Maintaining control over restricted data during deployment to cloud computing environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10135907-B2
Application number	US-201514933815-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 5, 2015
Priority date	Nov 5, 2015
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

Releases to the production environment of a cloud computing environment are deployed in a manner that maintains control over restricted data and the data plane of the cloud computing environment. A DevOps personnel is tasked with developing the release. However, the DevOps personnel is not authorized to deploy the release to the cloud computing environment because the DevOps personnel does not have access to restricted data in the cloud computing environment or the ability to modify the cloud computing environment to gain access to restricted data. Operating personnel who has access to restricted data and the right to modify the cloud computing environment is notified of the release and given release specifications providing details of the release. If the operator approves the release, the release is transferred to the cloud computing environment. A deployment engine then automatically deploys the release to the production environment of the cloud computing environment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computerized method for deploying a release to a production environment of a cloud computing environment comprising:
providing a release specification regarding the release to operating personnel who has access to restricted data in the cloud computing environment, the release and the release specification having been authored by DevOps personnel who does not have access to restricted data in the cloud computing environment, wherein the release is at least one of a software update, software patch, a firmware update, or a firmware patch and the release specification describes at least how the release cannot make changes that would allow the DevOps personnel to access the restricted data;
providing, to the operating personnel, access to release specifications describing the release;
receiving approval for the release from the operating personnel;
receiving the release at the cloud computing environment and storing the release in storage at the cloud computing environment; and
in response to the approval, automatically deploying the release to the production environment in response to the approval from the operating personnel.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by a deployment manager outside of the cloud computing environment, the release and release specifications from the DevOps personnel via a deployment UI; and
storing the release and release specifications in development storage outside of the cloud computing environment.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the method further comprises providing, by the deployment manager, a notification to a second DevOps personnel responsible for approving the release prior to transfer to the cloud computing environment.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by the deployment manager, approval of the release from the second DevOps personnel; and
providing the notification regarding the release to the operating personnel in response to receiving the approval from the second DevOps personnel.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises tracking status of deployment of the release to the production environment of the cloud computing environment.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises providing status information regarding the deployment of the release to the operating personnel.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises providing status information regarding the deployment of the release to the DevOps personnel.

8. One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:
providing a release specification regarding a release to operating personnel who has access to restricted data in a cloud computing environment, the release and the release specification having been authored by DevOps personnel who does not have access to the restricted data in the cloud computing environment, wherein the release is at least one of a web application, email application, or search engine service and the release specification describes at least how the release cannot make changes that would allow the DevOps personnel to access the restricted data;
providing, to the operating personnel, access to release specifications describing the release;
receiving approval for the release from the operating personnel;
receiving the release at the cloud computing environment and storing the release in storage at the cloud computing environment; and
automatically deploying the release to a production environment in response to the approval from the operating personnel.

9. The one or more computer storage media of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by a deployment manager outside of the cloud computing environment, the release and release specifications from the DevOps personnel via a deployment UI; and
storing the release and release specifications in development storage outside of the cloud computing environment.

10. The one or more computer storage media of claim 9 , wherein the method further comprises providing, by the deployment manager, a notification to a second DevOps personnel responsible for approving the release prior to transfer to the cloud computing environment.

11. The one or more computer storage media of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by the deployment manager, approval of the release from the second DevOps personnel; and
providing the notification regarding the release to the operating personnel in response to receiving the approval from the second DevOps personnel.

12. The one or more computer storage media of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises tracking status of deployment of the release to the production environment of the cloud computing environment.

13. The one or more computer storage media of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises providing status information regarding the deployment of the release to the operating personnel.

14. The one or more computer storage media of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises providing status information regarding the deployment of the release to the DevOps personnel.

15. A computerized system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more computer storage media storing computer-useable components for deploying a release to a production environment of a cloud computing environment, the computer-useable components comprising:
a deployment manager that facilitates the development of the release by a DevOps personnel who does not have access to restricted data in the cloud computing environment, the deployment manager receiving the release and a release specification, and storing the release and the release specification in a development storage outside of the cloud computing environment, wherein the release is at least one of a software update, software patch, a firmware update, or a firmware patch and the release specification describes at least how the release cannot make changes that would allow the DevOps personnel to access the restricted data;
the development storage for storing the release prior to transferring the release to the cloud computing environment;
a release storage at the cloud computing environment that receives and stores the release; and
a deployment engine that deploys the release to the production environment of the cloud computing environment in response to receiving the approval of the release by the operating personnel who has access to restricted data in the cloud computing environment.

16. The computerized system of claim 15 , wherein the deployment manager communicates with a deployment UI usable by the DevOps personnel to submit the release.

17. The computerized system of claim 15 , wherein the deployment manager communicates with a deployment UI usable by a second DevOps personnel to receive approval of the release prior to transferring the release to the cloud computing environment.

18. The computerized system of claim 15 , wherein the deployment manager receives status information regarding deployment of the release and provides the status information to a deployment UI usable by the DevOps personnel to view the status information regarding the deployment of the release.

19. The computerized system of claim 15 , wherein the deployment manager receives status information regarding deployment of the release and provides the status inf

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Palanivel Karthik
• Ward Jason
• Libenson Maksim
• Korada Rajesh
• Kippen Mike
• Bartholomew William
• Lankerovich Izabella
• Nair Pradeep Ayyappan

Classifications

• G06F21/60

  Protecting data · CPC title

• G06F9/5072

  Grid computing · CPC title

• G06F8/60 Primary

  Software deployment · CPC title

• H04L67/06 Primary

  specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP] · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title