Cloudaware - ServiceNow Implementation Approaches

Due to the limited cloud asset discovery capabilities in ServiceNow, many customers use Cloudaware CMDB to populate or enrich cloud resources in ServiceNow. The list of objects discoverable by Cloudaware is availablee here.

To see how Cloudaware seamlessly integrates with ServiceNow in action, request a demo.

Decide on the integration approach

There are two approaches to integrating Cloudaware with ServiceNow: push and pull. Each has unique pros and cons. 

Push approach

In the push approach, Cloudaware performs most of the integration work. Cloudaware pushes assets and configuration data into ServiceNow on a scheduled basis.

Customer responsibilities

• Provide Cloudaware with access.

• Define a custom class in ServiceNow to contain Cloudaware data. Sample class definitions are available here.

Advantages

• Minimal customer effort.

• Cloudaware manages data delivery.

Disadvantages

• The customer depends on Cloudaware for schema changes in the custom class.

• Any changes to data frequency or attributes require a request to Cloudaware, handled with the same priority as other service requests.

Pull approach

In the pull approach, the customer performs most of the integration work. The customer develops ServiceNow scripts to pull data directly from Cloudaware.

Advantages

• Full customer control over frequency, CI types, attributes, and storage location.

• Cloudaware data can be stored in existing ServiceNow classes.

Disadvantages

• Significant customer effort is required, including:

  • Learning and using the Cloudaware Bulk API.

  • Performing change detection.

  • Handling paginated data.

  • Writing SOQL queries to extract data from Cloudaware.

Push integration steps 

1. Create a custom class in ServiceNow.

2. Create a ServiceNow user.

3. Grant API access to Cloudaware.

4. Grant the Cloudaware user access to the custom class and table.

5. Configure credentials in the Cloudaware Admin (guide).

6. Submit a service request to Cloudaware to activate push integration.

7. Validate data.

Pull integration steps 

1. Determine which types of CIs will be pulled from Cloudaware.

2. Decide where in the ServiceNow schema the Cloudaware data will be stored.

3. Download the Cloudaware Enterprise WSDL and upload it to ServiceNow (guide)

4. Develop Cloudaware SOQL queries for each CI type.

5. Create ServiceNow scripts to pull and paginate data from Cloudaware using SOAP messages.

6. Insert the extracted data into the appropriate location.

7. Ensure that change detection and data deletion is working.