ServiceNow Integration with EfficientIP: Reducing complexity for network management

IT service groups are increasingly using ITSM (IT Service Management) solutions to initiate and track internal service requests. At the same time, the ITSM editors themselves are now incorporating automation tools, for allowing customers to automate tasks to expose as a catalogue of services. Within any IT service automation workflow, IPAM (IP Address management) is a key process. So it brings tremendous benefits if a company integrates ITSM to the IPAM component of their DDI (DNS-DHCP-IPAM).

As the API of EfficientIP’s DDI solution (SOLIDserver) can be leveraged by any orchestration tool, the alliance of ServiceNow with EfficientIP is a no-brainer. It has led to a plugin (‘“Activity Pack”) being created for simplifying interactions between the two solutions.

Simplifying everything from IP address requests to digital transformation projects

This Activity Pack provides all necessary tools for easily interacting with SOLIDserver’s REST API from within any workflow defined in ServiceNow. Tying a workflow to a service makes it possible to expose the service to an end user – as part of a catalog – for immediate ordering. A good example would be asking for an IP address to install a server or a printer. But the possibilities go well beyond simple tasks. The activities could potentially be used in more complex workflows for maximizing the value of orchestration, such as provisioning a complete application infrastructure which requires IP networks, IP addresses and DNS records. This enablement of full automation of the build process helps greatly simplify implementation of major IT projects, including those involving digital transformation.

Easing workload via rich function set

The set of activities included in the initial Activity Pack cover the DDI categories of IP networks and DNS objects with a rich set of functions:

• Find free: allows retrieval of a set of available objects in a category, for future reservation
• Create / edit / delete: permit manipulation of objects
• Get info: obtains all information about an object
• Get all: lists all the objects within a category

ServiceNow IPAM / ServiceNow DNS Demo Video:

Interactive dialoguing to eliminate configure errors – only from EfficientIP

Instead of the use of pre-filled forms imposed by some other IPAM solutions, the EfficientIP solution provides a way to build an interactive dialogue with ServiceNow. This ensures that only requests which are totally accurate are accepted, thus removing the potential of configuration errors. Consequently, the user experience for network administrators is also greatly enhanced.

In addition, EfficientIP offers potential to use IPAM metadata (e.g. country and city for “location”, app code for “application”, cost centre for “billing”…) – thus bringing the capability to link workflows together and enrich the IP Golden Record (the single source of network truth). This is an important step towards company strategy for apps enablement.

The advantages brought by the ServiceNow/EfficientIP integration are numerous, and include:

• Simplified management of IP resources within networks
• Accelerated rollout of services
• Ensured enforcement of corporate policies
• Accurate, up-to-date configurations
• Consistency control across entire infrastructure