• Management and Automation
  • Orchestration and Automation
  • Provisioning
  • Laboratory Management
  • Release Management

Provisioning

Creation and preparation of virtual machines to be deployed on IT infrastructure

Provisioning machines presents a laborious manual task for IT administrators which if performed in an uncontrolled manner can lead to server sprawl and unresponsive datacentre services.

Standardisation for the implementation of virtual machines in the datacentre can be achieved through provisioning solutions. IT administrators can be overwhelmed with keeping up with infrastructure requests and require a consistent and automated process for provisioning any system type.

Features of provisioning solutions

• Establishes a catalog and associated deployment policies           
• Provides a consistent process for requesting and approving VMs
• Serves as the “system of record” for all VM requests and deployments

Current datacentre environments are experiencing an ever increasing server sprawl, creating difficulties for the IT services in managing their assets in a consistent manner. This has driven the need for tools that provide a means to automate the deployment of virtual machines.

Through using and incorporating ITIL practices to manage the server provisioning process the organisation can achieve the goals of tracking server assets by deploying in a corporate wide standardised manner. Using the orchestrated provisioning technologies the entire lifecycle of the virtual machine can be tracked, its usage and ownership can be identified throughout its lifecycle.

Automated provisioning also enables the placement of virtual machines on the appropriate computing resources capable of delivering appropriate SLA’s of computing capacity required by the business units. Many organisations achieve higher levels of IT resource usage and manage their IT asset’s in a flexible manner through automating provisioning process. Using an automated provisioning process enables IT services to be more agile in meeting business needs in a predictable manner.

Benefits of provisioning solutions

• Provisioning times reduced from days to hours
• ensuring compliance with corporate IT policies and standards
• Prevents VM sprawl
• Enables systematic tracking and auditing

In summary an integrated provisioning process based on ITIL enables management of IT resources through a central repository of all deployed virtual machines, allowing organisations to identify and segregate computing resources used by each individual business units. 

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