ServiceNow Zurich Upgrade Tips: Update or Wait?

The ServiceNow Zurich upgrade is now available, and as a ServiceNow user, you might be facing a familiar question: Should we upgrade immediately, or wait?

It’s a decision that will affect your entire organization, from daily operations to strategic initiatives. Let’s explore the practical considerations you need to weigh to make the right decision for your organization.

Quick Overview:

The ServiceNow Zurich upgrade is now available, and you need to decide: upgrade now or wait?

There’s no universally “correct” answer, and it depends on your organization’s readiness, risk tolerance, and whether the timing makes sense for your business.

Key takeaways:

• What’s in Zurich: The latest ServiceNow release includes new and updated AI features, application development capabilities, UI/UX enhancements and more. 
• The risks: Upgrades can disrupt operations, and data loss is a greater risk if appropriate disaster recovery plans aren’t in place.
  ServiceNow’s out of the box backup capabilities do not meet many organization’s requirements.
• When to upgrade: If you’re technically ready, have strong backup strategies, and the features align with business priorities, upgrade within 1-2 months. If not, wait strategically (3-6 months), but don’t delay so long that you fall into unsupported version territory.
• How Perspectium helps: Addresses the limitations users face with native backup/recovery, and provides data replication and integration capabilities that archive excess data and cut down on integration sprawl to make upgrading more manageable.

Bottom line: Make an intentional decision based on your readiness without drifting into an unsupported version by default.

For a detailed breakdown of each consideration and how to assess your organization’s readiness, continue reading below.

The Upgrade Decision: Opportunities Vs. Risks

Before deciding whether to upgrade now, or to wait, you need to understand what’s actually changing in your ServiceNow environment. Every upgrade brings new features, but it also brings potential complications. Particularly, when upgrading soon after a new release.

Why Upgrading ServiceNow Early is Risky

Upgrading a platform like ServiceNow immediately after a new release carries several risks.

Early adopters often encounter unforeseen bugs, performance issues, or compatibility problems with custom applications, integrations, and workflows. 

Third-party plugins or internally developed scripts may not yet be fully validated for the new version, leading to potential disruptions in business-critical processes. 

Additionally, documentation and community support for a new release may still be limited, making it harder to troubleshoot emerging issues.

As such, the first step in making an informed decisions about when to upgrade is to research what the ServiceNow Zurich upgrade has to offer. The second step is to decide whether any of the potential opportunities make the upgrade worth prioritising in the immediate or near-future, considering the risks associated with early adoption. 

Is the ServiceNow Zurich Upgrade Worth the Risk of Early Adoption?

Whether the ServiceNow Zurich upgrade is worth the risk of early adoption or not, is totally down to your organization, it’s ability to deal with disruption, and the opportunities it believes the Zurich release make possible.

To help you take a step towards the right decision, we’ve included some of the ServiceNow Zurich upgrade’s highlighted features and capabilities below. 

For a more comprehensive look into what the ServiceNow Zurich upgrade has to offer, check out this article.

What’s New in the ServiceNow Zurich Upgrade?

New AI Capabilities

Build Agent & Vibe Coding:

• Enables app creation using natural language prompts (“vibe coding”).
• Generates full-stack applications (logic + interfaces) in real time.
• Supports iterative development via conversational feedback.

AI Agent Fabric:

• Allows AI agents to connect with external data sources and systems. But many organizations will still prefer to extract ServiceNow data for use elsewhere, rather than bringing external data into ServiceNow.
• Improves cross-platform automation and AI integration.

Agentic Playbooks:

• Builds on traditional playbooks with embedded AI.
• Reduces manual intervention through intelligent step execution.

Application Development Enhancements

Developer Sandboxes: 

• Isolated environments for testing, experimentation, and QA.
  • Prevents impact on production or shared development instances. 
  • Includes a dashboard showing:
    • Total, available, and allocated sandboxes.
    • Status, data utilization, and sandbox owner information.

ServiceNow Studio Enhancements:

• Improved visibility and access to AI components, such as making AI building blocks browsable within the Studio taxonomy.
• Simplifies the integration of AI agents and intelligent features.

Security Features

Machine Identity Console and Access Control:

• Centralized view of all inbound integration accounts.
• Automated identification of high-risk connections (e.g. basic auth, inactive accounts).
• Granular permissions for machine integrations.
• Reduced over-privileged API usage.

