ITOM Content Service use case

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated November 14, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of ITOM Content Service use case

    The ITOM Content Service use case illustrates how organizations can achieve improved visibility into their IT environment by leveraging Application Configuration Items (CIs) within the Common Service Data Model (CSDM). Application CIs are crucial for logging software activities and supporting IT operations across various areas such as Service Mapping, ITOM Health, IT Asset Management, IT Service Management, and Enterprise Architecture.

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    Key Features

    • Enhanced Discovery: ITOM Content Service improves the discovery process by tagging and classifying process fingerprints, providing detailed information about publishers and products without needing dedicated patterns.
    • Continuous Content Delivery: This service allows for ongoing updates and visibility into applications, overcoming limitations of traditional pattern-based discovery.
    • CI Creation: Processes like the Elipse Software E3 Database Engine can be automatically tagged and classified, enabling them to be turned into CIs during subsequent scans.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing ITOM Content Service, organizations can:

    • Achieve accurate visibility into their IT infrastructure.
    • Bind CIs with monitoring alerts and incidents.
    • Automate software upgrades and scripts for optimization.
    • Conduct impact assessments and change impact analysis effectively.
    • Create robust security workflows.

    This ultimately leads to enhanced monitoring, proactive management, and continuous optimization of the application landscape.

    This ITOM Content Service use case demonstrates how organizations can achieve enhanced visibility into their environment.

    Use case overview

    The Application Configuration Items (CIs) class is a key component of an organization’s data platform within the Common Service Data Model (CSDM). Application CIs help log software activities and support critical IT operations.

    Many products and applications rely on application CIs for essential tasks. A few key examples are:
    • Service Mapping: Uses application CIs to create service maps
    • ITOM Health: Monitors application health and resolves incidents using application CIs
    • IT Asset Management (ITAM): Tracks and manages software applications and their associated licenses with application CIs
    • IT Service Management (ITSM): Analyzes service impact and calculates blast radius with application CIs
    • Enterprise Architecture (EA): Leverages application CIs to generate business outcomes

    Challenge

    A large organization with numerous applications requires accurate discovery. Managing application CIs is essential, yet the IT team finds it challenging to maintain visibility over its growing infrastructure.

    ITOM Visibility offers several methods for discovering products within an organization’s infrastructure, such as Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns. This method provides detailed visibility into a product's information. When a wide range of applications is in use, not all can have a dedicated pattern. If an application does not have a dedicated pattern, discovery populates only the Running Process [cmdb_running_process] table without identifying the product or creating a CI for it.

    Without an application CI, the organization lacks accurate visibility into its infrastructure and might struggle to optimize the following essential actions:
    • Bind CIs with monitoring alerts and open incidents regarding the CIs
    • Schedule automated software upgrades
    • Automate scripts to optimize or troubleshoot the product
    • Perform impact assessments and change impact analysis
    • Create security workflows

    Solution

    ITOM Content Service enhances the discovery process by tagging and classifying process fingerprints. This service provides details about the publisher, product, and the essential component of the CI. Unlike pattern-based discovery, ITOM Content Service identifies applications directly within the organization’s environment without requiring published pattern classifiers. This approach enables the continuous delivery of content without being constrained by a scheduled release cycle.

    For example: Discovery identifies the Elipse Software E3 Database Engine process (E3DBEngine.exe) and lists it in the Running Process [cmdb_running_process] table. If the E3DBEngine.exe process classification condition isn’t set to trigger a pattern, it doesn't launch a pattern and a CI isn't created. However, with ITOM Content Service, the E3DBEngine.exe process is tagged and classified, enabling Discovery to turn the process into a CI during the next scan.

    Result

    Discovery using ITOM Content Service creates a CI record by tagging and classifying the publisher, product, and essential component for all applications in the organization’s environment. This method provides enhanced and continuous visibility into the application landscape, enabling effective monitoring, proactive actions, and ongoing optimization.