Why a Global Entertainment Giant Chose Virima Over the ServiceNow ITSM Platform

This problem is more widespread than it looks. Gartner found in February 2025 that 63% of organizations either do not have or are unsure if they have the right data management practices in place, according to a survey of 1,203 data management leaders. An inaccurate CMDB sits at the root of that gap. This client knew it firsthand.

The Challenge

Our client holds one of the leading portfolios of global, multi-platform entertainment brands. Through television, film, digital content, live events, merchandise, and studio production, this company connects with billions of people in almost every country in the world.

The company adopted the ServiceNow ITSM platform early. That gave them a head start on service management. But it exposed a gap: the platform had no reliable method to populate the CMDB with accurate, current asset data.

Without a fully populated CMDB, the team couldn’t reliably connect impacted assets to incidents, problems, or changes. Relationship and dependency data, essential for understanding how infrastructure components support business services, were missing.

Over time, business users treated CMDB data as unreliable. The ITSM and infrastructure teams set out to find a discovery solution that could populate the CMDB with all infrastructure elements and map the relationships between them.

ServiceNow and Virima: The Players

The infrastructure team, which held the budget, explored options beyond what the ServiceNow ITSM platform offered natively. They wanted better features and, potentially, a better price. After initial research, the team narrowed the field to three vendors for an in-house proof-of-concept evaluation: ServiceNow, Virima, and Device42.

On paper, all three made similar claims. Each promised full integration with the ServiceNow ITSM platform CMDB. The only way to know which could deliver was to test them in the same environment.

The Proof-of-Concept Evaluation

The team ran all three evaluations in the same lab environment. That environment reflected the infrastructure deployed across the company’s global data centers and operated by its various brands. Evaluators assessed discovery capability, usability, and CMDB integration. ServiceNow went first, followed by Device42 and then Virima.

Evaluation Criterion 1: Discovery

The team tested each product’s ability to discover physical servers, virtual servers, hypervisors, network infrastructure, and storage. All three required a similar setup. All three returned decent results.

Virima stood out because of the breadth of its out-of-the-box discovery probes. Those probes reached more device types and returned deeper data than either competing tool. Scheduling discovery scans was straightforward, which kept data current. Configuration Item (CI) updates appeared clearly, and the move to the CMDB could be configured with granular business rules. The data arrived in a cleaner, more consumable format for both the infrastructure and ITSM teams.

Advantage: Virima.

Evaluation Criterion 2: Application and Service Dependency Mapping

Understanding asset relationships and service dependencies is essential for effective ITSM and IT operations. The evaluators wanted to see which tool handled this best.

Virima’s discovery probes and relational algorithms outperformed both alternatives. The dependency maps appeared automatically in colorful, interactive visualizations that teams could arrange and save to their preferences. For more on why this capability matters, see 5 Key Business Benefits of Service Mapping.

Advantage: Virima.

Evaluation Criterion 3: ServiceNow CMDB Integration

With discovery and mapping validated, the team tested how well each tool connected to the ServiceNow ITSM platform CMDB. Virima required only credential entry. The out-of-the-box mappings handled the rest. Relationship maps from Virima appeared inside ServiceNow, though Virima’s own dynamic visualizations were far more useful than ServiceNow’s standard gray-scale displays.

Advantage: Virima.

Evaluation Criterion 4: Price

At some point during the evaluation, Device42 was eliminated for technical reasons. The decision came down to ServiceNow and Virima. The ITSM team preferred ServiceNow, citing simplicity. The infrastructure team owned the budget and wanted a better technical solution.

The procurement team weighed in as well. Even with all of Virima’s technical advantages, the pricing was decisive: Virima came in 45% less expensive than ServiceNow.

Advantage: Virima (four for four).

The Results

After nearly three months of evaluation, the client chose Virima.

“Virima was hands down the best solution. Virima won on functionality, ease of deployment, and licensing costs. Since the deployment is so straightforward, we plan to mostly tackle it ourselves, saving even more money on implementation services. Virima offers an incredible total cost of ownership, which really helped make the case to senior management to go with a company not named ServiceNow.” — Director of Infrastructure

Even the client’s loyal ServiceNow ITSM team acknowledged the outcome. When they saw Virima’s discovery capabilities, its ease of use, and how tightly it connected to the ServiceNow CMDB, they understood why Virima was the clear choice.

How Virima Keeps Your ServiceNow ITSM Platform Running on Accurate Data

Organizations of all sizes trust Virima Discovery because it provides the breadth, depth, and scale to eliminate uncertainty about IT assets. When your configuration data is accurate and current, service management decisions improve across the board.

Virima discovers and maps your critical IT resources and the relationships that connect them to applications, services, and users, through high-frequency discovery cycles that keep your CMDB current. See how this changes what your ServiceNow ITSM platform can do: explore Trusted Runtime Truth.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ServiceNow ITSM platform?

ServiceNow is an enterprise IT service management platform that helps organizations manage incidents, problems, changes, and service requests. Its effectiveness depends on an accurate, fully populated CMDB to connect assets to service events.

Why did the entertainment company choose Virima over ServiceNow Discovery?

Virima won on four criteria: discovery breadth, application and service dependency mapping, CMDB integration ease, and price. At 45% lower cost with superior discovery capabilities, Virima delivered a stronger return on investment.

How does Virima integrate with the ServiceNow ITSM platform?

Virima integrates with the ServiceNow CMDB through certified APIs. Discovery data is normalized and synced to ServiceNow with bidirectional support, including relationship and dependency maps. The integration requires minimal configuration, and out-of-the-box mappings handle CI population from day one. Learn more on the Virima IT Discovery page.