Platform Encryption:

• Encrypts full storage volumes and individual database fields.

Row-Level Access Control:

• Assigns encryption keys based on data context (e.g., HR vs general data).
• Enables fine-grained security and compliance control.

Domain Separation: Delete by Domain

• Allows domain admins to securely delete customer-specific data.
• Supports compliance with privacy and data retention policies.
• Reduces storage and maintains domain isolation.

Curious to learn more? Discover the key features in the ServiceNow Zurich upgrade that will revolutionize your IT operations.

Now that you know what’s in the release, the next step is determining whether the upgrade is worth the risk and effort for your organization. That decision comes down to four critical questions.

The Four Key Questions To Consider Before Upgrading 

These four questions will help you assess whether the ServiceNow Zurich upgrade should be an immediate priority, or if waiting makes more strategic sense for your organization.

1. Will upgrading disrupt our business?

Yes. Most likely. ServiceNow upgrades aren’t seamless background processes, and they impact your live environment while users are working.

What Happens During Upgrade: Users can continue working in most cases, but certain features may be delayed or temporarily unavailable. This includes scheduled jobs, metric updates, and some workflow executions. Depending on your organization’s reliance on these features, this can create operational friction.

However, you can minimize the disruption with proper planning, such as: 

• Communicating upgrade plans to all stakeholders in advance so teams can plan around potential limitations.
• Scheduling the upgrade during off-business hours or weekends when system usage is lowest.
• Ensuring critical notifications, such as email events, continue to function, as communication breakdowns during upgrades can exacerbate problems.
• Replicating ServiceNow data externally, so you can continue working with ServiceNow data even while the platform is unavailable. Of course, external replication provides benefits beyond simply making upgrade-related disruption more manageable, such as advanced reporting.
  

2. Could we lose data?

This is one of the most significant concerns organizations face with any ServiceNow upgrade.

What Happens to Data: ServiceNow upgrades don’t intentionally overwrite your data or custom code, but they replace uncustomized out-of-the-box functionality. However, that doesn’t mean your data is entirely safe.

Bigger threats exist outside of the upgrade itself, such as human error during the upgrade process, or the upgrade breaking integrations that then lose data in-transit. 

And if something goes wrong, restoring from a ServiceNow-created backup requires multiple rounds of communication with ServiceNow (as users cannot initiate their own restore), instance downtime, and may lead to the permanent loss of any delta data created since the last backup. 

Since ServiceNow does not let users control the backup schedule or backup on-demand, the amount of delta data created since the last backup can be significant. 

How should ServiceNow users protect data during upgrades?

• Develop robust backup and disaster recovery strategies before commencing any upgrade.
• Recognize that ServiceNow’s out of the box backup capabilities have limitations in frequency, speed and control. As such, organizations should leverage purpose-built backup solutions like Perspectium Snapshot that provide on-demand backups and faster restores, giving you control over your recovery timeline instead of waiting on ServiceNow support tickets.
• Always test upgrades in sub-production environments first. Never upgrade production without validating the process in a test environment.

3. What happens if we wait?

ServiceNow releases a new version every 6 months. They support the current version family and the previous version family (N-1). Once your version becomes two releases behind (N-2), you’re running an unsupported version.

So, waiting isn’t inherently bad, but it’s a strategy that requires understanding the timeline and consequences.

When to wait:

• Wait until Patch 2 if you want ServiceNow to work out initial bugs and issues reported by early adopters.
• Wait if you’re approaching year-end, peak business seasons, or critical project deadlines where disruption could be costly.

When you’ve waited too long:

Waiting is not inherently a problem, but delaying indefinitely creates its own problems as follows.

• If you are on unsupported versions and encounter problems, ServiceNow may not help you resolve them.
• Security vulnerabilities remain unpatched, leaving your instance exposed.
• Technical debt accumulates. The longer you wait, the more complex and risky your eventual upgrade becomes, as changes accumulate.

4. Is it worth the effort right now?

This question comes down to weighing your organization’s current situation against the risks and benefits of upgrading.

• Upgrade Soon (1-2 months): If the AI capabilities align with your strategic initiatives, your current version is nearing end-of-life, or you’re under competitive pressure to leverage new features.
• Wait Strategically (3-6 months): If you want to let ServiceNow resolve bugs in Patch 1 or Patch 2, consider approaching business-critical periods where disruption is unacceptable, or if you have resource constraints that prevent proper testing at this time.
• Waiting Too Long: Once your version reaches N-2 (unsupported), your upgrade window becomes dramatically smaller. At that point, you’re forced to upgrade under pressure rather than on your terms, which significantly increases risk.

