On-Demand Self-Service

What Is On-Demand Self-Service?

On-demand self-service is a managed service offered by cloud service providers, which enables clients to provision cloud resources without human intervention.

A company can sign up for a cloud computing vendor’s on-demand self-service package and provision resources at will via an online control panel. The process for requesting cloud resources is completely automated.

Clients can provision various types of services, including computing power, storage, network resources, software, and other infrastructure.

The U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) actively lists self-service as an “essential characteristic” of cloud computing, as it enables the flexibility to deploy server time and network storage at pace.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. What Is On-Demand Self-Service?
2. Key Takeaways
3. How On-Demand Self-Service Works
4. The Cost Savings of On-Demand Self-Service
5. Types of On-Demand Self-Service
6. Examples of On-Demand Self-Service in Cloud Computing
7. On-Demand Self-Service Pros & Cons
8. On-Demand Self-Service Challenges
9. The Bottom Line
10. FAQs
11. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. What Is On-Demand Self-Service?
2. Key Takeaways
3. How On-Demand Self-Service Works
Show Full Guide
4. The Cost Savings of On-Demand Self-Service
5. Types of On-Demand Self-Service
6. Examples of On-Demand Self-Service in Cloud Computing
7. On-Demand Self-Service Pros & Cons
8. On-Demand Self-Service Challenges
9. The Bottom Line
10. FAQs
11. References

How On-Demand Self-Service Works

This approach means that the customer doesn’t need to phone or email the cloud provider’s staff to deploy new services, they can do it all independently. In short, there’s no need to wait for approval to change the underlying computing resources available.

Automated provisioning is extremely popular because it offers companies a high level of operational agility, so they can upgrade or downgrade their infrastructure to optimize performance and control costs.

For example, if a website or app experiences a sudden spike in visitor traffic during a peak period like Black Friday, a company can quickly provision new resources to ensure that the it remains available to users. Then, once traffic returns to normal, they can de-provision resources so that they’re not overspending.

The Cost Savings of On-Demand Self-Service

Another key selling point of these types of services is that a company doesn’t need to pay the upfront cost of deploying and managing computing resources and infrastructure. They can instead pay for access to the minimal computing resources necessary to support their operation and upscale when the time comes.

This can end up being quite a significant short-term saving, particularly when you consider the amount of resources and staff needed to maintain in-house computing resources.

Types of On-Demand Self-Service

There are many different types of on-demand self-service.

Some of these are as follows:

Examples of On-Demand Self-Service in Cloud Computing

There are many examples of on-demand self-services across providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

For instance, AWS offers on-demand instances or virtual servers that run on Amazon EC2. Under this plan, users only pay for the number of seconds that the instance is in the running state.

Another example is Microsoft Azure’s on-demand capacity reservation, which enables users to reserve computing capacity in an Azure region for a predetermined amount of time down to one virtual machine (VM).

Each of these services can be considered on-demand, as the user can provision new resources when they require them without needing to go through the hassle of purchasing and deploying infrastructure manually.

On-Demand Self-Service Pros & Cons

Using an on-demand self-service has a number of different pros and cons:

On-Demand Self-Service Challenges

One of the most significant challenges surrounding self-service is that companies need to be extremely proactive about managing when, where, and how cloud resources are provisioned, and who has the permission to implement them.

If an unauthorized user is permitted to provision or de-provision resources, this could lead to operational disruption or data theft, and put the organization at risk of regulatory compliance issues. It could also lead to the organization overspending on resources.

For these reasons, companies must implement robust controls to ensure that only authorized users can provision resources. Admin accounts should be protected through security measures such as strong passwords, multi-factor authentication (MFA), passkeys, antivirus software, and zero trust.

The Bottom Line

Now we’ve looked at the definition of on-demand self-service, and it’s worth highlighting that it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Different providers will offer access to various services and resources that clients can choose from.

Having the operational flexibility to provision new resources on-demand suits organizations that want to avoid the premium of purchasing and deploying infrastructure in-house.

FAQs