Methods and systems for regulating service layer agreements for multiple cloud service requests

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10210468-B2
Application number	US-201615046834-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 18, 2016
Priority date	Jan 15, 2013
Publication date	Feb 19, 2019
Grant date	Feb 19, 2019

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed for providing cloud services to multiple customers in a cloud. One embodiment includes receiving a number of requests for the cloud services from the multiple customers simultaneously or substantially simultaneously; prioritizing the requests based on a probability distribution of actually deploying a service, a budget of the customers, and an expected demand of the requested service based on the probability distribution; generating a number of cloud configurations along with a number of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for the customers based on prioritization of the requests, a class & past behavior of the customers, and a current demand of the cloud services, the SLAs of the customers include differentiated price offering; recommending the cloud configurations and the SLAs to the customers; allowing the customers to negotiate terms of the SLAs; and providing the cloud services based on the negotiated SLAs to the customers.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for increasing an energy efficiency of a computing cloud through a service level agreement (SLA) regulation system, the method comprising:
receiving, using at least one service input interface, a plurality of requests for the one or more cloud services from a plurality of customers simultaneously or substantially simultaneously, wherein the plurality of customers are categorized into one or more classes;
prioritizing, using a request processor, the plurality of requests based on a probability distribution of deploying a requested service and an expected demand of the requested service;
generating, using a cloud configuration generator, a plurality of cloud configurations and service bundles for each of the plurality of customers based on the prioritization of the plurality of requests and at least one of the classes of the plurality of customers, past behavior of each of the plurality of customers, and a current demand of the one or more cloud services in the computing cloud, wherein the cloud configurations are generated based on a probability that resources comprising the generated cloud configurations are deployed to at least one of the plurality of customers;
recommending, using a recommendation system, at least one of the generated plurality of cloud configurations and the associated service bundles to each of the plurality of customers, wherein the service bundles for the plurality of customers further comprise an energy efficiency for cloud configurations generated for the customers; and
providing, using at least one output interface, the one or more cloud services to the plurality of customers based on the prioritizing of the plurality of requests, the service bundles, and the cloud configurations.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising
adjusting one or more of the cloud configurations and the service bundles for at least a portion of the customers based on received feedback from the customers; and
providing, using the at least one output interface, the one or more cloud services to the plurality of customers based on the prioritizing of the plurality of requests and one or more of the adjusted service bundles and the adjusted cloud configurations.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
adjusting an energy efficiency for a service bundle for one of the plurality of customers based on received feedback from the one customer; and
providing, using the at least one output interface, the one or more cloud services to the plurality of customers based on the prioritizing of the plurality of requests, the adjusted service bundles, and the adjusted cloud configurations.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein receiving the plurality of requests further comprises receiving, using the at least one service input interface including one or more input fields, one or more high-level parameters for the one or more cloud services, wherein the one or more high-level parameters include at least one of a performance level for the requested cloud service, a Green Point for the requested cloud service, a budget of at least one customer among the plurality of customers, and a location of the at least one customer among the plurality of customers.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
receiving feedback from one or more of the plurality of customers based on the recommended cloud configurations and service bundles;
repeating, based on the received feedback, the generating and recommending until each of the plurality of customers select at least one the plurality of generated cloud configurations based on the associated service bundles, wherein terms of the associated service bundles are negotiated based on a predefined trade-off between the one or more high-level parameters through a SLA negotiator.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cloud configurations and service bundles for the customers are generated based on available resources at the computing cloud.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the available resources at the computing cloud are reduced based on an expected demand for resources from previously received requests for cloud services.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining, using a differentiated pricing module, for each of the plurality of requests, the deployment probability of the one or more cloud services corresponding to at least one differentiated price offering.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of requests is prioritized in a queue based on a descending order of the deployment probability of each of the requested one or more cloud services and the corresponding at least one differentiated price offering.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising searching, using the cloud configuration generator, for an enhanced cloud configuration for each of the plurality of requests based on at least one of the prioritization of the plurality of requests, the class of each of the plurality of customers, the past behavior of each of the plurality of customers, and the current demand of the one or more cloud services in the computing cloud.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of recommending further comprises assigning a priority to the one or more cloud services based on their deployment probability by the plurality of customers, such that a cloud service among the one or more cloud services assigned with highest priority is given a higher preference to secure available resources.

12. A service level agreement (SLA) regulation system for efficiently providing one or more cloud services to a plurality of customers in a computing cloud, the system comprising:
at least one service input interface configured to receive a plurality of requests for the one or more cloud services from a plurality of customers simultaneously or substantially simultaneously, wherein the plurality of customers are categorized into one or more classes;
a request processor configured to prioritize the plurality of requests based on a probability distribution of deploying a requested service and an expected demand of the requested service;
a cloud configuration generator configured to generate a plurality of cloud configurations and service bundles for each of the plurality of customers based on the prioritization of the plurality of requests and at least one of the classes of the plurality of customers, past behavior of each of the plurality of customers, and a current demand of the one or more cloud services in the computing cloud, wherein the cloud configurations are generated based on a probability that resources comprising the generated cloud configurations are deployed to at least one of the plurality of customers;
a recommender system configured to recommend at least one of the generated plurality of cloud configurations and the associated service bundles to each of the plurality of customers, wherein the service bundles for the plurality of customers further comprise an energy efficiency for cloud configurations generated for the customers;
at least one output interface configured to provide the one or more cloud services to the plurality of customers based on the prioritizing of the plurality of requests, the service bundles, and the cloud configurations.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the system is further configured to:
adjust one or more of the cloud configurations and the service bundles for at least a portion of the customers based on received feedback from the customers; and
provide, using the at least one output interface, the one or more cloud services to the plurality of customers based on the prioritizing of the plurality of requests and one or more of the adjusted

Assignees

• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Gujar Sujit
• Mukherjee Tridib
• Dasgupta Koustuv
• Jung Gueyoung

Classifications

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L67/322

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06Q30/0631

  Recommending goods or services · CPC title

• G06Q30/0282

  Rating or review of business operators or products · CPC title

• G06Q10/06315 Primary

  Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis · CPC title