Exploring ServiceNow Improvements, Office 365 and CLoudability Connectors in Datalink
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The seamless integration users experience when getting started with Apptio or adding new products to their portfolio of applications depend on Datalink to bring together a wide range of data from different sources - including everything from server and application usage stats to financial information stored in your general ledger.  Datalink is your an automated solution that extracts financial data from your source system, whether it's within or outside your firewall. Datalink then seamlessly loads that data into your Apptio instance.

With Datalink, you have full control over monitoring your results, scheduling data retrieval, and automating the uploading process. We provide pre-packaged data integration templates, called connections, which simplify the movement of data from specific source systems to Apptio. 

Once you've configured your connections, Datalink offers transparency by providing visibility into integration jobs, executions, and any errors that may occur. This enhances the consistency and accuracy of the data in your Apptio instance, giving you peace of mind without the hassle of mapping and configuration steps many alternative systems require. For a high-level FAQ around Datalink, follow this link.

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Today, we will explore some major and minor feature releases over the past several months that highlight the focus Apptio places on fortifying our backend infrastructure and core data integration and ingestion platform. starting with ServiceNow.

At Apptio, we understand the importance of seamlessly integrating your ServiceNow data into our system. That's why we've redesigned our connectors on Datalink to make it even easier for you. Our ServiceNow connector, one of the most popular Application connectors on Datalink (Classic), now allows you to connect to a specific component within ServiceNow and effortlessly pull in all the related data from various tables.

With this improved functionality, you no longer need to create separate connectors for each table or have prior knowledge of which tables are relevant. The components you can connect to include Financial, Infrastructure, Tickets, and Applications and Services. This enhancement strengthens our partnership with ServiceNow and enables better integration between the two systems.

Datalink also offers the flexibility of scheduling data extractions. You can set up schedules to run on a daily, weekly, monthly, or custom basis. Please note that the ServiceNow connector supports the Gregorian calendar type.

Rest assured, our ServiceNow connector is fully compatible with all versions of R12 Apptio products. We have extensively tested the connectors with the latest and previous releases (Paris & Orlando, respectively) within the ServiceNow product. It's important to mention that the connector does not make any changes or write anything to your source system.

1. To get started, make sure you have the proper permissions set up for accessing the data in the selected tables through ServiceNow APIs. You can learn more about setting permissions to ensure smooth data integration. The ServiceNow user credentials entered in the connector need to have permissions to access the data in the selected tables through ServiceNow's APIs. If users are not granted proper access to the table, you may not return any records. Learn more about setting permissions
2. Next, you'll need to configure a ServiceNow ingress connection. You have the option to use either a standard or a custom ServiceNow connection, depending on your specific requirements. Our resources provide detailed guidance on setting up both types of connections. Learn more about setting a standard connection and a custom connection
3. Once your connection is set up, you can specify the schedule at which you want the connection to run. Whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, or a custom cadence, you have full control over when your data gets pulled in. Learn more about running the connection

The ServiceNow Ingress connector exports data from ServiceNow tables to Apptio for analysis in Cost Transparency.

Users can now use the ServiceNow Egress connector to push data from Apptio to ServiceNow with the release of our newest Beta. The egress connector helps enable the bi-directional flow of data between Apptio and ServiceNow. The other direction is enabled by the ServiceNow Ingress connector. Learn more at our Help Center by visiting the Datalink ServiceNow Ingress connector

To enable the flow of data from Apptio to ServiceNow, you need to complete the following three steps:

1.    Create an import set on the ServiceNow platform.
2.    Set up the reports in TBM Studio.
3.    Configure the Datalink egress connector in Datalink.

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Now, taking a step away from ServiceNow for a moment...

Let's explore the the beta release of Cloudability connector, and general availability (GA) of the Office 365 Graph Connector. For a full description, see our Help Center here.

The Datalink Financials O365 Graph Connector now allows users to allows data ingestion from any Graph endpoint, and retrieves Office 365 data by connecting to Office 365 in the Azure cloud via Microsoft Graph APIs. All extracted data is uploaded to a single table in Apptio as a hash map.

The Datalink Microsoft Office 365 (O365) Connector retrieves the following data from Azure for ease of importing:

•    Subscription list
•    User list
•    O365 user license assignments
•    Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Skype user utilization
•    SharePoint sites and usage
•    OneDrive sites and usage
•    Custom API

In addition, we have launched our Datalink Cloudability (Beta) Connector Connector

Apptio's Datalink Cloudability connector imports monthly Cloudability-sourced cost data into the Cost Transparency, Bill of IT, and Hybrid Business Management applications in order to incorporate that Cloudability data into the cost of specific IT services in Apptio reports. The connector can ingest data from AWS, Azure, and GCP. All Cloudability users need to exclusively use the Cloudability connector moving forward. The Cloudability data replaces the raw provider bills.

The Cloudability integration process involves two steps, both of which must be completed:

1. Set up the Datalink Cloudability connector using the instructions on this page.
2. The second step is to complete the integration setup by following the instructions in Integrate Cloudability cost data into TBM Studio.
   
   

Additional Recent Bug Fixes and Improvements:

Fixes have been made across multiple connectors, including Rest, Datadrop, SFTP, File, Windows Share, Datadrop (Egress), SFTP (Egress), File (Egress), and Apptio connectors This includes a fixed file related error message when connecting through Datadrop to SAP connector, as well as the removal of an error related to looping batches after the limit on Oracle Cloud ERP.

• The Datalink connector now supports column length changes, allowing for large saving custom schedules for connector scheduling
• Security has been improved through improvements and fixes in the Snyk tool
• Changes have been made to increase the reliability, availability, and performance of a variety of all Datalink services
• Performance optimization enhancements for uploader service
• Updated error code mapping from BIIT

If you have any further questions or need assistance, our support team is here to help - contact your Apptio representative. We want to make sure your experience with the ServiceNow connector on Datalink is smooth and efficient.

You can always reference our Help Center or get in touch with us to learn more about running your connection effectively.