Cloud portal system for managing networking and computing equipment by generating contextual guides specific to affected resource(s)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12301416-B2
Application number	US-202318354011-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 18, 2023
Priority date	Dec 21, 2020
Publication date	May 13, 2025
Grant date	May 13, 2025

Abstract

Methods are provided in which a computing device obtains, from one or more disparate data sources, inventory data of a plurality of network resources in a plurality of domains of an enterprise network. The inventory data includes configuration information of the enterprise network. The method further includes the computing device selecting one or more contextual insights that apply to the inventory data of the enterprise network from contextual information related to one or more networks and configuration of the one or more networks and generating one or more contextual guides specific to one or more affected network resources of the enterprise network based on the one or more contextual insights.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
obtaining, by a computing device from one or more disparate data sources, inventory data of a plurality of network resources in a plurality of domains of an enterprise network, the inventory data including configuration information of the enterprise network;
collecting resource information about a network resource of the plurality of network resources deployed in the enterprise network;
selecting one or more contextual insights that apply to the inventory data of the enterprise network from contextual information related to one or more networks and configuration of the one or more networks based on the resource information, wherein the one or more contextual insights are support material including one or more of contextual alerts and product support information obtained from a knowledge database; and
generating one or more contextual guides specific to one or more affected network resources of the enterprise network based on the one or more contextual insights.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
changing, by the computing device, a configuration of at least one of the one or more affected network resources based at least in part on the one or more contextual guides.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a unified inventory view of the enterprise network based on the inventory data and the resource information, the unified inventory view includes state and configuration data of the plurality of network resources including a plurality of network devices and a plurality of software services deployed in each of the plurality of domains of the enterprise network.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
obtaining a selection of a use case for the enterprise network; and
generating a specialized inventory view of the enterprise network that is specific to the use case based on the inventory data and the resource information, the specialized inventory view includes state and configuration of a selected set of the plurality of network resources that relates to a selected use case including a plurality of network devices and a plurality of software services deployed in each of the plurality of domains of the enterprise network.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein collecting the resource information includes:
determining one or more configuration of the network resource using machine learning.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
obtaining the contextual information that includes the contextual alerts and/or the product support information stored in one or more knowledge databases that include:
one or more advisory information systems,
one or more community forums,
one or more online libraries,
one or more support case management platforms,
one or more content management systems, and
one or more product or service guides and documentation.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the inventory data of the enterprise network includes:
aggregating the plurality of network resources deployed in the plurality of domains of the enterprise network into a unified inventory, the plurality of network resources including a plurality of network devices and a plurality of software services deployed in each of the plurality of domains; and
obtaining configuration and feature related information for each of the plurality of network devices and the plurality of software services.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein obtaining the inventory data of the enterprise network further includes obtaining:
telemetry data of the enterprise network,
configuration data from a configuration management database of the enterprise network, and service related information from a subscription system, and
the method further comprising:
analyzing the telemetry data, the configuration data, and the service related information, to generate the unified inventory of the enterprise network.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the one or more contextual guides includes:
generating one or more security alerts related to the one or more affected network resources and one or more potentially affected network resources of the enterprise network, wherein the one or more security alerts include identification, location, and the configuration information for each network resource indicated in the one or more security alerts.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the one or more contextual guides includes:
generating a support guide related to configuring the one or more affected network resources and that includes identification, location, and feature-related information for each network resource indicated in the support guide.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the one or more contextual guides is further based on an access level of an operator and applies to at least two network resources from different domains of the enterprise network.

12. An apparatus comprising:
a memory;
a network interface configured to enable network communications; and
a processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform operations comprising:
obtaining, from one or more disparate data sources, inventory data of a plurality of network resources in a plurality of domains of an enterprise network, the inventory data including configuration information of the enterprise network;
collecting resource information about a network resource of the plurality of network resources deployed in the enterprise network;
selecting one or more contextual insights that apply to the inventory data of the enterprise network from contextual information related to one or more networks and configuration of the one or more networks based on the resource information, wherein the one or more contextual insights are support material including one or more of contextual alerts and product support information obtained from a knowledge database; and
generating one or more contextual guides specific to one or more affected network resources of the enterprise network based on the one or more contextual insights.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform:
changing a configuration of at least one of the one or more affected network resources based at least in part on the one or more contextual guides.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform:
generating a unified inventory view of the enterprise network based on the inventory data and the resource information, the unified inventory view includes state and configuration data of the plurality of network resources including a plurality of network devices and a plurality of software services deployed in each of the plurality of domains of the enterprise network.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform:
obtaining a selection of a use case for the enterprise network; and
generating a specialized inventory view of the enterprise network that is specific to the use case based on the inventory data and the resource information, the specialized inventory view includes state and configuration of a selected set of the plurality of network resources that relates to a selected use case including a plurality of network devices and a plurality of software services deployed in each of the plurality of domains of the enterprise network.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to collect the resource information by:
determining one or more configuration of the network resource using machine learning.

17. The appa

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Garrison Daniel Robert
• Sarbin Brian
• Ebtekar Ali

Classifications

• H04L41/14

  Network analysis or design · CPC title

• H04L47/827

  Aggregation of resource allocation or reservation requests · CPC title

• H04L47/781

  Centralised allocation of resources · CPC title

• H04L47/762

  triggered by the network · CPC title

• H04L41/0886

  Fully automatic configuration · CPC title