Provisioning (Computing)

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What Does Provisioning (Computing) Mean?

Provisioning is the process of configuring and deploying an information technology (IT) system resource either locally or in the cloud. In enterprise computing, the term is often associated with virtual machines (VMs) and cloud resource instances.

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The process of removing an IT resource from a system is called de-provisioning.

Techopedia Explains Provisioning (Computing)

Provisioning provides equipment, software, or services to customers, users, employees or IT personnel.

Provisioning in Information Technology

In an enterprise computing context, provisioning is frequently divided into the following subsets:

  • Network provisioning
  • Server provisioning
  • User provisioning
  • Self-service provisioning
  • Subscriber provisioning
  • Mobile device provisioning
  • Internet access provisioning

Types of Provisioning

Cloud provisioning – describes the processes of deploying and integrating cloud services within an enterprise IT infrastructure.

Self-Provisioning – a feature among many cloud service providers that allows customers to spin up (provision) resources without the help of dedicated IT personnel or the service providers themselves.

Thin provisioning – a storage area network (SAN) management process in which the storage capacity for a device is reserved and allocated on demand through a shared storage pool.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.