Let’s take a moment and ask ourselves why should we care about ServiceNow’s Common Service Data Model (CSDM)? Why do we need it?
ServiceNow’s CSDM is the answer to making your CMDB, as well as your applications, “service aware”. It is the best practice framework for CSDM data modelling and management. When it comes to implementation of a complex framework like CSDM, it is important to know what value it brings to your enterprise. CSDM can be utilised as the blueprint for mapping your IT services in the ServiceNow platform. The value that CSDM creates can be summarized as:
- better visibility on how your business delivers services
- Increased efficiency
- Higher productivity
- Better informed decision making
CSDM is making CMDB right
Why adopt the CSDM? Having an established CMDB without a defined data model in place can lead to poor visibility and awareness of your business’s services. The CSDM is the standardisation of the CMDB, and adopting it helps to drive your organisation to become service aware. The CMDB represents a standard and shared set of service-related definitions across the products and platform of ServiceNow, enabling service level reporting while providing prescriptive guidance on service modelling within the CMDB.
CSDM from a strategic perspective
From a strategic perspective, CSDM aligns your CIs and services with your business strategy. Extending the CMDB to cover more areas of the business, such as services and offerings, allows us to boost the value of the CMDB as it now enables us to gather deeper insights into our business. Because without a data model in place, there can be no common data definition at different departments or a master framework for defining all the ServiceNow products. This can result in rogue data flows from departments to unknown destinations in the CMDB, ending up with inconsistent storing, and duplicating of data.
“The CSDM connects your business with a common set of data on people, process, and technology, providing a model that can drive insights into how your business performs, and where improvements can be made” – Joshua Wallace, ITOM and AIOps expert at Einar & Partners
What does CSDM exactly do and why it’s essential
Large, complex IT operations at scale require a common data framework in order to provide visibility into services related data across different domains. This enables you to align your IT strategy with your business strategy and capabilities. Let’s dive into how CSDM realizes that, and which problems it mitigates:
- Disparate data models – unify data models across the applications from various domains by utilising a common set of definitions and relationships across data sets
- Enhancing visibility and reporting – increase machine learning capabilities, while having consistent and reliable information about your services and digital products
- Ability of expanding and scaling – many businesses fail to implement an effective data model for their CMDB that can scale and cover multiple perspectives at the same time. The CSDM provides carefully designed standardised approach and ensures that businesses can utilise all ServiceNow applications as intended by design, unlocking full potential of ServiceNow platform
Watch ServiceNow’s CSDM explained in 10 minutes
In this brief journey, we set the stage by asking ourselves why we should care about CSDM. Continue your CSDM journey by watching our ‘ServiceNow’s CSDM explained in 10 minutes’.