The key is making an intentional decision based on your organization’s readiness, not simply deferring until you have no choice, or rushing into an upgrade you are not prepared for. 

Making The Decision: Your Action Plan

Now that you’ve considered the four key questions, it’s time to evaluate where your organization actually stands. This isn’t about whether ServiceNow says the upgrade is valuable, but it’s about whether you’re prepared to execute it successfully and whether the timing makes sense for your business.

Here’s the assessment checklist for you to evaluate your organization’s readiness across these dimensions. 

Technical Readiness

Before committing to an upgrade timeline, assess your technical capabilities to execute it effectively. 

Consider these questions:

• Have you tested the upgrade process in sub-production environments to identify potential issues?
• Do you have sufficient backup strategies in place that enable a swift recovery if something goes wrong? Are you aware of ServiceNow’s backup and restore limitations that may make ServiceNow backups insufficient for your organization?
• Integration sprawl can be a huge barrier to a smooth upgrade process. How many other technologies are dependent on ServiceNow and its data? Can you afford for the integrations between ServiceNow and those technologies to break? And do you have the resources to test and support those integrations after upgrading? 

If your technical readiness is low, upgrading now could expose you to avoidable risks.

Business Priority

The features included in the ServiceNow Zurich upgrade need to align with what your business actually needs right now.

Consider these questions:

• Do the AI, security, and workflow automation features address current pain points or strategic initiatives?
• Or are these features that sound interesting but don’t solve immediate business problems?

Just because ServiceNow releases new capabilities, doesn’t mean your organization needs them urgently.

Risk Tolerance

Every upgrade involves risk, and the question is whether your organization can absorb it.

Consider these questions:

• Can your organization handle temporary disruption to operations during the upgrade window?
• If the upgrade causes unexpected issues, do you have the ability to manage a rollback or recovery quickly and efficiently?

If your risk tolerance is low—especially during critical business periods—waiting for a more stable patch is the smarter move.

Resource Availability

Upgrades require time, budget, and people. 

Consider these questions:

• Does your IT team have the capacity to plan, test, and execute the upgrade properly?
• Is there a budget allocated for testing, potential troubleshooting, and training on new features?
• Are your team members available, or are they already stretched thin with other projects?

Under-resourced upgrades are where problems happen. If you can’t dedicate the right resources, you’re not ready.

Based on your assessment across these four dimensions, here’s a practical framework:

• High readiness and strategic alignment = Upgrade soon (1-2 months). You’re prepared, the features matter to your business, and delaying only increases the risk of falling behind on support.
• Medium readiness = Upgrade within 3-4 months. You need some additional time to prepare, test, or wait for ServiceNow to release patches addressing early adopter issues.
• Low readiness = Plan for the upgrade, but wait at least 5-6 months. Use this time to build your readiness by improving backup strategies, allocating resources, and conducting thorough testing. But don’t wait so long that you fall into the unsupported version window.

The best approach is to make a timely decision, ensuring you’re always on a supported version. This way, upgrades are seamless, well-planned, and much less risky. 

How Perspectium Makes Upgrading ServiceNow Less Risky

One of the most significant risk factors when upgrading is your data. That’s because data is often vital to ensuring processes can function properly, employees can carry out their day-to-day tasks, and customers receive services in line with expectations and SLAs. 

But data and what might happen to it after an upgrade is not only a risk factor. It’s a part of what needs to be accounted for during the upgrade.

As such, the more data and integrations that move data that you have to account for, and the poorer the governance and management of those data and integrations is, the more likely you are to face disruption during an upgrade. 

Perspectium and its suite of solutions, purpose-built for ServiceNow, mitigates risk and disruption via the following ServiceNow-native applications:

Perspectium Snapshot: Fast, Self-Service Backup and Recovery

Snapshot is a purpose-built backup and recovery solution for ServiceNow that provides users with control over when backups are made and what they include. 

Unlike ServiceNow’s out of the box backup capabilities, Snapshot gives users complete control over automating a backup schedule and creating backups on-demand. 

Users have fine control over what is included in a backup, and what is restored from a backup, can retain backups indefinitely, and create as many as they like. 

