Introducing the Delphix Spoke for ServiceNow

Today’s enterprises require better systems to help automate and govern cross-functional tasks as their tools, processes, and organization scale. ServiceNow’s ITSM offering has become a de facto standard for IT administrators to establish repeatable processes for frequent data requests while ensuring approval compliance. 

In fact, many existing Delphix customers already leverage ServiceNow to manage their teams’ database needs. For example, when a developer submits a creation request, an IT administrator accepts the ticket, creates the database in minutes using Delphix, and returns the environment information. However, this manual process can only grow linearly based on the number of human administrators assigned. To proliferate secure data delivery throughout the organization, teams must empower users through automation to resolve common data requests without sacrificing governance policies.

We are pleased to announce the introduction of the Delphix Spoke for ServiceNow, which provides full data automation and governance capability to ITSM workflows. This solution provides out-of-the-box, automated workflows and actions, as well as a self-service catalog to enable application teams to manage their test data environments.  The combination of Delphix with ServiceNow enables enterprises to master DevOps test data management practices to deliver high-quality releases across multicloud, complex applications.

Why a Self-Service ServiceNow Catalog?

By integrating ServiceNow and Delphix, organizations can meet their data demands by creating a robust self-service catalog. Some key benefits of the solution include:

1. Unblocking developers to increase delivery speed: Use an automated self-service catalog to empower developers to shift left and obtain relevant test data on-demand. With ServiceNow and Delphix, organizations can eliminate manual bottlenecks that drag down cycle time and limit a team’s ability to ship software. Ensure quality test data is available when teams need it.

2. Reducing manual tasks and cost: Time and money are trapped within the processing of tickets. One Delphix customer, a regional insurance company, estimated that their heavy manual processes cost nearly $300,000 per 500 tickets. That is $600 a ticket!  Unlock that time and cost to refocus on higher-priority initiatives.

3. Providing governance and audibility: Continuing to consolidate business processes through ServiceNow. Users can leverage standard ServiceNow modules like ITSM, ITOM, App Engine, and Approvals to seamlessly integrate Delphix functionality and ensure all expected policies. Furthermore, detailed record keeping can be maintained to keep auditors happy months and years later.

4. Enforcing data privacy and security: Nobody wants to be the next news headline because of a security incident. Reduce your company's risk by leveraging Delphix’s masking capabilities to protect sensitive data and eliminate the fear of accidental leaks. Define and enforce automated security rules without causing delay to a team’s data delivery.

5. Improving incident response: When time is money, application and support teams need to provision environments quickly. Uniting ServiceNow’s AIOps and the Delphix Spoke’s capabilities can help reduce full environment provisioning times by 5x. This practice will help your teams resolve problems faster, reduce service level agreement (SLA) times, and improve net promoter scores (NPS). 

How It Works

Utilizing secure, ephemeral test data environments enables application development teams to iterate quickly without the risk of data leaks or explosive infrastructure costs. By providing a self-service data catalog with ServiceNow and Delphix, we can make data accessible to a larger user base.

In a typical scenario, developers login through the ServiceNow portal and select from a list of presented catalog items. Each catalog item performs a common and targeted request, such as Provision Data, Refresh Data, or Create Bookmark. After completing the form’s required input parameters, such as the data set’s name and data source, the request is completed automatically in minutes, with details provided directly in the ServiceNow request. While in many scenarios, IT administrators retroactively review tickets weekly or daily; they may also insert themselves before the automation workflow begins as an approver. This practice ensures no request is unchecked and provides a safety net during the onboarding process. 

In advanced scenarios, teams have combined workflows with other ServiceNow integrations, such as Terraform or AppDynamics, to provide full application environments. Then, upon completion, the desired parties can be notified via Slack, Microsoft Teams, or email. While we provide standard catalog items out of the box, IT administrators ultimately control what workflows are defined and enabled.

Through a ServiceNow and Delphix solution, application teams can obtain test data quickly to improve application quality and speed. And on the other side, IT administrators are reassured data provided is compliant, traceable, and at a reduced cost.

Are you interested in learning more about how a self-service data catalog can improve application delivery and quality? Contact us to see a ServiceNow and Delphix DevOps Data Platform demo and discuss implementation strategies.