Re: [provision] What exactly do we mean by provisioning?

[John Aisien <john.aisien@thortech.com>]

I couldn't agree more with Hal's analysis & conclusion, with my preferred
prefix for provisioning being just 'identity' (slightly more generic than
user, as it allows for the possibility of an inanimate 'user').
JA

Hal Lockhart wrote:

 

It is time to be more precise about the charter of this group. In particular I am concerned about the meaning of the unmodified word "Provisioning" which I believe may mean different things to different people.

Provisioning in the everyday sense of the word means providing the essentials for life (provisions), especially food. It was often used in this sense in the field of military logistics.

The term was borrowed by the telephone companies and generally used to mean installation and configuration of hardware (and later software) in support of a particular order for service, as distinguished from generic installation and configuration steps required to make something function as a part of the network infrastructure. For obvious historical reasons, ISPs and other organizations that provide services over a shared infrastrucrture tend to use the term in this sense.

It is interesting to me that the ISO network management model, which is still widely cited, does not make this distinction. It identifies: Performance Management, Configuration Management, Accounting Management, Fault Management and Security Managment. My analysis is that provisioning in the sense described above, includes part of Configuration, Accounting and Security Management, but not the other two.

I was not at the initial XRPM meeting, but I have looked at the materials there and those submitted to the provision comment list. The Darran Rolls discussion document and the pstc FAQ propose: "Provisioning is the automation of all the steps required to manage (setup,

amend & revoke) user or system access and entitlement rights to electronic
services."

Adrian Viego has proposed "Provisioning is the process required to manage (setup, modify, move, & revoke) users' allocations of resources and services."

The second is broader than the first, but both are much narrower than the meaning above in that they revolve around the concept of "user" and therefore identity. For example, if a web hosting company sets up a virtual server for a new customer, this would be included in the broader meaning, but not the narower one. Thumbing through the materials from the XRPM meeting, it seems to me that most of the people present had in mind the narrower meaning. In particular, Phil called for a standardized way to encode the identity schema.

The ADPr site offers this: "eProvisioning refers to automating the process of systematically providing resources and services, according to business requirements." However all the examples they cite revolve around a person.

So I guess the choice boils do to pretty much two ideas:

1. Eveything you do in responce to an order for service.

2. Everything you do to provide service for a person.

My position is that I don't feel strongly about what scope is chosen as long as it is made explicit. I offer the following observations:

1. We need to limit scope in some way if we hope to accomplish anything.

2. If the scope is limited to "identity-related" considerations, we might want to qualify the term provisioning with an adjective, since there are a large number of organizations that use the term in a broader sense and are likely to misinterpret our use. Possibilities include: User Provisioning, User Service Provisioning, Identity-related Provisioning.

Hal

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