Complete overview of ServiceNow Tutorial

ServiceNow is a cloud based platform, which was mainly developed for workflow and process automation as per the ITIL principles. However, it is highly customisable and also can be used for other purposes. ServiceNow is an American based company and was founded in 2004 by Fred Luddy. It has a unique way for naming its versions. They name the versions based on the major cities of the world. The latest version of ServiceNow is Orlando.

ServiceNow offers many ready to use solutions, workflows and products for an organisation. The organisation can develop the customised applications and modules as per the business requirement using the ServiceNow scripting and existing tools.

Services of ServiceNow

Some of the important offerings and most widely used services of ServiceNow are explained below −

IT Service management

ServiceNow is mainly used as a ticketing tool to manage incidents, problems and changes. It has many advanced features, analytics and insights that impacts the speed and delivery of IT.

HR management

ServiceNow can be used for almost all HR delivery services like leave management, timesheet management, employee document management, new onboarding management, performance management, etc.

IT Asset management

With ServiceNow, we can manage our hardware and software assets to optimise cost and increase efficiency. ServiceNow has features such as licence management, warranty management, CI management, advanced reporting and insights, etc.

Finance operation management

ServiceNow manages all the activities related to finance close and automates the financial processes.

Apart from offerings mentioned above, ServiceNow also offers services for IT business management, security operations, virtual chatbots, etc.

ServiceNow is built using Java and Tomcat web server running on Linux. Although to develop new modules and applications in ServiceNow the JavaScript knowledge is sufficient.

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ServiceNow Instance

A ServiceNow instance is a set of databases, applications, virtual machines, libraries grouped together to provide the required services to a specific customer. ServiceNow customer instance is built on multi-instance architecture.

The figure given below shows multi-instance architecture −

ServiceNow Instance

The important point to note here is that, each customer has a separate customised application(s) along with separate database(s) running on shared hardware resources. The customer data is encrypted and therefore, is completely secure. The deployment of ServiceNow is very flexible and it can also be implemented in a private cloud.

ServiceNow also offers developer instance, which is a community edition free of cost. ServiceNow developer instance was launched, to promote the use of ServiceNow and to provide the resources, so that the developers/administrators can learn, build, enhance and customise the applications in ServiceNow.

Following are the elements of the ServiceNow Architecture:

Apache Webserver

Load balancer

J2EE app server

Database: Mysql, Oracle

Internet IPSEC

Firewall clusters

Client site

ServiceNow Capabilities

#Orchestration

Through ServiceNow, we can orchestrate or automate easy or complex tasks on remote servers. When we implement orchestration in the company, the complete work needs less labor and skill. It automates systems such as Microsoft Exchange mail servers, VMware, etc.

#LDAP

Companies use active directories for various purposes. We can use it to provide access to the applications or maintain an outlook distribution list. LDAP integration is the cakewalk for ServiceNow, and the highlight is we do not need to code anything. Through simple configuration, we can do integration.

#Web Services

ServiceNow platforms offer the capability of using or publishing the API simultaneously. ServiceNow supports WSDL, SOAP, REST API protocols. We can either create a Scripted API or Codeless API.

#Mobile Ready

Today everyone wants an enterprise service/application/solution to be mobile-ready. They must make the changes on the way. The forms and applications of ServiceNow are mobile-friendly, and we can publish them on mobile without particular development for mobile. ServiceNow offers a web-based application for a mobile app for Android and iOS.