ad
ad

ServiceNow Software Asset Management - Basic Architecture

Education

Introduction

Welcome to my new series on ServiceNow Software Asset Management (SAM). SAM is a powerful tool that enables tracking, evaluation, and management of software licenses, as well as ensuring compliance and optimization. In this article, we will focus on the basic architecture of SAM and explore its different components.

SAM Architecture

The SAM architecture consists of four main components that are all related to each other. Let's take a closer look at each component:

  1. Request Fulfillment: This component handles all processes related to software requirements, allocations, entitlements, and contracts. For example, if you need to install Microsoft Visio on your laptop, you would first need to raise a request for the specific software from the service catalog. Depending on your company's policies, the software asset management team can then allocate a license to your name and proceed with the installation.

  2. Software Content Library: This component is a part of all the other components and is responsible for maintaining a list of all standard software definitions. It includes information such as publisher, part number, license metrics, downgrade rights, and suite information. The software models generated from the content library can be published to the service catalog for use in the request fulfillment process.

  3. Discovery: This component is used to discover software installations from your customer infrastructure. The discovered software products are validated to determine whether they are authorized or not, which affects the compliance position. Discovery can be done using various sources, such as ServiceNow Discovery and SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager). The discovered software installations are normalized into standard software products and grouped as software discovery models.

  4. Reconciliation: This component compares the number of license rights (obtained from the software models) with the number of installations (discovered from the customer inventory) to determine the compliance position of each software model, product, and publisher. If there are compliance issues, entitlements can be allocated to installations, missing entitlements can be purchased, or optimization decisions can be made to uninstall or reallocate software.

These components work together to provide a comprehensive software asset management solution for organizations. ServiceNow provides various modules and functionalities to support each component.

Keywords: ServiceNow, Software Asset Management (SAM), architecture, request fulfillment, software content library, discovery, reconciliation.

FAQ

  1. What is ServiceNow Software Asset Management (SAM)?
    ServiceNow SAM is a tool that enables organizations to track, evaluate, and manage software licenses. It helps ensure compliance with licensing agreements and optimize software usage.

  2. What are the main components of SAM?
    The main components of SAM are request fulfillment, software content library, discovery, and reconciliation. Request fulfillment handles software requirements, allocations, entitlements, and contracts. The software content library maintains standard software definitions. Discovery discovers software installations, and reconciliation compares license rights with installations to determine compliance.

  3. How does SAM help with compliance and optimization?
    SAM helps organizations maintain compliance by ensuring software licenses are allocated correctly and tracking software installations for unauthorized usage. It also helps optimize software usage by identifying unused or underutilized licenses and enabling reallocation or uninstallation of software.

  4. What is the role of the software content library in SAM?
    The software content library in SAM maintains a list of standard software definitions, including publisher, part number, license metrics, and more. It serves as a reference for creating software models and publishing them to the service catalog for request fulfillment.

  5. How does SAM handle software discovery?
    SAM uses various sources, such as ServiceNow Discovery and SCCM, to discover software installations from the customer infrastructure. The discovered software products are validated, normalized, and grouped as software discovery models.

  6. Can SAM automate software entitlement generation?
    Yes, SAM can automate the generation of software entitlements through plugins like the procurement plugin. If a requested software entitlement doesn't exist, the procurement plugin can automatically generate new entitlements and proceed with deployment.

  7. How does SAM support software reconciliation?
    SAM compares the number of license rights (obtained from software models) with the number of installations (discovered from the customer inventory) to determine the compliance position. This process is called software reconciliation and helps identify compliance issues and potential optimization opportunities.

FAQ: ServiceNow Software Asset Management (SAM)