What is SnowMirror? What does it do? Why do ServiceNow users need it? SnowMirror consultant Pavel Müller explains in this clip from the new GuideVision Insider podcast.
Smart Data Replication for ServiceNow
SnowMirror makes a copy of the data in your ServiceNow instance to another database. This lets you use the data in a number of ways, including reporting, dashboards and integrations with other platforms.
As Pavel explains, once the data is in the backup database, then it can be used in tools like Tableau or PowerBI.
You might also want to copy data on-premise if your other operations are on-premise, Pavel explains. This might also be elsewhere in the cloud. “These days most of the installations we are making are about copying the data from one cloud to another, let’s say from ServiceNow to Microsoft Azure or AWS.”
Making a backup of production data is an industry best practice, he explains.
It’s all about the details
SnowMirror is just a tool that copies the data from ServiceNow. That’s simple enough, and this leads a lot of companies to write a replication solution in-house. “The thing is that the details here are hard. The ServiceNow platform is not as simple as it might seem.“
The initial development cost is one thing, but you also have to implement all of the features SnowMirror has had for years, he explains.
“What’s being underestimated the most is the maintenance cost. ServiceNow has two releases every year, and then there’s all the security patches and stuff like that.”
Using SnowMirror can save a lot of maintenance costs for its users. “The total cost of ownership is lower. People usually don’t factor in that development, that maintenance. They typically forget about the maintenance costs.”
Pavel also revealed how SnowMirror got its start. Today SnowMirror is used by dozens of Fortune 500 companies like Sky TV and Comcast. But its prototype was built as part of a summer internship project for GuideVision’s first major ServiceNow client, and it has since grown incredibly.
You can watch the half-hour podcast on the GuideVision website: https://guidevision.cz/insights/guidevision_insider_pavel_muller
The GuideVision Insider podcast is available on leading podcast platforms.
