Increasing the level of automation when provisioning a computer system to access a network

In a computer system that is network connectable through an intermediary computer system to both a second network that includes a plurality of resources and to a first network that at least resources for provisioning the computer system to access the second network ,the intermediary computer system determining whether data from the computer system is transferred to the first network or to the second network such that access to the first network can be allowed while access to the second network is restricted, the first network further including a server that can authorize computer systems to access second network, a method of provisioning the computer system to access the second network so as to reduce user input, the method comprising the following:

• an act of sending credentials to the server to attempt to authenticate with the server;
• an act of automatically presenting a user-interface that can receive user-entered information so that a user of the computer system is not required to have prior knowledge of how to cause the user-interface to be presented;
• an step for requesting authorization to access resources located on the second network;
• an act of, subsequent to submitting a first schema-based document, receiving a second schema-based document that provides an indication that the server authorized the computer system to access resources located on the second network;
• an act of executing a third schema-based document to configure the computer system for accessing the second network so as relieve a user form having to manually configure the computer system.

A computer program product for use in a computer system that is network connectable through an intermediary computer system to both a second network that includes a plurality of resources and to a first network that includes at least resources for provisioning the computer system to access the second network , the intermediary computer system determining whether data from the computer system is transferred to the first network or to the second network such that access the first network can be allowed while access to the second network is restricted, the first network further including a server that can authorize computer systems to access the second network, the computer program product for implementing a method of provisioning the computer system to access the second network so as to reduce user input, the computer program product one or more computer-readable media having stored thereon the following:

• computer-executable instructions for sending credentials to the server to attempt to authenticate with the server;
• computer-executable instructions for presenting a user-interface that can receive user-entered information so that a user of the computer system is not required to have prior knowledge of how to cause the user-interface to be presented;
• computer-executable instructions for receiving user-entered information into the user-interface;
• computer-executable instructions for submitting a first schema-based document that includes the user-entered information to the server;
• computer-executable instructions for, subsequent to submitting the first schema-based document, receiving a second schema-based document that provides an indication that the server authorized the computer system to access resources located on the second network;
• and
• computer-executable instructions for executing a third schema-based document to configure the computer system for accessing the second network so as relieve a user form having to manually configure the computer system.

In a computer system that is network connectable through an intermediary computer system to both a first virtual network that provides a plurality of services and to a second virtual network that provides at least a subset of the plurality of services such that the intermediary computer system determines whether data from the computer system is transferred to the first virtual network or to the second virtual network, wherein a server connected to the second virtual network can provide update information for updating computer systems to access services on the first virtual network, a method of updating the computer system to access a service on the first virtual network so as to reduce user input, the method comprising the following:

• an act of attempting to access a service on the first virtual network;
• an act of automatically presenting an indication that the computer system is to be updated for compatible access with the service so that a user of the application is not required to have prior knowledge of how to update the computer system;
• an act of receiving user-entered information indicating a desire to update the computer system;
• an act of submitting a first schema-based document that includes the user-entered information to the server;
• an act of, subsequent to submitting the first schema-based document, receiving a second schema-based document that includes update information for the computer system;
• and
• an act of executing the second schema-based document to update the computer system so as to relieve a user form having to manually update the computer system.

One or more computer-readable media having stored thereon a data structure, the data structure comprising:

• a name field defining a format for naming a provisioning master document;
• a time-to-live field defining a time-to-live format for representing when a provisioning master document, named in accordance with the naming format defined in the name field, is to be updated;
• and
• a sub-file field defining a format for representing a sub-file within a provisioning master document named in accordance with the naming format defined in the name field.