VENDORiQ: ServiceNow – Building a Digital Fabric – Weaving the Fourth-Wave of ICT

Why it’s Important

There are two important things to note about ServiceNow’s strategy, and both connect with the IBRS fourth-wave ICT model.

First, ServiceNow is not only enabling orchestration of traditional workflows, but orchestrating AI services (nodes) and AI ‘semi-deterministic’ decisions into business processes.  ServiceNow is evolving into the concept of a unified ‘low-code everything’ which combines all elements of process development and interoperability. The distinction between previously discrete solutions such as workflow, robot process automation (RPA), rule engines, AI and intelligent agents, integration, API management, process activity reporting, compliance and governance monitoring, performance management and so on is dissolving. Over time, all such services will be viewed as ‘nodes’ organised within an automation network. What will emerge as a new area of software design architecture is determining the ideal structure of such networks for specific business needs. Examples of how these networks of nodes are arranged include: serial and parallel, decision trees, swarms, semi-deterministic, recursive fractals, etc.

Second, ServiceNow is beginning to leverage data platforms initially designed for analytics and reporting as active business data for processes.  This aligns to IBRS fourth-wave ICT by leveraging the emerging concept of the enterprise active data player, where access to read and write enterprise information is from a highly abstracted data catalogue. Microsoft’s Dataverse is an early example of this concept, as is Snowflake’s capabilities. With the data.world acquisition, ServiceNow is gaining the capability to act as not only a connector to enterprise data platforms, but to abstract how such data is leveraged.

ServiceNow is not the only vendor racing towards the fourth-wave ICT model, but it is arguably one of the most comprehensive platforms at this time.  The announcements from ServiceNow Knowledge 2025 summit in Las Vegas demonstrate that ServiceNow has a firm grasp of the future evolution of enterprise ICT, and it has now shaken off its previous persona as an ITSM solution.  

ServiceNow’s use of the term data fabric not only mirrors IBRS’s digital fabric nomenclature, it mirrors its architecture and strategic direction. IBRS expects Mulesoft, Boomi and others to be following not far behind.

Figure 1:  Fourth-Wave ICT

Who’s Impacted?

• CIOs: Responsible for enterprise-wide technology strategy and investment. Should assess how this announcement aligns with their data strategy, AI adoption plans, and efforts to consolidate or integrate automation platforms. They need to evaluate how ServiceNow’s push towards a ‘low-code everything’ platform influences their application development and integration roadmap. In particular, senior ICT leads should evaluate how their organisation’s ICT strategy aligns with the evolution towards fourth-wave ICT.
• Enterprise Software Leads: Oversee the selection and management of business applications. Need to understand how the concept of a digital fabric impacts the existing application landscape, the potential for workflow automation across different systems, and the role a central ‘low-code everything’ layer within a broader fourth-wave ICT architecture.
• Enterprise Architects: Design the overall technology blueprint for the organisation. Should evaluate the architectural implications of the digital fabric, particularly the data connectivity and governance aspects, and how it fits into their vision for an integrated, data-driven enterprise that aligns with fourth-wave principles of agility, integration, and low-code enablement.

Next Steps

• Explore the practical implications of a digital fabric based on the fourth-wave ICT model.
• Compare ServiceNow’s evolving data fabric and low-code capabilities against similar offerings or strategic directions from other vendors operating in the low-code, integration, and automation space, particularly in the context of emerging fourth-wave ICT models.