Cost estimation for a cloud-based infrastructure provisioning system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12554552-B2
Application number	US-202418444399-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 16, 2024
Priority date	Apr 8, 2020
Publication date	Feb 17, 2026
Grant date	Feb 17, 2026

Abstract

A cost estimator system receives a plan, a configuration or proposed changes for a cloud-based infrastructure, and which include data representing one or more computing resources needed for a cloud-based application. A new configuration is generated for the cloud-based infrastructure incorporating the plan, configuration or proposed changes. A price resolver resolves a price of the resources that are part of the new configuration, and requests, from one or more cloud providers associated with the new configuration, price data for the resolved resources. The cost estimator system then generates, based on the price data received by the price resolver, a cost estimate for the new configuration of the cloud-based infrastructure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
receiving, by a cost estimator system, a configuration having proposed changes for a cloud-based infrastructure, proposed changes to a plan of the cloud-based infrastructure, the plan comprising data representing one or more computing resources needed for a cloud-based application of the cloud-based infrastructure; generating, by the cost estimator system, a new configuration for the cloud-based infrastructure, the new configuration incorporating the proposed change determining, by a price resolver of the cost estimator system, resources that are part of the new configuration; transforming, by the price resolver, generic resource attributes of the resources into provider-specific stock-keeping unit (SKU) identifiers using a resolver funnel of attribute transformations; retrieving, by the price resolver, price data for the resolved resources by making an authenticated API call to each cloud provider's pricing endpoint using the provider-specific SKU identifiers; and generating, by the cost estimator system based on the price data received by the price resolver, a cost estimate for the new configuration of the cloud-based, application of the cloud-based infrastructure.

2 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising transforming, by the price resolver, resource attributes to cloud provider-specific attributes to map one or more resources to a stock keeping unit price provided by a cloud provider.

3 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising determining, by a policy module that stores at least one cost policy for the cloud-based infrastructure, whether the cost estimate for the new configuration is in accordance with the at least one cost policy.

4 . The method in accordance with claim 3 , where the at least one cost policy stored by the policy module includes a spend quota for one or more teams using the cloud-based infrastructure.

5 . The method in accordance with claim 4 , wherein determining whether the cost estimate for the new configuration is in accordance with the at least one cost policy includes calculating a cost of a current configuration of the cloud-based infrastructure and the cost estimate for the new configuration of the cloud-based infrastructure.

6 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising delivering, by a computer communication interface associated with the cost estimator system, the cost estimate in an electronic form to one or more client computers connected with the computer communication interface.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing, by a policy module, a spend-quota policy associated with a team identifier for the cloud-based infrastructure; automatically comparing, by the policy module, the cost estimate for the new configuration and a cost of a current configuration of the cloud-based infrastructure to the spend-quota policy for the team; and generating, by the policy module, a compliance decision indicating whether the cost estimate for the new configuration satisfies the spend-quota policy for the team.

8 . A computer program product for estimating a cost for cloud based infrastructure, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one programmable processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising: receive a configuration having proposed changes for a cloud-based infrastructure, the proposed changes to a plan of the cloud-based infrastructure, the plan comprising data representing one or more computing resources needed for a cloud-based application of the cloud-based infrastructure; generate a new configuration for the cloud-based infrastructure, the new configuration incorporating the proposed changes; determine resources that are part of the new configuration; transform generic resource attributes of the resources into provider-specific stock-keeping unit (SKU) identifiers using a resolver funnel of attribute transformations; retrieve price data for the resolved resources by making an authenticated API call to each cloud provider's pricing endpoint using the provider-specific SKU identifiers; and generating a cost estimate for the new configuration of the cloud-based infrastructure.

9 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise an operation to determine, based on at least one cost policy for the cloud-based infrastructure, whether the cost estimate for the new configuration is in accordance with the at least one cost policy.

10 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 9 , where the at least one cost policy stored by the policy module includes a spend quota for one or more teams using the cloud-based infrastructure.

11 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 10 , wherein determining whether the cost estimate for the new configuration is in accordance with the at least one cost policy includes an operation to calculate a cost of a current configuration of the cloud-based infrastructure and the cost estimate for the new configuration of the cloud-based infrastructure.

12 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise operations to format and deliver, by a computer communication interface, the cost estimate in an electronic format to one or more client computers connected with the computer communication interface.

Assignees

• HashiCorp
• IBM

Inventors

• Hashimoto Mitchell
• Dadgar Armon
• Hooker Matthew
• Thrasher Paul

Classifications

• H04L67/51

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title

• G06Q30/0283 Primary

  Price estimation or determination · CPC title

• H04L41/5045

  Making service definitions prior to deployment · CPC title

• G06F9/5027

  the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals · CPC title

• G06F9/5072 Primary

  Grid computing · CPC title