Getting DevOps right for ServiceNow
Recently a prospect asked us to explain what we meant by ‘Normal DevOps’, why this was different to the ServiceNow DevOps module and how they both differ from what AutomatePro offers in terms of DevOps for ServiceNow.
A great question!
What do we mean by ‘Normal DevOps’?
If an organisation was developing a native cloud application (i.e. starting from scratch and not using a SaaS platform such as ServiceNow), developing in .Net for example, they would need a set of ‘normal DevOps’ tools to assist with the development and release process.
This would typically require the development team to select a bunch of different tools to manage and control the end-to-end DevOps delivery lifecycle and integrate them together so the data flows seamlessly from one phase to the next.?The graphic below shows a typical DevOps tool chain that a team may use in this situation:
In reality of course, the choice of tools for each part of the lifecycle is in fact much more complex.?XebiaLabs produce, what they call the ‘Periodic Table of DevOps Tools’, which shows how there are in fact a plethora of tools (commercial and OpenSource) from which a development team can select, to support each phase of the software delivery lifecycle.
So what is the ‘ServiceNow DevOps Module’
A few years ago, ServiceNow recognised that IT teams were struggling with managing the complex DevOps toolchain in a coherent way.?ServiceNow wanted to help their customers IT development teams have a single place from which to manage the end-to-end DevOps lifecycle. This was primarily targeted at application development projects outside of developing ServiceNow itself.??So, not unsurprisingly they re-used the powerful existing workflow and automation capabilities in the Now Platform, to integrate and automate various DevOps tools into a single coherent DevOps platform.
Thus was born the DevOps module in the ServiceNow platform.
The ServiceNow DevOps module works great for managing the development of traditional native applications which need a 'conductor' to 'orchestrate' a selection of DevOps tools.
However, most organisations no longer develop apps from the ground up – in fact very apps these days are developed starting with a blank page.
Organisations are leveraging their investment in their enterprise SaaS platforms such as ServiceNow, and building their apps within the platform.?The benefit of doing this is that ServiceNow provides a comprehensive set of out-of-the-box functionality which all business applications need as foundation, e.g. a database, user management, security controls, workflows, infrastructure, UI components such as forms and lists, in-bound/outbound email etc.? This is perfect for Citizen Development app development; the name given to enabling business users to create their own apps, without needing to be professionally trained software engineers. That's why we all love it right! ServiceNow are in effect democratising app development.
In this new world of app development, new business applications are built ‘inside’ and ‘on-top’ of existing SaaS platforms.?Bill McDermott, CEO of ServiceNow, recently said:
750 million new business applications will be built in the next 3 years.?
Bill is backing the theory that the vast majority of these applications will be built on/in SaaS platforms like ServiceNow.
So the question is, why don’t ServiceNow customers use the ServiceNow DevOps module for managing the development of apps built in ServiceNow, or select ‘normal DevOps’ tools from the DevOps Tools periodic table and use those?
The answer is because developing applications in ServiceNow and other SaaS platforms is?fundamentally different?to traditional greenfield app development.?Therefore a different approach is needed.
For example, ServiceNow provides its own developer environment (Studio IDE), so typical DevOps tools in this space like Eclipse, don’t work within the ServiceNow platform.?Common DevOps release deployment tools like Puppet and Chef just aren’t relevant when deploying ServiceNow Update Sets from one ServiceNow environment to the next.?The list goes on...
Getting DevOps right for ServiceNow
AutomatePro have recognised that ServiceNow customers want a single application that was dedicated to and focussed solely on providing a best in class single place to manage the development of apps, including defining requirements, managing update sets and customisations, automated testing, automated UAT, managing release versions, simple upgrades of the ServiceNow platform etc. And customers want to do this at quite a clip in order to reduce time-to-market. Whilst at the same time needing to retain control and minimising risk with high quality and compliant documentation.
Customers told us that they don’t want to recruit an army of Selenium developers to create and maintain automated test scripts which need updating with each new ServiceNow release.?They told us that they don’t want their engineers trying to work out how to scale Selenium testing with spinning up virtual servers etc.
They told us that the platform Automated Test Framework (ATF) struggles to test customisations, custom apps and is difficult to scale.
We don't want our scarce and high cost ServiceNow developers writing ATF scripts or writing code to control and deploy update sets from one environment to another?
They don’t want the same developers writing integrations between Jenkins and the ITBM module for example.?They told us they need documentation to avoid heavy fines and reputational damage for non-compliance with regulations.
They want a single, simple solution that turbo charges ServiceNow development and augments the platform to the next level, and yet still maintains governance and control.
Hence, the AutomatePro view of the world is as shown below.?A single integrated intelligent solution, which automates and removes the complexity of the DevOps process. A solution that is specifically designed and integrated with ServiceNow, to streamline the?ServiceNow delivery value stream.?Which is why our Paul Chorley, our CEO and Co-founder sets our mission...
...to be the world’s leading DevOps Platform for ServiceNow