About Provisioning

The original purpose of provisioning is to simplify mass configuration and deployment. Although it has been a commonly used term in e.g. Telecommunications, Construction and Shipping, “provisioning” – as opposed to “deployment” has recently become an important term in Information Technology strategy for a variety of reasons including:

• The increase in the number of internet-connected devices (e.g. 3G mobile phones, PCs, gaming consoles, television set-top boxes, security equipment, cars).
• The growing importance and prevalence of Software As A Service (SAAS), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Cloud Computing/Virtualization – whereby servers and distributed systems themselves require provisioning (e.g. components, updates, configuration data, licenses).
• Heterogeneous networks of devices which may be either on-line or off -line at any time.
• Increasingly complex devices with embedded software, requiring e.g. maintenance, updates, calibration.
• The decreasing life cycle of embedded software relative to that of the machines on which it runs.

In addition to the above, the value of digital intellectual property, the sensitivity of some data and the management complexity of ensuring that licenses, security matters and cost-efficiency are maintained has created the need for a robust, flexible “platform agnostic” approach to provisioning.

OSGi and Provisioning

OSGi was originally developed alongside the concept of “home gateways” in the late 1990’s. Although the (then) predictions of a multitude of intelligent consumer devices connected to the Internet via domestic hubs were proven to be premature, the specification was subsequently embraced and refined by a number of large corporations – including IBM, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, SAP and most of the world’s leading telecommunications companies as the basis of “Universal Middleware” through the OSGi Alliance.

Provisioning is an essential part of OSGi – for  managing the process of dynamic/hot installing, uninstalling, rolling back software, content and data; its scope includes security and license management. Provisioning in the OSGi context is, in addition to providing functionality, aimed at providing a future-proof , publicly accessible basis for dynamic provisioning – free of proprietary strategies and “lock ins”.

The Luminis Provisioning Server (LMS)

Luminis – a leading technology innovation group developed its OSGi Provisioning Server software over a number of years and it has already been successfully implemented by several companies. In 2009 Luminis, as a long time activist in the Open Source movement, donated the code to the Apache Foundation, meaning that the core technology is now freely available (under the name “Apache ACE”). Apache ACE is currently an “incubation” project within the Apache Foundation. From November 2009, Luminis announced an official configuration release of its Provisioning Server, built upon Apache Felix, Apache ACE and a number of additional OSS components. Luminis now offers configuration, support, training and development services to any organization wishing to use LMS, as described on this website. It features functionality to:

• handle all (remote) deployment, installation, de-installation of software components;
• deploy OSGi/Java, .NET, C/C++ and Adobe Flex Components.

Where the target may be desktops, mobile devices, enterprise servers, embedded systems or e.g. a dedicated location in the cloud.

The LMS is typically used:

• Server-based: the most straightforward set-up, utilizing a centralized server which can be addressed by all targets
• Server-Relay-based: Whereby a number of relays are used to create local domains for “target groups” so that the timing and content of provisioning to targets (e.g. customers) can be customized differently per group.
• Server-Relay-Offline-based: Whereby e.g. in a field engineering scenario, portable computers/laptops replicate setup traffic to provision devices which are not or only sometimes online.

In addition to providing support services related to the LMS, Luminis also offer a number of “add-ons” including:

• License Management
• Device Management
• Integrated Software Management

Applications of the Provisioning Server

As mentioned above, the LMS is already in use by a number of organizations, selected examples of its use include:

Example: Content Management

A leading provider of Content Management solutions has integrated LMS into its product offering – predominantly to manage the provisioning of add-ons, options and updates to its product. Some optional add-ons are made available under license and some are f ree of charge. LMS handles secure deployment, customised to each customer’s configuration as well as license management, installation and de-installation

Example: X-Ray equipment

The user – a provider of advanced x-ray equipment uses LMS to provision diagnostics, service management, equipment calibration and software update services to equipment in use all over the world.

Example: On-ship radar equipment

The customer supplies radar equipment designed for sea-going vessels and uses LMS for the periodic updating of the radar equipment’s software. This equipment and the corresponding update procedure is not only complex, but the nature of its use means that updates cannot be performed under some circumstances (e.g. the radar is in use or off -line).

Example: Airport Baggage Handling

One of the world’s most prominent providers of automated baggage handling equipment to airports uses LMS to provision software to all intelligent nodes in baggage handling chains.

Example: 3G mobile telephone applications

LMS has been implemented to mange the licenses of, deploy, install and de-install applications across a network of 3G mobile phones by creating a dedicated market where organisation specific applications are installed.