= On-demand self-service
<On-demand self-service> lets a consumer provision a computing capability when needed without requiring a human interaction with the provider for each request. The consumer might request server time or network storage through a portal or <application programming interface>.<The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing by Peter Mell and Timothy Grance>[§2, On-demand self-service]{ref}
For example, an authorized research workflow can request a temporary machine, run an analysis and release it through automated calls. The provider can still enforce quotas, permitted configurations and account policy. Self-service describes how a request is fulfilled; it does not promise unlimited capacity or remove the need for <authorization>. Automating repeated provisioning makes temporary resources practical while leaving lifecycle and data-retention choices explicit.
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