Tenant control in initiating atomic platform tasks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10110501-B2
Application number	US-201414324511-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2014
Priority date	Jul 7, 2014
Publication date	Oct 23, 2018
Grant date	Oct 23, 2018

Abstract

Tenant and server platform coordination of the performance of atomic tasks that are to be performed by the platform, but which have at least a potential impact on the tenant. The server platform allows a particular tenant a timeframe within which the tenant itself may approve of initiation of each of one or more tasks. The server platform may protect itself from delayed action by imposing time constraints on the timeframe such that after the timeframe is elapsed, the tenant no longer has control over triggering the initiation of the particular task. Accordingly, the tenant is provided with flexibility on controlling initiation of a task performed by the server platform, while the server platform maintains a level of control to protect its resources and balances the needs of the various tenants.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for operating an architecture that improves workflow execution by selectively invoking a greater knowledge of a tenant over a lesser knowledge of a server platform so as to defer a workflow task to a more appropriate time given the tenant's greater knowledge, the method comprising:
an act of the tenant receiving from the server platform a designation relating to a particular atomic task, the designation indicating (1) that the particular atomic task will be performed by the server platform and (2) that performance of the particular atomic task will potentially affect the tenant;
an act of the tenant identifying that the server platform is using the designation to pass the tenant at least some control in determining when the particular atomic task is to be performed by the server platform, wherein the tenant retains the at least some control throughout a determined timeframe indicated within the designation, and wherein passing the tenant the at least some control is performed, at least in part, because the tenant has greater knowledge regarding how urgent the particular atomic task is; and
an act of the tenant approving of the server platform performing the particular atomic task, wherein the tenant's approving is performed within the determined timeframe, and wherein the tenant's approving is at least partially based on an expected time that the server platform will wait after the server platform receives an instruction to initiate the particular atomic task from the tenant,
whereby, as a result of the server platform coordinating with the tenant as to when the particular atomic task is to be performed, execution of the particular atomic task proceeds at a pace that enables the server platform to use its resources more efficiently by processing tasks in accordance with a determined urgency of those tasks.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the act of the tenant approving comprises:
an act of the tenant waiting until an end of the determined timeframe without sending an explicit communication to the server platform approving of the particular atomic task, thereby implicitly approving of the server platform performing the particular atomic task.

3. The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the act of the tenant approving comprises:
an act of the tenant communicating to the server platform an explicit approval of the particular atomic task within the determined timeframe.

4. The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the designation also relates to a plurality of other atomic tasks.

5. The method in accordance with claim 4 , wherein the act of the tenant approving comprises:
an act of the tenant explicitly approving of each of at least one of the plurality of atomic tasks within a single communication.

6. The method in accordance with claim 5 , wherein the act of the tenant approving comprises:
an act of the tenant explicitly approving of each of at least some of the plurality of atomic tasks within the single communication to the server platform.

7. The method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising:
an act of the tenant proposing a task to be performed by the server platform, wherein the designation is based at least in part upon the proposed task.

8. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable physical storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by one or more processors to perform a method for operating an architecture that improves workflow execution by selectively invoking a greater knowledge of a tenant over a lesser knowledge of a server platform so as to defer a workflow task to a more appropriate time given the tenant's greater knowledge, the method comprising:
an act of identifying a particular task that is to be performed by the server platform and that will at least potentially affect the particular tenant;
an act of generating a designation relating to the particular task, the designation indicating (1) that the particular task will be performed by the server platform and (2) that performance of the task will potentially affect the particular tenant, the designation being usable by the particular tenant to identify that the server platform is using the designation to pass the particular tenant at least some control in determining when the particular task is to be performed by the server platform, wherein the particular tenant retains the at least some control throughout a particular timeframe indicated within the designation, and wherein passing the tenant the at least some control is performed, at least in part, because the tenant has greater knowledge regarding how urgent the particular task is;
an act of causing the designation to be at least attempted to be communicated to the particular tenant; and
an act of determining that the server platform is to proceed with performing the particular task based on a response status corresponding to the communication of the designation, wherein the particular tenant generates the response status, and wherein generating the response status is at least partially based on an expected time that the server platform will wait after the server platform receives an instruction to initiate the particular task from the particular tenant,
whereby, as a result of the server platform coordinating with the tenant as to when the particular task is to be performed, execution of the particular task proceeds at a pace that enables the server platform to use its resources more efficiently by processing tasks in accordance with a determined urgency of those tasks.

9. The computer program product in accordance with claim 8 , the act of determining that the server platform is to proceed with performing the particular task being performed in response to receiving an explicit approval from the particular tenant within the particular timeframe.

10. The computer program product in accordance with claim 8 , the act of determining that the server platform is to proceed with performing the particular task being performed in response to determining that the particular timeframe has passed without an explicit approval from the particular tenant within the particular timeframe.

11. The computer program product in accordance with claim 8 , wherein the particular timeframe is explicitly represented within the designation.

12. The computer program product in accordance with claim 8 , the particular timeframe having no ending thereby representing that the particular tenant has continuous control over when the particular task is performed by the server platform.

13. The computer program product in accordance with claim 8 , the particular timeframe being revocable by the server platform.

14. The computer program product in accordance with claim 8 , the method further comprising:
an act of providing supplemental information to the particular tenant to assist the particular tenant in deciding when to approve of the particular task.

15. The computer program product in accordance with claim 14 , the supplemental information comprising:
an estimated time to recovery corresponding to the particular task.

16. The computer program product in accordance with claim 14 , the supplemental information comprising:
a server platform estimation of a health of the particular tenant.

17. The computer program product in accordance with claim 14 , the supplemental information comprising:
a state of the particular tenant.

18. The computer program product in accordance with claim 14 , the supplemental informati

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Nagesharao Pavithra Tyamagondlu
• Johnson James E
• Irun-Briz Luis
• Rewaskar Sushant Pramod
• Mani Ajay
• Syed Saad

Classifications

• G06Q10/0633

  Workflow analysis · CPC title

• G06F9/5038 Primary

  considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration (scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups) · CPC title

• G06F9/44505

  Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files · CPC title

• G06F9/4875 Primary

  with migration policy, e.g. auction, contract negotiation · CPC title

• H04L47/70 Primary

  Admission control; Resource allocation · CPC title