Furthermore, when restoration is required, the process can happen on your organization’s terms, without requiring a ServiceNow support ticket or even instance downtime for fast restoration and minimal disruption.

How Snapshot Supports Organizations Through ServiceNow Upgrades

Limit Delta Data and Meet RPO: Because Snapshot lets you create backups on your terms, organizations can create a backup as close to the start of the upgrade process as they like, to limit the creation of delta data that is not captured in the backup. 

This has a positive impact on their ability to meet recovery point objective (RPO) – the maximum amount of data an organization can afford to lose during a disruptive event.

Recover Quickly, without Downtime and Meet RTO: With users capable of initiating restoration on their own terms, the process can begin much more quickly. 

Coupled with Perspectium’s high-throughput architecture and the fact that Snapshot does not require instance downtime, disruption can be dealt with much faster than when relying on ServiceNow’s default backup technology. 

This positively impacts organization’s ability to meet recovery time objectives (RTO) – the maximum time within which an organization’s affected system/application must recover and be fully functional.

Perspectium DataSync: Real-time Data Replication Tool

One of the challenges ServiceNow users face during upgrades is maintaining existing integrations through new ServiceNow releases. 

Many organizations are reliant on multiple point-to-point integrations to ensure ServiceNow data can be replicated within other solutions critical to their ITSM and other business processes. 

As more of these integrations are added over time, they can cause a technical debt referred to as “integration sprawl”. 

How DataSync Supports Organizations through ServiceNow Upgrades

Integration Consolidation: DataSync addresses integration sprawl by allowing organizations to consolidate multiple point-to-point ServiceNow integrations, into a single, one-to-many ServiceNow data replication solution, that Perspectium maintains on behalf of the end-user.

Instead of having multiple integrations all competing for system resources, slowing down the platform, and creating more points of failure to maintain through upgrades and day to day operations, DataSync is a single application that replicates ServiceNow data into a message bus that then integrates with downstream solutions. 

Installed natively within ServiceNow, DataSync can initiate data transfer more efficiently than external, API calls. After this point, the message bus then bears the burden of distribution to one or many targets downstream. 

Because Perspectium maintains its solution as a service, customers enjoy a smaller maintenance burden on internal teams, less ServiceNow integrations to troubleshoot and maintain through upgrades, a better performing ServiceNow instance, and faster data distribution. It’s a win, win, win … win. 

Perspectium Data Archive: Archive Off-platform

As a general rule of thumb, retaining too much data on a platform like ServiceNow is not a good idea.

Not only will you run into performance issues as queries have more data to dig through and surface, you’ll also incur charges for exceeding contractual data storage limits. It’s neither cost, or performance friendly to have a bloated ServiceNow instance. 

It’s also more data that needs to be accounted for during an upgrade. If you’re taking a smart approach to upgrading ServiceNow that leverages user-controlled backups, data bloat in your instance means that backup (and any required restoration after the upgrade) will take longer.

“But what about ServiceNow’s archiving feature?” You ask.

While ServiceNow does indeed provide archiving capabilities, they are limited to archiving within the ServiceNow platform itself, simply moving data from production tables are within the catchment of standard queries, to archive tables that are not. 

This goes some way to improving performance, but since the platform is still storing the data, it doesn’t go all the way. And it also won’t help you avoid additional storage fees.

How Data Archive for ServiceNow Supports Organizations Through ServiceNow Upgrades

Off-platform Archiving: Fortunately, ServiceNow users are able to archive data off-platform with Perspectium’s Data Archive application, allowing ServiceNow data to be stored within repositories better equipped for long-term storage. 

This makes backups faster, meaning upgrades can be commenced more quickly, and also insulates data stored away from ServiceNow from any disruption or risk of loss during the upgrade process itself. 

Future-Proof Your Upgrade Strategy with Perspectium

The ServiceNow Zurich upgrade won’t be your last. With releases every six months, you’ll face this decision repeatedly. The question is whether you’ll continue managing upgrades reactively, hoping nothing goes wrong, or whether you’ll put the right tools in place to reduce risk and maintain control.

With Perspectium, your approach to ServiceNow upgrades doesn’t have to be reactive. The right tools help you address the limitations in native backup and recovery, simplify data complexity, and ensure that every upgrade strengthens your platform instead of putting it at risk.

Want to speak to us about your upgrade plans and how we can help? Contact us today.