Efficient network service provisioning

A system comprising:

• a storage device;
• and
• processing circuitry having access to the storage device and configured to:
• modify a distributed ledger maintained by a consensus network to implement a smart contract that is configured to generate, in response to receiving a request for network services, a provisioning request,
• maintain a data store of information about historical performance of each of a plurality of network service providers that are separate from the computing system,
• receive the provisioning request, from at least one of a plurality of computing devices on the consensus network that is executing the smart contract, wherein the provisioning request includes information describing requested network services and information about a time period during which the requested network services are to be provisioned,
• identify, based on the information about historical performance, a selected network service provider from among the plurality of network service providers that are separate from the computing system, wherein to identify the selected network service provider, the processing circuitry is further configured to access the data store of information and interact concurrently with each of the plurality of network service providers to determine, for each of the plurality of network service providers, availability and costs associated with providing the requested services,
• responsive to identifying the selected network service provider, provision the network services through the selected network service provider for the time period included within the provisioning request by interacting with a physical system in a data center associated with the selected network service provider to configure the requested network services in a network of the selected network service provider,
• generate authorization credentials to be presented to the selected network service provider in order to use the network services, and
• enable use of the network services for a user that presents the authorization credentials.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, configure processing circuitry of a computing system to:

• modify a distributed ledger maintained by a consensus network to implement a smart contract that is configured to generate, in response to receiving a request for network services, a provisioning request;
• maintain a data store of information about historical performance of each of a plurality of network service providers that are separate from the computing system;
• receive the provisioning request, from at least one of a plurality of computing devices on the consensus network that is executing the smart contract, wherein the provisioning request includes information describing requested network services and information about a time period during which the requested network services are to be provisioned;
• identify, based on the information about historical performance, a selected network service provider from among the plurality of network service providers that are separate from the computing system, wherein to identify the selected network service provider, the instructions further configure the processing circuitry to access the data store of information and interact concurrently with each of the plurality of network service providers to determine, for each of the plurality of network service providers, availability and costs associated with providing the requested services;
• responsive to identifying the selected network service provider, provision the network services through the selected network service provider for the time period included within the provisioning request by interacting with a physical system in a data center associated with the selected network service provider to configure the requested network services in a network of the selected network service provider;
• generate authorization credentials to be presented to the network service provider in order to use the network services;
• and
• enable use of the network services for a user that presents the authorization credentials.