SaaS discovery
In Snow SaaS Management in SaaS, SaaS applications, subscriptions, users, and user activity for an organization can be discovered in multiple discovery sources.
To take control of compliance, security, and optimization, your organization needs to have full visibility of all your SaaS applications, subscriptions, users, and user activity. This is achieved through collection of data from various discovery sources.
The discovered data is consolidated and presented in a normalized and structured way, to facilitate visibility and optimization. For more information, see Data consolidation.
Application discovery
SaaS applications are consumed through a multitude of devices and sources. Application discovery is focused on finding this flexible consumption of SaaS applications across an organization's SaaS estate, so that it can be consolidated into useful information.
Subscription discovery
Vendors handle the licensing of SaaS applications with a subscription model, and many vendors offer a multitude of subscription types based on various combinations of applications. Subscription discovery is focused on how an organization's subscriptions are distributed and utilized by its users, so that the data can be matched to added cost data and consolidated into useful information.
User discovery
Users today exist in multiple systems, in multiple instances of systems, portals, and information databases within one or several organizations. One person has multiple accounts, sometimes registered with different email addresses or other personal data. User discovery is focused on finding all accounts that one person has in different systems for an organization, so that the data can be consolidated into one user.
In consolidated user tables, the organizational user information that is shown is based on a priority of discovery sources: Microsoft Entra ID connector (previously Microsoft Azure Active Directory), Microsoft 365 connector, Google Workspace connector, other connector.
User activity connects a user to an application. It is the basis for discovery of unknown SaaS applications and a prerequisite for subscription optimization and application management. For more information, see User activity.
Discovery sources
The discovery of SaaS consumption and users requires multiple discovery inputs, called discovery sources. Connecting to discovery sources is a prerequisite to gather SaaS applications, subscriptions, users, and user activity data. The data is consolidated into useful information before being presented on the SaaS pages. For more information, see Data consolidation.
One application, subscription, or user can have multiple discovery sources. User activity can also come from multiple sources. The discovery sources have unique names in the SaaS pages. The discovery sources are also grouped by discovery type and represented by an icon for better overview.
| Icon | Discovery type | Discovery source name | Discovery sources | Discovered items |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud | SaaS connector | The unique name of each connector | SaaS connectors for SaaS vendors SaaS connectors for Microsoft Entra ID or Microsoft 365 | Applications, subscriptions, users, user activity Users and their organizational details in Microsoft Entra ID |
| Padlock | SSO | The unique name of each connector | SaaS connectors for SSO | Applications, users, user activity |
| Browser | Browser unverified | Browser extension Agent cloud application metering | Browser extension Agent-based browser extensions | Applications, users, user activity Applications, users, user activity Note: This discovery type can detect when a user navigates to a URL associated with an application, but cannot verify whether a user has signed in to an application. |
| Browser with checkmark | Browser verified | Browser extension Agent cloud application metering | Browser extension Agent-based browser extensions | Applications, users, user activity Applications, users, user activity Note: This discovery type can verify when a user has signed in to an application. |
| Devices | Device | Device application usage | Device application usage | Applications, users, and user activity in Microsoft 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud applications installed on devices |
| Person | Manually added | Manually added | Manually added subscriptions Manually added applications | Applications, subscriptions Applications |
If applications or subscription types cannot be discovered through a discovery source, they can be manually added. Users cannot be manually added to the system, only discovered.