Application directory

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10152687-B2
Application number	US-56603306-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2006
Priority date	Dec 1, 2006
Publication date	Dec 11, 2018
Grant date	Dec 11, 2018

Abstract

Building and maintaining an accurate and up-to-date inventory of applications deployed throughout an organization are described. In one aspect, an application directory facilitates automated and standardized entry of information on an application. The application directory provides a series of browser-rendered interfaces that collects data about the application. These different types of data are organized according to a logical data model that defines multiple hierarchical levels of data types and relationships amongst the hierarchical levels. The collection of registered applications forms an inventory that may be used to manage these assets. In another aspect, the application directory allows authorized users to manage the inventory of applications.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
maintaining on servers an applications inventory of applications and related assets that are distributed throughout an organization, wherein the applications are a logical set of resources that together perform a specific business;
organizing the applications inventory according to a data structure having multiple levels and relationships amongst the levels;
receiving a request from a computing device to identify available applications in a particular physical location of the organization, wherein a response to the request is processed during a disruption that impacts performance in the particular physical location;
searching the applications inventory on the servers responsive to the request;
determining applications that are impacted during the disruption and application functionalities that are compromised;
presenting, on a user interface, a configurable listing of the impacted applications from the applications inventory that are available in the particular physical location of the organization;
reconstructing, using the listing of the impacted applications, the impacted applications to restore the compromised functionalities of the impacted applications, wherein the impacted applications are reconstructed to operate in a location remote to the disruption;
registering the reconstructed impacted applications, wherein registering the reconstructed impacted applications includes documenting the location remote to the disruption where the impacted applications are reconstructed to operate; and
updating the applications inventory with the reconstructed impacted applications.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the applications comprise
the logical set of resources including computing devices, software programs, and telecommunications devices that together perform a specific business function.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the applications inventory comprises, for each application:
information pertaining to one or more of: a family to which the application belongs, deployment data pertaining to deployment of the application, component data identifying components used by the application, and owner data identifying a business owner responsible for the application.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the data structure comprises:
a family level that defines a collection of one or more applications that one of: perform a set of related business functions or have a common support structure;
an application level that defines the applications;
a deployment level that defines instances of the applications that run in specific locations; and
a component level that defines components used to implement the applications.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising storing the applications inventory in a first database, and feeding at least some data of the applications inventory to a second database.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising facilitating online registration of a new application for addition into the applications inventory.

7. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
maintain an applications inventory of applications and related assets that are distributed throughout an organization, wherein the applications are a logical set of resources that together perform a specific business;
organize the applications inventory according to a data structure having multiple levels and relationships amongst the levels;
receive a request from a computing device to identify what applications are available in a particular physical location of the organization, the request associated with a disruption that impacts performance in the particular physical location;
search the applications inventory responsive to the request;
determine applications that are impacted during the disruption and application functionalities that are compromised;
present, on a user interface, a configurable listing of the impacted applications from the applications inventory that are available in the particular physical location of the organization;
reconstruct, using the configurable listing of the impacted applications, the impacted applications to restore the compromised functionalities of the impacted applications, wherein the impacted applications are reconstructed to operate in a location remote to the disruption;
register the reconstructed impacted applications, wherein registering the reconstructed impacted applications includes documenting the location remote to the disruption where the impacted applications are reconstructed to operate; and
update the applications inventory with the reconstructed impacted applications.

8. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
presenting a user interface on a computing device to facilitate entry of information pertaining to an application, wherein the application comprises a logical set of resources including one or more of computing devices, software programs, or telecommunications devices that perform a specific business function;
collecting on servers, as part of the entry of information, family data describing a family to which the application belongs, deployment data pertaining to deployment of the application, component data identifying components used by the application, and owner data identifying a business owner responsible for the application;
organizing the information to form an applications inventory of applications distributed throughout an organization;
querying the applications inventory for discovery of any relevant resources to the information;
associating discovered resources with the information entered by the user;
defining the information for multiple hierarchical levels of data types and relationships amongst the hierarchical levels, wherein the defining displays a visual cue on the user interface to convey how the information is organized in the applications inventory;
providing a configurable listing of impacted applications from the applications inventory whose functionalities are impacted during a disruption and identifying the impacted functionalities; and
using the listing to restore the identified impacted functionalities.

9. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8 , wherein the deployment data comprises one or more of: a physical location of the application, a unique identifier, or a list of computing resources.

10. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8 , wherein the component data comprises one or more of: (1) external data feeds into and out of the application, (2) other deployments upon which the deployment of the application may be dependent, or (3) a listing of the components.

11. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8 , further comprising:
storing the applications inventory in a database; and
querying the database to identify applications satisfying specified criteria.

12. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8 , further comprising ascertaining, from the applications inventory, what applications are deployed in a particular physical location.

13. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8 , further comprising:
storing the applications inventory in a first database; and
feeding at least a portion of the applications inventory from the first database to a second database that maintains a global inventory of assets distributed throughout the organization.

14. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing computer-executable inst

Assignees

• Fotinatos Perry
• Bessette James M
• Lew Melvin
• Husain Syed
• Goldman Sachs & Co Llc

Inventors

• Fotinatos Perry
• Bessette James M
• Lew Melvin
• Husain Syed

Classifications

• G06Q10/087 Primary

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title