Orchestration engine for real-time configuration and management of interconnections within a cloud-based services exchange

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016127254-A1
Application number	US-201514927306-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 29, 2015
Priority date	Oct 30, 2014
Publication date	May 5, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In some examples, a cloud-based services exchange comprises a plurality of interconnection assets configured to connect at least one customer of the cloud-based services exchange to a plurality of cloud service providers; and an orchestration engine configured to modify the plurality of interconnection assets by receiving an indication of a client request for cloud exchange services offered by the cloud-based services exchange; selecting a workflow for providing the cloud exchange services, wherein the workflow specifies a set of tasks to be performed to fulfill the client request for the cloud exchange services; call one or more microservices to perform the tasks of the set of tasks as specified by the selected workflow; consolidate responses received from the microservices after performing the tasks; and send a response to the client request for the cloud exchange services based on the consolidated responses.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
by an orchestration engine of a cloud-based services exchange, receiving an indication of a client request for cloud exchange services offered by the cloud-based services exchange; by the orchestration engine, selecting a workflow for providing the cloud exchange services, wherein the workflow specifies a set of tasks to be performed to fulfill the client request for the cloud exchange services; by the orchestration engine, call one or more microservices to perform the tasks of the set of tasks as specified by the selected workflow; by the orchestration engine, consolidate responses received from the microservices after performing the tasks; and by the orchestration engine, send a response to the client request for the cloud exchange services based on the consolidated responses.

2 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein receiving the indication of the client request comprises receiving an indication of a client request to provision a virtual circuit for exchanging cloud service data between a customer network located in the cloud-based services exchange and a cloud service provider network located in the cloud-based services exchange, wherein selecting the workflow comprises selecting a workflow for provisioning a virtual circuit, wherein the workflow for provisioning the virtual circuit specifies a set of tasks comprising: (i) obtaining port details, (ii) obtaining metro details, and (iii) creating the virtual circuit based on the port details and the metro details.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the orchestration engine distributes tasks of the set of tasks across a plurality of workflow runner threads to access the one or more microservices to perform the tasks.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the orchestration engine executes on one or more management devices within a network data center of the cloud-based services exchange, wherein the network data center includes respective ports by which a plurality of networks connect to the network data center, each of the networks having a different network address space and associated with a different one of a plurality of customers or cloud service providers.

5 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein each microservice of the one or more microservices comprises a corresponding application programming interface reachable via an endpoint, and wherein calling the one or more microservices comprises sending, by the orchestration engine, application data to the endpoints for the microservices.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the application data comprises application data encoded using one of eXtensible Markup Language and JavaScript Object Notation.

7 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein receiving the indication of the client request comprises receiving an indication of a client request to provision a virtual circuit in the cloud-based services exchange for exchanging cloud service data between a customer network located in the cloud-based services exchange and a cloud service provider network located in the cloud-based services exchange, wherein provisioning the virtual circuit comprises, by the orchestrator engine: invoking a first microservice of the microservices to validate a cloud service provider for the cloud service provider network identified in the indication; invoking a second microservice of the microservices to validate a first port of the cloud exchange for the customer network and a second port of the cloud exchange for the cloud service provider network; and invoking a third microservice of the microservices to configure the cloud-based services exchange to create the virtual circuit between the first port of the cloud exchange and the second port of the cloud exchange.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the virtual circuit comprises one of an end-to-end layer 3 path and an Ethernet Virtual Circuit.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
by the orchestration engine, in response to determining a first microservice of the one or more microservices has failed to fulfill a request sent by the orchestration engine, determining whether to retry the request with the first microservice; by the orchestration engine, in response to determining to retry the request with the first microservice, sending the request to the first microservice; and by the orchestration engine, in response to determining not to retry the request with the first microservice, identifying a second microservice of the one or more microservices to execute the request and sending the request to the second microservice.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the orchestration engine receives the indication of the client request via a software interface reachable by a plurality of networks located in the cloud-based services exchange and associated with respective customers.

11 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein receiving the indication of the client request comprises receiving an indication of a client request to view a virtual circuit in the cloud-based services exchange for exchanging cloud service data between a customer network located in the cloud-based services exchange and a cloud service provider network located in the cloud-based services exchange, wherein satisfying the client request to view the virtual circuit comprises, by the orchestrator engine: invoking a first microservice of the microservices to validate a virtual circuit request parameter identified in the indication; invoking a second microservice of the microservices to query the virtual circuit to obtain data describing the virtual circuit; receiving the data describing the virtual circuit from the second microservice; and outputting a response to the client request that includes the data describing the virtual circuit.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the workflow comprises, by the orchestration engine, determining a client that issued the client request and selecting the workflow based on a profile associated with the client.

13 . A cloud-based services exchange comprising:
a plurality of interconnection assets configured to connect at least one customer of the cloud-based services exchange to a plurality of cloud service providers; and an orchestration engine configured to modify the plurality of interconnection assets by: receiving an indication of a client request for cloud exchange services offered by the cloud-based services exchange; selecting a workflow for providing the cloud exchange services, wherein the workflow specifies a set of tasks to be performed to fulfill the client request for the cloud exchange services; call one or more microservices to perform the tasks of the set of tasks as specified by the selected workflow; consolidate responses received from the microservices after performing the tasks; and send a response to the client request for the cloud exchange services based on the consolidated responses.

14 . The cloud-based service exchange of claim 13 ,
wherein the indication of the client request comprises an indication of a client request to provision a virtual circuit for exchanging cloud service data between a customer network located in the cloud-based services exchange and a cloud service provider network located in the cloud-based services exchange, wherein to select the workflow the orchestration engine is configured to select a workflow for provisioning a virtual circuit, wherein the workflow for provisioning the virtual circuit specifies a set of tasks comprising: (i) obtaining port details, (ii) obtaining metro details, and (iii) configuring the interconnection assets to create the v

Assignees

• Equinix Inc

Inventors

• Kumar Parveen
• Rangasamy Venkatachalam
• Jeyapaul Jaganathan
• Lillie Brian J

Classifications

• H04L41/20

  Network management software packages · 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

• G06F8/70

  Software maintenance or management · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• G06F9/5072

  Grid computing · CPC title