What Is ViVID Service Mapping? IT Service Dependencies

ViVID (Visual Impact Display) is Virima’s service mapping and visualization engine, available in Virima 6.1.1. It converts the relationship data that Virima Discovery stores in the CMDB into interactive, filterable topology maps that IT operations, security, and change management teams use to understand their environment, respond to incidents, and assess change risk. This FAQ covers the core capabilities, use cases, and integration points for ViVID Service Mapping

What is ViVID Service Mapping in Virima?

ViVID Service Mapping is a dynamic visualization layer built on top of the Virima CMDB. It renders the CI relationships that Virima Discovery automatically detects, such as which applications run on which servers, which hosts communicate with which other hosts, and which services depend on shared infrastructure, as interactive service topology maps.

ViVID is not a static diagram tool. It reflects the current state of the CMDB, which Virima Discovery continuously updates. When infrastructure changes, the service map changes with it. IT teams use ViVID to understand service dependencies without maintaining separate network diagrams or documentation.

How Does ViVID Automatically Discover IT Service Dependencies?

ViVID does not perform its own discovery. It visualizes the relationship data that Virima Discovery collects. Virima Discovery scans the IT environment using agentless and agent-based techniques to detect configuration items (CIs) and their relationships. It identifies what software runs on which hardware, which hosts communicate with which other hosts, which workloads run on which hypervisors, and how network devices connect.

Every relationship that Discovery detects populates the Virima CMDB. ViVID reads that relationship data and renders it as a service map. Because Discovery runs continuously, the maps in ViVID reflect the current state of the environment rather than a historical snapshot.

What Types of Relationships Does ViVID Show?

ViVID visualizes the full set of CI relationship types that Virima Discovery auto-detects and stores in the CMDB. These include:

Runs On: An application or service runs on a specific server or virtual machine.

Communicates With: A host actively communicates with another host on the network.

Connected To: A physical or logical network connection between two devices.

Installed On: Software installed on a hardware or virtual CI.

Component of: A CI that is a sub-component of a larger service or system.

Hosted On: A workload hosted on a cloud or hypervisor platform.

Virtualized On: A virtual machine running on a specific hypervisor.

Load Balancer For: A load balancer distributing traffic to a pool of application servers.

Users can filter the ViVID view by relationship type, CI class, or service context to focus on the part of the topology most relevant to their current task.

What is a Ghost Machine in ViVID’s Communication View?

A ghost machine is a device that appears in active network traffic data but does not have a corresponding CI record in the Virima CMDB. In the ViVID Communication View, ghost machines appear as visually distinct nodes in the host-to-host traffic diagram, flagged because the device communicates on the network but IT has no formal record of it.

Ghost machines exist for several reasons: a server was decommissioned in the asset register but never physically removed; a developer provisioned a test VM outside the formal request process; a vendor left management hardware on the network; or an unauthorized device was connected to an internal segment.

Ghost machines are security and change management risks because they fall outside patch management, endpoint security, and formal change approval processes. ViVID surfaces them automatically by comparing observed communication traffic against CMDB CI records, so IT teams can investigate and remediate.

How Does ViVID Help with Incident Root Cause Analysis?

When an incident record in a connected ITSM system links to a CI in the Virima CMDB, ViVID displays an incident indicator on that CI’s node in the service map. An incident responder opening the ViVID service map for an affected business service immediately sees the full dependency chain with incident badges on every CI that has an active incident.

This visual pattern reveals whether incidents are isolated or connected to a shared upstream cause. If a database server upstream of three affected applications all carry incident indicators, the responder identifies the probable root cause CI within seconds rather than reconstructing the dependency chain manually.

ViVID supports horizontal, vertical, and radial layout options, so responders can orient the dependency graph to trace the chain in whichever direction the topology flows in their environment.

How Does ViVID Support Change Impact Analysis?

Before a change is approved, the change manager or change owner opens the ViVID service map for the CI targeted by the change. ViVID renders the full downstream dependency chain: every CI that runs on, communicates with, or depends on the target CI.

This Virima ViVID visual impact display gives the change manager a comprehensive view of how a change affects critical infrastructure components, applications, and services. It clearly shows how service mapping works in real time by identifying dependencies through application dependency mapping, helping teams understand potential risks before execution.

The system also highlights whether any dependent configuration items have active incident management issues or scheduled updates, allowing better incident response planning and smoother incident resolution. With built-in intelligence to automate discovery, teams gain accurate insights into relationships without manual effort.

Additionally, ViVID supports seamless integrations with existing ITSM and monitoring tools, improving overall management processes and ensuring better coordination across teams. The blast radius view also enables filtering by relationship type, so change managers can focus on relevant dependencies (such as “Communicate With” or “Run On”), reducing risk and improving decision-making before the change window.

How Does ViVID Show Vulnerability Data?

ViVID integrates with the NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD). Virima Discovery identifies the software versions installed on each discovered CI. The NVD integration cross-references those versions against known CVEs and surfaces matches as vulnerability indicators on the ViVID service map.

Security operations teams and IT asset management leaders use the vulnerability overlay to prioritize remediation based on asset criticality within the service map, not solely on CVSS scores. A server that sits at the base of five critical business services and carries a moderate-severity CVE is a higher remediation priority than an isolated server with a high-severity CVE that no critical service depends on. The ViVID map makes this risk hierarchy visible without a separate analysis exercise.

What ITSM Platforms Does ViVID Integrate With?

ViVID Service Mapping integrates with the native Virima ITSM module and the following third-party ITSM platforms:

ServiceNow

ServiceNow integration enables bi-directional CMDB sync, allowing incident and change records to flow between ServiceNow and Virima while enriching the ViVID service map with operational status indicators.

Ivanti

Ivanti integration connects Ivanti’s ITSM workflows with Virima’s discovery and service mapping data, giving Ivanti users dependency context directly within their service management environment.

Jira Service Management

Jira Service Management integration pairs Atlassian’s service management platform with Virima’s CMDB, so Jira users get CI relationship data and ViVID visualizations alongside their incident and change workflows.

Xurrent

Xurrent integration connects Xurrent’s enterprise service management workflows with Virima’s CMDB and ViVID service maps.

HaloITSM

HaloITSM integration brings Virima’s discovery-driven CI data and service dependency context into HaloITSM’s incident and change management workflows.

Hornbill

Hornbill integration enables Hornbill users to leverage Virima’s vivid service mapping, explained CMDB data, and ViVID dependency maps for more informed service management decisions.

TeamDynamix

TeamDynamix integration extends Virima’s CMDB and ViVID service mapping capabilities into TeamDynamix’s IT service management environment.

These integrations allow incident records, change records, and service relationships to flow between the connected ITSM platform and the Virima CMDB. CI data from the CMDB enriches ITSM records with dependency context, and ITSM incident vivid service map views and change data enriches the ViVID service map with operational status indicators.

Why ViVID Service Mapping Gives IT Teams a Single Source of Visual Truth

ViVID Service Mapping in Virima 6.1.1 gives IT operations, security, and change management teams a single, always-accurate visual interface for understanding service dependencies, vivid it service dependencies investigating incidents, assessing change risk, virima vivid visualization and prioritizing vulnerability remediation. Because ViVID reads from the Virima CMDB, which Virima Discovery continuously updates, the service map reflects how the environment actually works, not how it was documented months ago.

Schedule a Demo at virima.com to see ViVID Service Mapping in your environment.