BigPanda Unified Data Connector
The BigPanda Unified Data Connector syncs data from your ITSM platforms to provide context and insight for the AI Incident Assistant, AI Incident Prevention, and AI Detection and Response. Ingested data is securely stored and made available in the IT Knowledge Graph, powering accurate answers, deep analytics, trend analysis, and advanced capabilities.
The Unified Data Connector has a standard connector for many tools, or a custom connection can be created for the tool of your choice.
Downdetector
Nimbustat
BMC Remedy
Global Disaster Alerting and Coordination System (GDACS)
Service Management Automation X (SMAX)
Data Redaction
You can redact sensitive information ingested via the Unified Data Connector, including PII, PHI, and PCI, giving you confidence that your confidential data remains exclusively within your approved channels. See the Data Redaction documentation for details on managing sensitive data.
Streaming Modes
You can set up both historical and incremental streaming modes for each data connector. Most organizations will need to use both modes.
Historical modes sync only data from a selected start date and after. This works well for one-time data loads or when you need to backfill data that was previously missed. Historical mode is the default, recommended method of initially syncing data.
Historical mode
Historical streams can take minutes or days, depending on the amount of data sent.
Incremental modes run periodically and sync all new or updated records. This mode works well for scheduled, recurring data loads. Depending on what functionality you are using within BigPanda or AI Incident Assistant, your incremental sync time period may vary.
Frequently Asked Questions
General
Q: How does the Unified Data Connector protect sensitive data and PII?
A: You can create filters for your tables to ensure that sensitive data is not included in the sync. Additionally, the Data Redaction feature can automatically scan for PII and remove it.
Q: How long does the initial sync take?
A: It depends on the rate limit in place, the amount of data synced, and the sync start date. The initial sync can take anywhere between a few hours to multiple weeks.
Q: How often does the data sync?
A: The default sync frequency is set to 2 minutes, but it can be modified. You can set the frequency from 1 minute to 24 hours.
ServiceNow
Q: How do you ensure that APIs don’t bypass manual review or approval processes when writing back into ServiceNow (such as during incident closure), and that audit trails are preserved?
A: The Unified Data Connector does not write anything to ServiceNow. It only uses GET APIs to pull data. Just like other user activity, you can track the user activity of the Unified Data Connector user in the ServiceNow system logs.
Q: What controls are in place to ensure that ServiceNow performance is not affected by large data pulls or frequent polling?
A: The Unified Data connector has the following features in place to control and limit the number of calls and load on the server:
Batch size control - Larger batch sizes result in fewer overall calls to the server.
Max calls per minute - This setting controls the maximum number of calls sent to ServiceNow. After it reaches the maximum, it pauses for a configured amount of time.
Incremental loads - Every incremental load starts from the state that the last load had completed.
Q: Will customizations break if ServiceNow upgrades or changes its APIs?
A: Only a small number of unique calls are used for the sync.Calls made to ServiceNow are core REST APIs that don’t change often, such as now/table/{table_name}. If ServiceNow makes a change, the fixes to the Unified Data Connector will be minor and happen quickly.