allows SaaS vendors to serve even the small customers, with dedicated infrastructure, to large enterprises with cloud access and unlimited computing resources. One of the critical features of the cloud is elasticity which is a considerable benefit of multi-tenancy. Before the existence of SaaS, companies had to purchase costly compact disks that contained the updates and download them into their systems.

 

ServiceNow Applications

ServiceNow supports several applications. Some of them are Resolving Security Threats, IT Service Desk, HR Delivery Service, Customer Service, and Business Applications.

Related Article: ServiceNow Data Model

Resolving Security Threats

Though there are many sophisticated security management mechanisms available in the marketplace for threat detection, most companies face the backbreaking task of resolving the security issue when there is a security breach. ServiceNow is well known for its structured workflows that prioritize risks based on severity and their impact on the organization. Generally, it would take up to 45 minutes to conduct the threat research manually and using spreadsheets. This time can be reduced to over 20 seconds by using the automated tools provided by the ServiceNow platform.

ServiceNow Security Operations focus on security incidents that pose a threat to their organization. Security Operations designs predefined workflows that include routing the issue to the appropriate person or team for revising and automating threat detection. Security Operations relates the event data with the ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and uses this data which can be considered part of a risk score calculation to maintain the priority.

Related Article: ServiceNow GRC

IT Service Desk

The main operating arm of an organization's IT department is the IT service desk. The primary goal in designing IT Service Desk is to keep operations running smoothly, handle individual technical problems to total system outages, and provide a single point of contact (SPOC) for IT users to interact with the organization's IT branch uninterruptedly. An IT service desk can help you:

• Align IT and business processes/departments: facilitate communication and collaboration between IT and other departments to help create, assign, track, and resolve tickets.
• Improve asset management: This enables the service desk to easily retrieve information, asset valuation, configuration, and maintenance.
• Enhancement operational efficiency: Service desks standardize IT processes, enabling better IT-related strategy planning and tracking.
• Data-driven decisions: The service desk is the primary point of contact between the organization and its technology to improve productivity and enable usable updates.

Read these latest ServiceNow Interview Questions and Answers for experienced that helps you to grab the high-paying jobs

HR Service Delivery 

ServiceNow replaces manual processing with automation tasks. These tasks can be used for different departments like IT, Legal, Finance, and Facilities, Legal. A single platform in ServiceNow can connect HR workflows with all these departments. Decision-making is made easy with tracking and trending tools. HR Service Delivery delivers customizable forms to deliver satisfactory service to employees. 

This ServiceNow application gives an improvised service experience to the employees by automating HR interactions, and all the HR services are provided on a single platform. The services provided by HR Service include:

• Employee Readiness Surveys
• Safe Workplace applications
• Contact Tracing
• Employee Health Screening
• Workplace Safety Management
• Multi-access for data.
• Health and Safety Testing
• Employee Readiness Core
• Employee Travel Safety
• Emergency Response Management applications
• Emergency Outreach

Why Choose ServiceNow?

ServiceNow offers unique platforms that support multiple features

The most commonly used Platform: The greatest advantage of being a cloud-based solution is that it can work locally and be accessed across multiple networks.

Speed: ServiceNow is built to manage everything and can help modern organizations operate faster and more resilient than ever.

Attractive Services: ServiceNow can help the service domains define services and provide explicit service experience, easy delivery services, easily available, and can measure critical service metrics.

Conclusion

ServiceNow is a broad-gauged, compendious, and logical service management platform offering immense capabilities. The processes and workflows are automated and can be aligned with all the present business functionalities. The services offered can also be used for the growth and development of the organizations.