# Providers

The Provider defines how to acquire then start Parsl workers on remote resources. Providers may, for example, interface with queuing system of a computer cluster, provision virtual machines from a cloud computing vendor, or manage containers via Kubernetes.

Define a Provider by first selecting the appropriate interface, specifying how to launch workers on newly-acquired resources then configuring how Parsl will adjust amount of resources according to demand.

- Execution Providers
  - Local Provider
  - Cluster Schedulers
  - Kubernetes
- Starting Workers
  - Selecting a Launcher
  - Worker Initialization
- Elasticity
  - Controlling Number of Blocks
  - Parallelism
  - Example Configuration