I once sold a program to a customer that promised to track and maintain an inventory of one vendor’s technology assets in the plant. The president of another company explained to me about 10 years later about the company’s development of a technology asset discovery and tracking system that had done the program I had sold a quantum leap better.
Obviously, technology asset tracking is a customer need. Now that those controllers and sensors and the like are connected exposing the company to cybersecurity risk, combining this with a security system makes sense.
This news from a company blog post announces just such a merger. Service Now has signed an agreement to acquire Mission Secure to accomplish just that.
Neelima Rustagi writes on the company blog, “This acquisition directly benefits our OT customers in industrial markets such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, energy and utilities, oil and gas, and transportation and logistics by enhancing their ability to make informed decisions and optimize their operations. It marks a significant milestone as we continue to expand our portfolio of OT solutions, delivering greater value and efficiency to businesses.”
She further expands on the topic:
Mission Secure technology will enable ServiceNow to provide OT asset visibility, making it easier for organizations to track and manage their OT, such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), sensors, robotic systems, and control modules.
Having a limited view of assets can make it difficult for leaders to understand how to prioritize, manage, and optimize their OT. It’s particularly challenging for organizations in industrial markets due to the complexity of their control systems, networks, and communication protocols. These businesses can no longer afford to operate in the dark.
Through this acquisition, we’ll enable customers to use ServiceNow for OT asset inventory featuring a native discovery capability for OT networks. This will allow customers to monitor traffic to determine what’s on their network and to poll and query devices to get inventory details.
Visibility provides the foundation for managing all workflows. Mission Secure technology creates this visibility by using advanced algorithms. It integrates smoothly into existing workflows, allowing customers to see their asset landscape. This level of visibility enables customers to reduce the impact of human error in change management and resolve OT device issues faster to improve uptime.
By bringing Mission Secure into the fold, ServiceNow is creating a unified platform for digital factories. The new ServiceNow OT discovery capability will enhance OT device metadata available to our OT partners by adding context to the inventory and essential connectivity data. This will help customers maximize operational uptime through integrated workflows and contextualized data insights. We’ll provide even greater flexibility as we continue to grow our partner ecosystem.
The Mission Secure acquisition follows our previous acquisitions of 4Industry and EY Smart Daily Management Application, as well as G2K, broadening ServiceNow’s reach in the digital factory space and strengthening our position in the OT sector. We’re better positioned than ever to offer these essential capabilities and bring even greater value to our customers.
