provisioning [English]

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InterPARES Definition

n. ~ Computing · The deployment, instantiation, and release of resources and services.

General Notes

In cloud computing, provisioning is often described as rapid or dynamic. Rapid provisioning indicates the ability to quickly deploy, instantiate, and release resources. Combined with dynamic provisioning, which automates the process, a resource appears to the consumer to be unlimited at any time.

Citations

  • Feldman 2001 (†628 p.58): Dynamic provisioning is the ability of service providers to adjust features and services to meet a customer's rapidly changing needs. Traditionally, when a customer wanted a new service or more bandwidth, the provider sent a technician to the customer's site or to a remote location to reconfigure equipment manually. Truck rolls were costly and time-consuming. Dynamic provisioning is a far more cost-effective approach that allows the provider to turn up services or reallocate bandwidth remotely under software control. (†1426)
  • Gittlen 2009 (†633 p.32): Next-generation storage is all about dynamic allocation of resources, and thin provisioning can get that job done quickly and easily - but not carefree. As thin provisioning - also called dynamic provisioning or flex volumes - becomes a standard feature in virtual storage arrays, IT executives and other experts warn that dynamic resource allocation is not a one-size-fitsall proposition. Applying the technology in the wrong way could create a major disaster, they caution. (†1431)
  • Gittlen 2009 (†633 p.32): In traditional storage networks, IT has to project the amount of storage a particular application will need over time, then cordon off that disk space. This means buying more hardware than is needed immediately, as well as keeping poorly utilized disks spinning ceaselessly - a waste of money and energy resources. With thin provisioning, IT can keep storage growth in check because it need not commit physical disk space for the projected amount of storage an application requires. Instead, IT relies on a pool of disk space that it draws from as the application needs more storage. Having fewer idling disks means better capacity management, increased utilization, and lower power and cooling consumption. (†1432)
  • Gittlen 2009 (†633 p.34): Thin provisioning can wreak havoc on your network if you don't have proper allotment policies in place, says Matt Vance, CIO at Nutraceutical, a health supplements company in Park City Utah. "IT has always managed and controlled space utilization, but with thin provisioning you can get a false sense of security We've found that even with a resource pool, you still need to take responsibility in managing the way people receive and use storage. Otherwise you wind up wasting space, and that's hard to clean up after the fact," Vance says. For instance, being lax about monitoring the amount of space users and applications are absorbing can lead to overspending on hardware and software, and necessitate an increase in system management. This is particularly concerning in Vance's environment, where the principal driver for moving to virtualization and thin provisioning was the need to bring high-performance database applications online quickly without breaking the bank on storage requirements. (†1433)
  • Harbert 2011 (†634 p. 22): "A mainframe is a cloud," contends Jon Toigo, CEO of Toigo Partners International, a data management consultancy in Dunedin, Florida. If you, like Toigo, define a cloud as a resource that can be dynamically provisioned and made available within a company with security and good management controls, "then all of that exists already in a mainframe," he says. Of course, Toigo's isn't the only definition of what constitutes a cloud. Most experts say that a key attribute of the cloud is that the dynamic provisioning is self-service - that is, at the user's demand. But the controlled environment of the mainframe, which is the basis for much of its security, traditionally requires an administrator to provision computing power for specific tasks. That's why the mainframe has a reputation as old technology that operates under an outdated IT paradigm of command and control. (†1434)