Glossary
The jargon, in plain words.
Provisioning is full of acronyms. Here's what they mean — and how they relate to what StageReady does.
- MSP (Managed Service Provider)
- An IT company that manages computers, email, and security for many client businesses at once. StageReady's customer.
- Provisioning (staging)
- Setting up a device so an employee can use it — installing Windows, enrolling it, and applying the right settings.
- Bare-metal provisioning
- Setting up a device from a blank disk, including installing the operating system itself — not just configuring a machine that already runs Windows.
- Zero-touch provisioning
- Provisioning that needs no hands-on technician time after kickoff. With StageReady: boot the USB, enter a 6-digit code, and walk away.
- Windows Autopilot
- Microsoft's service for automatic device setup. Devices must first be registered into it — StageReady automates that registration.
- Microsoft Intune
- Microsoft's device-management service that takes over managing a device after it has been provisioned.
- Microsoft Entra ID
- Microsoft's cloud identity service (formerly Azure AD), where user accounts and sign-in live.
- Tenant
- One client organization's Microsoft 365 environment. An MSP manages many tenants at once.
- CIPP
- A widely-used open tool MSPs use to manage all their client tenants in one place. CIPP integration is on the StageReady roadmap.
- GDAP
- Granular Delegated Admin Privileges — Microsoft's mechanism letting an MSP act inside client tenants with limited, delegated rights.
- Azure Key Vault
- Microsoft's hardened service for storing secrets. The only place StageReady keeps client credentials.
- Hardware hash
- A device's unique hardware fingerprint, required to register it into Autopilot. Treated as personal data under GDPR.
- WinPE
- The minimal Windows environment on the USB stick that runs before Windows is installed — just a messenger to the platform.