📘 Technical Services in ASPM
🧠 Overview: What Is a Technical Service?
A Technical Service is a foundational IT capability that supports applications and systems by delivering shared infrastructure or runtime resources. It provides the technical backbone—such as compute, storage, networking, and monitoring—that enables business-facing applications to function, scale, and stay secure.
Unlike Application Packages, Technical Services are not consumed directly by end-users. Instead, they power the applications that users interact with, often behind the scenes.
🛡 Why Technical Services Matter in ASPM
In Application Security Posture Management (ASPM), understanding what technical services support which applications is critical for:
- Mapping runtime and infrastructure dependencies
- Ensuring availability and SLA tracking
- Improving incident triage and root cause analysis
- Aligning support responsibilities across platform and application teams
- Supporting shared service governance (e.g., patching, monitoring, access control)
By linking Application Packages and Deployments to their dependent Technical Services, organizations gain clear visibility into shared infrastructure risks and can improve their resilience, compliance, and support models.
🔍 Technical Service – Element Type Details
📖 Description:
The TechnicalService entity represents a shared technical capability such as a database, file transfer service, backup engine, or monitoring tool — which is used by one or more Application Packages.
🎯 Significance in ASPM:
Enables centralized tracking and lifecycle management of reusable infrastructure components, allowing security teams to prioritize and govern not just applications but also the platform services they rely on.
🧾 Schema Table
| Attribute | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
technicalServiceId | UUID | Unique identifier for the Technical Service |
name | String | Human-readable name (e.g., “Oracle DB Hosting”, “SFTP Service”) |
description | Text | Explanation of the functionality the service provides |
serviceCategory | Enum | Classification such as: Database, Network, Storage, Monitoring |
owner | String | Team or person responsible for the service's delivery and support |
status | Enum | Lifecycle status: Active, Retired, In Maintenance, Planned |
sla | String (nullable) | Text or reference link to the Service Level Agreement |
supportHours | String (nullable) | Operational hours (e.g., “24x7”, “Business Hours”) |
contactInfo | String (nullable) | Contact info for escalation or support |
dependencies | List | Other Technical Services this one depends on (e.g., Storage → Network) |
relatedApplicationPackages | List | Application Packages that use this service |
serviceOfferings | List | Granular services or deliverables under this Technical Service (e.g., “MySQL 8 Hosting”) |
createdDate | DateTime | Timestamp when the service was created |
lastUpdatedDate | DateTime | Last update timestamp |
🧪 Technical Service vs. Technical Service Offering
- Technical Service: The broad category (e.g., “Database Service”)
- Technical Service Offering: A specific deliverable within that category (e.g., “Oracle 19c Hosting”)
Modeling both allows you to track high-level services and their granular deliverables, which may differ by SLA, hosting environment, or application support level.
🧩 Example Scenarios
| Scenario | Technical Service | Used By |
|---|---|---|
| Central database cluster | Database Service | FinanceApp, HRApp |
| Secure file transfer tool | File Transfer Service | LegalDocsApp |
| API Gateway | API Management Service | CustomerPortalApp |
| Cloud logging with alerts | Monitoring & Alerting | All production AppDeploys |
✅ Summary
Technical Services are the invisible backbone of your application architecture. By modeling them in ASPM, you gain:
- Full-stack visibility — from AppPackage to infrastructure
- Accurate dependency and impact analysis
- Better support handoffs and escalation processes
- Enhanced security posture for shared platform risks
They are not just “infrastructure” — they are strategic services that underpin your business-critical applications.