Bridging IT and OT: How ServiceNow is Transforming Manufacturing Operations

Manufacturing has always captured our imagination. From popular TV shows like "How It's Made" and "Mega Factories" to factory tours offering behind-the-scenes glimpses of production lines, we're fascinated by how things are made. This fascination isn't just about entertainment—manufacturing is the backbone of our economy, driving innovation, creating jobs, building infrastructure, and enabling global trade.

Yet today's manufacturing facilities face a critical challenge: bridging the gap between Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT). As manufacturing becomes increasingly digital, there's a pressing need to integrate these two worlds while maintaining the precision and reliability that production environments demand.

The Discovery Dilemma

Manufacturing facilities are working to catch up with IT best practices by building a "source of truth" database for their hardware and software infrastructure. However, discovering and documenting OT devices presents unique challenges compared to traditional IT environments. While IT networks are designed to handle heavy traffic and multiple redundancies, manufacturing environments require absolute precision and minimal disruption—even a momentary interruption can impact production and harm the business.

This creates a fundamental tension: manufacturers need complete visibility into their technology infrastructure to ensure security and efficiency, but traditional IT discovery methods could risk disrupting critical operations.

A New Approach to Discovery

ServiceNow, known for its powerful IT infrastructure discovery capabilities, recognises these unique challenges. Traditional ServiceNow discovery uses Probes, Sensors, and Patterns to scan networks and identify IP-enabled devices and their applications. While this works well in IT environments, manufacturing facilities need a different approach.

Enter passive discovery—a method that observes existing network traffic without generating additional queries that could interfere with production systems. ServiceNow has embraced this approach through Service Graph Connectors, integrating with industry-leading OT security platforms.

However, manufacturers are learning that passive discovery alone isn't enough. To build a truly accurate database, a hybrid approach is emerging. Leading solutions like Nozomi have introduced "Smart Polling"—a specialised form of active discovery designed specifically for OT networks. This method carefully balances the need for accurate device information with the operational requirements of manufacturing environments

Transforming Manufacturing with ServiceNow

ServiceNow is helping manufacturers bridge the IT-OT gap through several key capabilities:

1. Complete Visibility: Using ISA-95 equipment model standards, ServiceNow creates hierarchical views that map devices to production lines, work centers, and work units, providing a comprehensive view of manufacturing operations.
2. Digital Process Mapping: The platform enables detailed modeling of production processes and their dependencies, making it easier to understand the downstream impacts of incidents or changes.
3. Seamless Integration: Service Graph Connectors facilitate integration with specialised OT security platforms (like Claroty, Nozomi, and Forescout) and even Microsoft Excel, ensuring a complete and accurate CMDB.
4. Automated Workflows: ServiceNow's proven workflow engine, combined with playbook experiences, streamlines change management and incident response processes.
5. Comprehensive Security: The platform consolidates vulnerability monitoring from multiple sources and drives remediation through automated workflows, now extended to OT environments.

These capabilities combine with ServiceNow's analytics and insights to enable predictive maintenance, optimise staffing, and reduce incident resolution times. The result is a deeper understanding and more effective management of manufacturing technology infrastructure.

Looking Ahead

The traditional divide between OT and IT management is narrowing. While some manufacturers still rely on spreadsheets to track their infrastructure, the industry is clearly moving toward more sophisticated solutions. ServiceNow is leading this transformation by:

• Enabling safe and accurate device discovery through both passive and active methods
• Providing a unified platform for service management and security
• Supporting integration with vendor-specific solutions like Siemens IAH
• Helping manufacturers shift from reactive to proactive operations

As the manufacturing industry continues to evolve, Thirdera is helping it drive efficiency, security, and innovation by using ServiceNow to integrate technology (IT) and operations (OT). Discover how manufacturing clients are maintaining a competitive advantage via digital innovation with Thirdera's help.