System, method, and computer program for inventory management utilizing an inventory and topology module including a plurality of layers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11537978-B1
Application number	US-201514673602-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 30, 2015
Priority date	Jun 18, 2014
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for inventory management. In use, at least one order associated with a customer is identified, the order including an order of at least one service. Additionally, the at least one order is decomposed into one or more elements. Further, an infrastructure inventory layer is queried for the one or more elements. In addition, the one or more elements are allocated to the customer and the elements are marked as allocated in a local inventory repository. Furthermore, a service inventory layer is updated based on the allocation of the elements.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
interfacing, by an infrastructure inventory layer of a system, a plurality of cloud management systems that each manage respective groups of resources within a network, the resources including at least virtual machines and storage;
subscribing, by the infrastructure inventory layer of the system, to pre-defined inventory information within a local database of each cloud management system of the plurality of the cloud management systems, the pre-defined inventory information within the local database of the cloud management system including a current status of available and allocated resources within the respective group of resources managed by the cloud management system,
wherein, for the subscribing, the infrastructure inventory layer defines a plurality of percentages of resource availability upon which each local database of each cloud management system of the plurality of the cloud management systems is to push the pre-defined inventory information stored in the local database to the infrastructure inventory layer, the plurality of percentages being defined by the infrastructure inventory layer to balance between latency and data accuracy,
wherein upon resource availability of one of the cloud management systems falling below a defined percentage of the plurality of percentages, the local database of the one of the cloud management systems pushes the pre-defined inventory information stored in the local database to the infrastructure inventory layer;
storing, by the infrastructure inventory layer of the system, the pre-defined inventory information received from the local databases of the plurality of the cloud management systems;
identifying, by an orchestrator of the system, an order associated with a customer, the order being for a service within a network;
responsive to identifying the order, decomposing, by the orchestrator of the system, the service into one or more resources;
querying, by the orchestrator of the system, the infrastructure inventory layer to determine that the one or more of the resources within the network are available;
allocating, by the orchestrator of the system, the one or more of the resources within the network to the customer by initiating, configuring, activating and connecting the one or more of the resources within the network, and marking the one or more of the resources within the network as allocated;
updating, by the orchestrator of the system, a service inventory layer based on the allocation of the one or more of the resources within the network, including storing information indicating the order, indicating the customer, and including within the infrastructure inventory layer a link to the one or more of the resources within the network;
wherein a local inventory repository manages and keeps real-time full inventory details for all inventory items within an associated data center including individual processor usage and availability and storage availability for each device, and
wherein an aggregated inventory repository associated with a region that includes the data center maintains aggregated and summarized inventory information including type of service and total available processor.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the infrastructure inventory layer and the service inventory layer are part of an inventory module.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein allocating the one or more of the resources within the network to the customer includes executing an activation plan that initiates, configures, activates, and connects the resources on the network.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the resources further include compute resources and network resources.

5. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:
computer code for interfacing, by an infrastructure inventory layer of a system, a plurality of cloud management systems that each manage respective groups of resources within a network, the resources including at least virtual machines and storage;
computer code for subscribing, by the infrastructure inventory layer of the system, to pre-defined inventory information within a local database of each cloud management system of the plurality of the cloud management systems, the pre-defined inventory information within the local database of the cloud management system including a current status of available and allocated resources within the respective group of resources managed by the cloud management system,
wherein, for the subscribing, the infrastructure inventory layer defines a plurality of percentages of resource availability upon which each local database of each cloud management system of the plurality of the cloud management systems is to push the pre-defined inventory information stored in the local database to the infrastructure inventory layer, the plurality of percentages being defined by the infrastructure inventory layer to balance between latency and data accuracy,
wherein upon resource availability of one of the cloud management systems falling below a defined percentage of the plurality of percentages, the local database of the one of the cloud management systems pushes the pre-defined inventory information stored in the local database to the infrastructure inventory layer;
computer code for storing, by the infrastructure inventory layer of the system, the pre-defined inventory information received from the local databases of the plurality of the cloud management systems;
computer code for identifying, by an orchestrator of the system, an order associated with a customer, the order being for a service within a network;
computer code for, responsive to identifying the order, decomposing, by the orchestrator of the system, the service into one or more resources;
computer code for querying, by the orchestrator of the system, the infrastructure inventory layer to determine that the one or more of the resources within the network are available;
computer code for allocating, by the orchestrator of the system, the one or more of the resources within the network to the customer by initiating, configuring, activating and connecting the one or more of the resources within the network, and marking the one or more of the resources within the network as allocated;
computer code for updating, by the orchestrator of the system, a service inventory layer based on the allocation of the one or more of the resources within the network, including storing information indicating the order, indicating the customer, and including within the infrastructure inventory layer a link to the one or more of the resources within the network;
wherein a local inventory repository manages and keeps real-time full inventory details for all inventory items within an associated data center including individual processor usage and availability and storage availability for each device, and
wherein an aggregated inventory repository associated with a region that includes the data center maintains aggregated and summarized inventory information including type of service and total available processor.

6. A system comprising:
a memory system; and
one or more processing cores coupled to the memory system and that are each configured to:
interface, by an infrastructure inventory layer of the system, a plurality of cloud management systems that each manage respective groups of resources within a network, the resources including at least virtual machines and storage;
subscribe, by the infrastructure inventory layer of the system, to pre-defined inventory information within a local database of each cloud management system of the plurality of the cloud management systems, the pre-defined inventory information within the local database of the cloud management system including a cu

Assignees

• Amdocs Software Systems Ltd
• Amdocs Development Ltd

Inventors

• Felstaine Eyal
• Hermoni Ofer
• Levi Guy
• Peretz Daniel
• Crack Martin John
• Herzog Shai

Classifications

• G06Q30/0635 Primary

  replenishment orders; recurring orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/087 Primary

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

• G06Q10/08744

  by distributed inventory management · CPC title

• G06Q10/0877

  by inventory control or reporting using inventory tracking or counting · CPC title