8. vCloud Operations Control : 8.1 Provisioning Management : 8.1.3 Provisioning Process Analyst
   
8.1.3 Provisioning Process Analyst
After provisioning processes are automated, a provisioning process analyst role is needed. Provisioning process analyst responsibilities include the following:
*Working with service development to understand the provisioning implications of new services to be offered.
*Providing Integration and Automation Management with requirements for workflow implementation, modification, maintenance, and integration with systems in other process areas.
*Working with Service Level Management to understand operating level requirements for vApp provisioning.
*Working with monitoring to properly instrument the provisioning process, create thresholds, and implement monitoring.
*Working with Release Management on coordination and validation:
*Provisioning of workflow releases.
*Updates to existing service catalog entries that affect the provisioning process.
*New service offerings being added to the service catalog.
Staffing levels for the provisioning process analyst role depends on the following factors:
*Number of distinct service offerings.
*Rate of service releases.
*Provisioning operating agreements tied to service level agreements.
Whether a part-time or full-time provisioning process analyst or multiple analysts are needed depends on the use and stability of the automated provisioning process and any related operating level agreements tied to service level agreements. In most cases, a part-time or, at most, a single full-time analyst is sufficient. Additional OpEx savings can be realized through IT role consolidation. After the provisioning process is automated, the provisioning process analyst responsible for provisioning management should maintain the automation workflows and integration points with other applications. With the appropriate skills and training, this role can be shared with other roles that have integration and automation activity responsibilities.
Cloud computing drives customer expectations towards increased agility and choice, and requires less time to deliver. By providing an online, consumer self-service portal backed by an automated service provisioning processes; providers can realize OpEx savings and satisfy consumer’s expectations.