**MID Server** (Management, Instrumentation, and Discovery Server) is a [[Java (programming language)|Java]]-based software application provided by [[ServiceNow]] that runs on a server within a customer's [[Local area network|local network]], acting as a communication bridge between the [[Now Platform]] instance and external resources such as [[Configuration item|configuration items]], [[Network device|network devices]], [[Cloud computing|cloud]] environments, and third-party [[Application programming interface|APIs]]. Because the ServiceNow instance is [[Cloud computing|cloud-hosted]], the MID Server enables secure access to systems behind [[Firewall (computing)|firewalls]] without requiring inbound connections to the customer's network. MID Servers are essential to several ServiceNow capabilities, including [[Discovery (ServiceNow)|Discovery]], [[Service Mapping]], [[Orchestration (computing)|Orchestration]], and [[Event management|Event Management]]. They execute [[Probe (ServiceNow)|probes]] and [[Sensor (ServiceNow)|sensors]] that collect data from target systems using protocols such as [[Simple Network Management Protocol|SNMP]], [[Windows Management Instrumentation|WMI]], [[Secure Shell|SSH]], and [[Windows Remote Management|WinRM]], then pass results back to the instance for processing. Multiple MID Servers can be deployed across network segments and grouped into [[MID Server cluster|clusters]] for [[Load balancing (computing)|load balancing]] and [[Redundancy (engineering)|redundancy]]. They run as a [[Windows service|Windows service]] or [[Linux]] process and require outbound [[HTTPS]] access to the ServiceNow instance.