Exploring domain separation
Summarize
Summary of Exploring Domain Separation
Domain separation allows for the logical separation of data, processes, and administrative tasks within a single ServiceNow instance. It is particularly beneficial for customers who need to enforce data segregation, customize user interfaces, and maintain global processes while managing data among various entities like service providers, customers, or partners.
Show less
Key Features
- Data Separation: Users can only view data within their assigned domain or child domains. Global users are part of the global domain by default.
- UI Separation: Customizes user interface elements per domain.
- Business Logic Separation: Facilitates tenant-specific policies, including notifications and business rules.
- Hierarchical Modeling: Supports nested multi-tenancy where parent domains can manage child domains while allowing for overrides.
- Cross-Tenant Intelligence: Manages access to data and logic across tenants while ensuring visibility restrictions based on the domain hierarchy.
Key Outcomes
Implementing domain separation allows customers to maintain a tailored experience for different business entities while ensuring compliance with data visibility requirements. However, it introduces additional administrative overhead and should be discussed with a representative before activation to ensure suitability for your environment. For complete separation of processes and properties, separate instances may be a more appropriate solution.
With domain separation you can separate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logically defined domains.
Domain separation is best for those customers who:
- Need to enforce absolute data segregation between business entities (data separation).
- Customize business process definitions and user interfaces for each domain (delegated administration).
- Maintain some global processes and global reporting in a single instance.
- Separate data between service providers, customers, partners, or sub-organizations.
- Have minor or moderate process differences among customers.
Domain separation compared to separate instances
While domain separation provides multi-tenancy support, multi-tenancy is still contained within a single instance. Some global properties, data, and processes are shared across all domains. For example, having the system Remember me on the login page of the system is global and cannot be specified per domain.
If you need complete and total separation of all system properties and do not require global reporting or global processes, then separate instances are the best option.
Data separation
Members of a domain see only the data contained within their domain or the child domains that are lower in the domain hierarchy. By default, all users and all records are members of the global domain unless an administrator assigns them to a particular domain. Once you assign a user or a record to a domain, the instance compares the user's domain to the record's domain to determine whether the user can view the record.
ServiceNow applications are defined with the following incremental support levels. These levels are based on the perspective of actual use cases and personas.
Data Separation: Tenants see only data that they have permissions to see. Tenants can be granted access to other tenant data, but cannot query tenant data if they don't have access.
UI Separation: Supports a tenant-specific experience for UI elements such as views, lists, labels, and so on.
Business Logic Separation: You can create tenant-specific system policies such as email notifications, business rules, client scripts, UI policy, and UI actions.
Hierarchical Modeling: Nested-multi-tenancy so parent tenants can access child tenant resources. Business logic for parent tenants runs automatically for child tenants, and can be overridden at any level.
Cross-Tenant Intelligence (Domain Scope): Handles automatically the data, metadata, business logic, and processing context for tenants that have access to additional tenant data.
In general, data defined at a higher level in the domain hierarchy is not visible at lower levels in the hierarchy.
Domain path migration
Domain paths are used for all customers. Domain numbering is not used. Customer Service and Support can assist in the upgrade.Alternatives to domain separation
Separate instances are a common alternative to domain separation. This provides a great degree of flexibility in meeting the requirements for customers and stakeholders with little to no impact on others.