Cognitive cloud migration optimizer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10963294-B2
Application number	US-201816025430-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 2, 2018
Priority date	Jul 2, 2018
Publication date	Mar 30, 2021
Grant date	Mar 30, 2021

Abstract

Methods, computer program products, and systems are presented. The methods include, for instance: input data from the source environment, including application hosting data of each server in the source environment and one or more cloud type of the source environment. Candidate cloud types for target platform are listed and servers of the source environment are screened for eligibility for the migration. The target platform is selected by applying preconfigured selection rules on the application hosting data of each eligible server in the source environment. Migration recommendations for each eligible server in the source environment, including selected cloud type corresponding to the target platform, are produced.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method comprising:
obtaining, by one or more processor, input data from a source environment, including application hosting data of each server in the source environment and one or more cloud type of the source environment;
creating, by the one or more processor, a list of one or more candidate cloud type of a target platform, based on the input data;
screening, by the one or more processor, servers in the source environment that are eligible for migration;
selecting, by the one or more processor, the target platform by applying, for each candidate cloud type, preconfigured selection rules on the application hosting data of each eligible server in the source environment; and
producing, by the one or more processor, migration recommendations for each eligible server in the source environment, including one or more cloud type corresponding to the target platform from the selecting.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the application hosting data comprises, respective to each application running in the source environment, a type and size of an application, one or more affinity group of the application, a tolerance for latency by the application, security and technical requirements on the application, workload characteristics data of the application, as affected by regulations applicable to the application and by client requests on the application.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more cloud type of the source environment and the one or more candidate cloud type of the target platform are selected from: a public cloud, a private cloud, a hardware platform without virtualization, an enterprise application platform, and combination thereof, and wherein two or more cloud types are concurrently present in the source environment and the target platform.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , the screening comprising:
identifying any server in the source environment that is excluded from the migration by applying the preconfigured selection rules on the application hosting data of each server in the source environment; and
excluding the identified server from the migration.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , the screening comprising:
identifying any server in the source environment that is disqualified for the migration by applying the preconfigured selection rules on the application hosting data of each server in the source environment; and
flagging the identified server in order to analyze the application hosting data for one or more remedial action to remove any disqualifying aspect for the identified server.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
collecting asset data, prior to the selecting, automatically from a plurality of data streams or interactively from a client or an administrator, the asset data including inventory data for the source environment, client request input data, workload characteristics data generated from a hypervisor of the source environment, cognitive updates on business, cognitive updates on technology, and cognitive updates on regulations; and
consolidating the input data from the obtaining with the asset data from collecting for the selecting the target platform.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the preconfigured selection rules comprise rules of a server exclusion category and rules of a server qualification category, wherein the rules of the server exclusion category specify tests including: to exclude a current server from the migration if the current server is excluded from the migration by a plurality of factors affecting the migration including regulations, business policies, and technical requirements; to exclude applications from the migration if the applications had been deselected for the migration; to include the current server from the migration if cluster technology used in the current server is supported by the target platform; and to include the current server from the migration if a processor architecture of the current server is supported by the target platform, and wherein the rules of the server qualification category specify tests including: to qualify the current server for the migration if an operating system of the current server is supported by the target platform; to qualify the current server for the migration if software versions of the current server are supported by the target platform; to disqualify the current server for the migration if the current server is a high-performance computing system not supported in the target platform; to qualify the current server for the migration if a storage area network and a speed of data interface requirements for the current server are supported by the target platform; to disqualify the current server for the migration if the current server has a non-standard physical connectivity requirement; to qualify the current server for the migration if data residency and on-premises requirements of the current server are met by the target platform; to disqualify the current server for the migration if data at rest requires encryption; to qualify the current server for the migration if virtual CPU and virtual RAM requirements of the current server are supported by the target platform; and to qualify the current server for the migration if direct access or network attached storage device requirements are supported by the target platform.

8. A computer program product comprising:
a computer readable storage medium readable by one or more processor and storing instructions for execution by the one or more processor for performing a method comprising:
obtaining input data from a source environment, including application hosting data of each server in the source environment and one or more cloud type of the source environment;
creating a list of one or more candidate cloud type of a target platform, based on the input data;
screening servers in the source environment that are eligible for migration;
selecting the target platform by applying, for each candidate cloud type, preconfigured selection rules on the application hosting data of each eligible server in the source environment; and
producing migration recommendations for each eligible server in the source environment, including one or more cloud type corresponding to the target platform from the selecting.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the application hosting data comprises a type and size of an application, one or more affinity group of the application, a tolerance for latency, and various factors affecting the migration with respect to regulations by geographical and/or national boundaries, business policy and client request, as well as technological trend and recent developments.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the one or more cloud type of the source environment and the one or more candidate cloud type of the target platform are selected from: a public cloud, a private cloud, a hardware platform without virtualization, an enterprise application platform, and combination thereof, and wherein two or more cloud types are concurrently present in the source environment and the target platform.

11. The computer program product of claim 8 , the screening comprising:
identifying any server in the source environment that is excluded from the migration by applying the preconfigured selection rules on the application hosting data of each server in the source environment; and
excluding the identified server from the migration.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 , the screening comprising:
identifying any server in the

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Fornash Sean
• Zolotow Clea A
• Bennett James S
• Nanduru Laxmikantha Sai
• Viswanathan Arvind
• Hunt Anthony

Classifications

• H04L67/1008

  based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload (monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30) · CPC title

• H04L67/1012

  based on compliance of requirements or conditions with available server resources · CPC title

• G06F9/4856 Primary

  resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration (G06F9/5088 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L67/1097 Primary

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F9/5077

  Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources (specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455) · CPC title