Hub and spoke capability overview

A hub and spoke environment is a logical topology that enables a single service provider company (residing on the hub server) to support multiple operating companies (residing each on their own spoke server).

Data security ensured

The hub and spoke topology ensures data security between the service provider and individual operating companies, because no data passes between the individual spoke servers in the hub and spoke topology. Any data transfers that take place occur strictly between the hub server and the spoke server on which the operating company that owns the data resides. 

The local BMC Helix ITSM configuration and business rules are maintained on each spoke server, according to the business-specific or local regulatory requirements of the operating company. The following list describes some of the business rules and types of data that are maintained on the local spoke server: 

• Approval mappings
• Asset data in the Configuration Management Database
• Assignment rules
• Audit and archive data
• Business time segments
• Financial configuration
• Notifications
• Product and operational categories
• Risk configuration
• Rules
• Service targets
• Templates

In addition to the types of information in the preceding list, any data associated with BMC Service Level Management, BMC Service Request Management, or BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management is maintained only on the spoke server. It is not transferred to the hub server.

Unlimited spokes

There is no limit to the number of spoke servers that a hub server can support. The hub and spoke capability is designed in such as way that all transaction processing is handled on the spoke server. The hub server receives only a stub ticket from the spoke server, which enables the hub server to easily scale horizontally when there is a large volume of tickets. 

Use case

By using the hub and spoke capability, a member of the service provider's support staff can work with records from any of the operating companies with which the support staff person is registered. The hub system receives and stores only a subset of the data from the original record (company name, client name, record type, and record ID number). The rest of the record's data remains securely on the spoke system. The hub system then displays the transactional data in the corresponding application console on a workstation connected to the hub server. From the application, a member of the support staff can open the record directly from the spoke server, view the record's details, and work the record through its lifecycle.

For example, Francie Stafford is a member of the support staff of Calbro Services, which is a service provider for several operating companies. Francie opens her Incident Management console and sees three newly assigned incident requests, one each from Operating Company A, Operating Company B, and Operating Company C. Because Calbro Services uses the hub and spoke capability, only the information shown on Francie's console is actually stored on the hub server. When Francie opens the new incident request from Operating Company B, she is automatically connected to Operating Company B's Incident Management system (which is on the spoke server), where she views the incident request's details and works with the incident request through its lifecycle.

The following diagram explains the hub and spoke architecture.

The hub and spoke capability is supported in the following applications or consoles:

• BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management
• BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk: Incident Management
• BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk: Problem Management
• BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management
• BMC Service Level Management
• BMC Service Request Management - Work Order application
• Overview console