Closing the Risk Gap: ServiceNow IRM Meets Databricks

A whitepaper by Bazzi Consulting

The same old story Bazzi Consulting has been trying to tell you for the past years and for years to come. With growing regulatory pressure, complex IT estates, and relentless cyber threats, executives are asking a simple but difficult question:

How can we move from reactive firefighting to proactive risk management?

At Bazzi Consulting, we believe the answer lies in combining the strengths of two platforms: Databricks and ServiceNow IRM.

Why Databricks + ServiceNow?

Databricks is the market leader for large-scale data and AI. It ingests massive volumes of raw logs, security scans, and alerts, then applies advanced analytics and machine learning to detect patterns, anomalies, and emerging threats.

ServiceNow IRM (Integrated Risk Management) is the system of record for governance, risk, and compliance (GRC). It tracks risks, controls, assessments, incidents, and remediation tasks — ensuring accountability and audit readiness.

When used together, Databricks becomes the “brain” for predictive analytics, while ServiceNow provides the “nervous system” for execution and governance.

The Integration Concept

Here’s how the two platforms connect:

Security Data Ingestion
Logs, alerts, and vulnerability scans flow into Databricks Delta Lake (bronze, silver, gold layers).

Machine Learning Analysis
Databricks MLflow trains models on this data to predict breach likelihood, prioritize vulnerabilities, and assign risk scores.

Automated Risk Updates
Via REST APIs or IntegrationHub, Databricks pushes results into ServiceNow IRM — updating risk registers, creating incidents, or triggering control attestations.

Governance and Reporting
ServiceNow dashboards present a real-time view of the organization’s cyber risk posture, consumable by executives, auditors, and regulators.

Closed-Loop Feedback
As remediation tasks are completed in ServiceNow ITSM or SecOps, the results feed back into Databricks, continuously improving the ML models.

Example Use Case: Predictive Cyber Risk in Financial Services

Imagine a bank detecting unusual identity access patterns.

1. Databricks correlates IAM logs with threat intelligence and predicts a high-likelihood insider threat.
2. A risk score is sent to ServiceNow, which automatically updates the Operational Risk Register.
3. ServiceNow triggers an incident workflow for investigation and control testing.
4. Executives see the updated cyber risk heatmap in real-time, ensuring transparency for regulators and the board.

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Why This Matters

CROs and CISOs gain a predictive view of cyber risk.

Risk Managers ensure that ML insights don’t stay in silos but flow into governance workflows.

Architects benefit from an extensible, standards-based integration.

Regulators see continuous assurance backed by real-time evidence.

Next Steps

This whitepaper is only the beginning. At Bazzi Consulting, we help enterprises design, implement, and govern integrated risk solutions that combine the best of ServiceNow IRM and Databricks.