[ogsa-wg] Glossary definitions: Provisioning & deployment

[Treadwell, Jem]

Hi,
 
On a recent call we agreed to provide a definition of provisioning that
is reasonably high-level and in keeping with general industry usage, and
to provide examples of specific usage.  I also took the action of
determining how deployment is used in OGSA and the reference model, and
determining whether we should keep it as a glossary term.  The answer is
that deployment is used frequently and casually, and in keeping with its
dictionary definition. I do think we should include it in the glossary.
 
Below is what I propose.  Comments & suggestions are welcome as always,
but please remember that the intent is to avoid being too specific. I'd
like to wrap this up on Monday's call.
 
Provisioning (and Deployment): Provisioning is the act of putting a
resource or set of resources into a state such that it is available for
use by a consumer of the service or resource it supplies. Depending on
the context of the operation, the provisioning process might include
activities such as reservation and allocation.

The term "provisioning" is commonly used in conjunction with or as an
alternative to deployment. In contexts where the two are used together,
provisioning is often regarded as the high-level process of gathering
and readying all the necessary resources, while each lower-level
process, such as allocating a server or installing and starting a
software component, is referred to as deployment.

Both terms may have more specific meanings in particular contexts. For
example, EMS defines both terms and regards provisioning as a
heavyweight operation that instantiates operating environments and may
take substantial time, while deployment is regarded as a lightweight
activity that may simply place a dataset or an application on an
already-provisioned resource.

Deployment: See provisioning.

 

Thanks!
 
- Jem
 
________________________________

Jem Treadwell
Hewlett-Packard Company
6000 Irwin Road
Mount Laurel, NJ 08054	  	  	
Phone: 	856-638-6021	
Fax: 	856-638-6190	
E-mail:	 Jem.Treadwell at hp.com <mailto:Jem.Treadwell at hp.com> 	
 
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