Time take to request resources from a typical data center is comparable to self-service provisioning in cloud services

Explanation

When a department is about to implement a new application, it has to submit a request to the data center for additional computing hardware, software, services, or process resources. The data center gets similar requests from departments across the company and must sort through all requests and evaluate the availability of existing resources versus the need to purchase new hardware. After new hardware is purchased, the data center staff has to configure the data center for the new application. These internal procurement processes can take a long time, depending on company policies.

Of course, nothing is as simple as it might appear. While the on-demand provisioning capabilities of cloud services eliminates many time delays, an organization still needs to do its homework. These services aren’t free; needs and requirements must be determined before capability is automatically provisioned.