Methods and apparatus for agreement-based automated service provisioning

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for automated provisioning of resources to fulfill a service agreement. For example, a technique for use by a service provider for automatically provisioning one or more resources based on at least one service agreement offer of a service client comprises the following steps/operations. The at least one service agreement offer is obtained. At least one implementation plan template is obtained. A provisioning description is then automatically derived in accordance with the service agreement offer and the implementation plan template, wherein the provisioning description is usable for configuring one or more resources such that a service may be provided to the service client.

1 . A method for use by a service provider for automatically provisioning one or more resources based on at least one service agreement offer of a service client, comprising the steps of: 
 obtaining the at least one service agreement offer;    obtaining at least one implementation plan template; and    automatically deriving a provisioning description in accordance with the service agreement offer and the implementation plan template, wherein the provisioning description is usable for configuring one or more resources such that a service may be provided to the service client.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises the step of extracting one or more elements from the agreement offer.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises the step of determining one or more allocation parameters associated with the implementation plan template based on the one or more extracted agreement offer elements.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises the step of generating the provisioning description based on the one or more allocation parameters.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises the step of automatically checking the feasibility of the agreement offer.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the automatic feasibility checking step further comprises at least one of syntactically verifying the agreement offer, determining success of deriving a resource configuration based on the agreement offer, and determining availability of one or more resources of the resource configuration at a desired time of service.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises the step of informing the service client of a result of the feasibility check.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises the step determining a match between one or more elements of the service agreement offer and one or more parameters of the implementation plan template.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises the step generating an instance of a provisioning description when a match is determined.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of providing at least one agreement template to the service client for use in generating the service agreement offer.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises use of the implementation plan template to identify one or more agreement parameters.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises use of the implementation plan template to determine respective amounts of different types of resources based on one or more agreement parameters.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises use of the implementation plan template to configure and assemble one or more types of resources.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises use of the implementation plan template to define one or more types of resources.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the automated provisioning description derivation step further comprises representation of the implementation plan template as an Extensible Markup Language structure.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of executing the provisioning description.  
     
     
         17 . Apparatus for use by a service provider for automatically provisioning one or more resources based on at least one service agreement offer of a service client, comprising: 
 a memory; and    at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to: (i) obtain the at least one service agreement offer; (ii) obtain at least one implementation plan template; and (iii) automatically derive a provisioning description in accordance with the service agreement offer and the implementation plan template, wherein the provisioning description is usable for configuring one or more resources such that a service may be provided to the service client.    
     
     
         18 . An article of manufacture for use by a service provider for automatically provisioning one or more resources based on at least one service agreement offer of a service client, comprising a machine readable medium containing one or more programs which when executed implement the steps of: 
 obtaining the at least one service agreement offer;    obtaining at least one implementation plan template; and    automatically deriving a provisioning description in accordance with the service agreement offer and the implementation plan template, wherein the provisioning description is usable for configuring one or more resources such that a service may be provided to the service client.    
     
     
         19 . A method for use in automatically managing the provisioning of one or more resources, comprising the steps of: 
 generating an agreement template; and    generating an associated agreement implementation plan template.