provisioning

Provisioning is an important part of IT operations management and deals with the management of users, their rights and resources, the provisioning of connections, hardware, software, services, applications and storage. The goal of an effective provisioning system is to provide the right resources to the right people at the right time.

Provisioning tasks include entering and maintaining user accounts for each individual user of the software and hardware resources, providing various access techniques such as Multi-Service Provisioning Platforms( MSPP), managing user identification and access controls for the resources he or she uses, and assigning resource usage rights based on department or group affiliations. Provisioning is used in many application areas. For example, in application services, in radio links, in the provisioning of position data in logistics, in the address management of IP addresses, in the management of mobile apps, of digital content or of assets, digitalasset management systems( DAM).

Storage provisioning is about the provisioning of storage space available on storage units in servers and increasing the performance of storage networks. Conceptually, storage provisioning distinguishes between demand-oriented thin provision ing and thick provisioning, in which more storage space is provided than is currently required. In general, the performance of the storage network must be optimally configured for storage expansion and must be available to all users. If part of the storage network fails, the remaining storage network must remain fully functional.

As a description language for provisioning, the Service Provisioning Markup Language( SPML) is used in various applications for the provisioning of services. It is an XML framework developed by OASIS for information exchange and provisioning of IT services and resources.