Service broker for computational offloading and improved resource utilization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016205202-A1
Application number	US-201514593291-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 9, 2015
Priority date	Jan 9, 2015
Publication date	Jul 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Flexible utilization of capacity to provide computing services mediated by a service broker. The service broker receives a request from a first party for assistance with a service workload as well as an indication from a second party of a willingness to provide service. The service broker matches the parties with each other based at least in part on the capacity of the second party to service the service workload of the first party, manages offloading of the service workload from first party to the second party, and manages billing of a workload provider (such as the first party or the first party's customer) for the offloading engagement.

First claim

1 - 10 . (canceled)

11 . A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon:
first program instructions programmed to receive, from a service delegatee, an indication of ability to provide service; second program instructions programmed to receive, from a service delegator, a request for assistance with a service workload; third program instructions programmed to match the service delegatee with the service delegator based, at least in part, on a capacity of the service delegatee to service the service workload of the service delegator; fourth program instructions programmed to manage offloading of the service workload from the delegator to the delegatee, including initialization and termination of a service offloading engagement; and fifth program instructions programmed to manage billing of a workload provider for the service offloading engagement.

12 . The product of claim 11 wherein the matching includes consideration of a set of criteria specified by the delegator that the delegatee should meet in order for the delegatee to be matched with the delegator.

13 . The product of claim 11 wherein the matching includes consideration of a set of criteria specified by the delegatee that the delegator should meet in order for the delegator to be matched with the delegatee.

14 . The product of claim 11 wherein:
the billed workload provider is a service consumer of the service delegator; and
the billing management includes automatically allocating payments from the service consumer between the delegator and the delegatee according to the service each provided to the service consumer.

15 . The product of claim 11 wherein computing resources of the delegatee used to offload the service workload from the delegator are primarily used by the delegatee for internal and/or non-commercial purposes.

16 . A computer system comprising:
a processor(s) set; and a computer readable storage medium; wherein: the processor set is structured, located, connected and/or programmed to run program instructions stored on the computer readable storage medium; and the program instructions include:
first program instructions programmed to receive, from a service delegatee, an indication of ability to provide service;
second program instructions programmed to receive, from a service delegator, a request for assistance with a service workload;
third program instructions programmed to match the service delegatee with the service delegator based, at least in part, on a capacity of the service delegatee to service the service workload of the service delegator;
fourth program instructions programmed to manage offloading of the service workload from the delegator to the delegatee, including initialization and termination of a service offloading engagement; and
fifth program instructions programmed to manage billing of a workload provider for the service offloading engagement.

17 . The system of claim 16 wherein the matching includes consideration of a set of criteria specified by the delegator that the delegatee should meet in order for the delegatee to be matched with the delegator.

18 . The system of claim 16 wherein the matching includes consideration of a set of criteria specified by the delegatee that the delegator should meet in order for the delegator to be matched with the delegatee.

19 . The system of claim 16 wherein:
the billed workload provider is a service consumer of the service delegator; and
the billing management includes automatically allocating payments from the service consumer between the delegator and the delegatee according to the service each provided to the service consumer.

20 . The system of claim 16 wherein computing resources of the delegatee used to offload the service workload from the delegator are primarily used by the delegatee for internal and/or non-commercial purposes

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Jia Bin
• Liu Ying
• Lu E Feng
• Shen Yan Rong
• Wu Jia
• Zhang Zhen

Classifications

• G06Q30/04 Primary

  Billing or invoicing · CPC title

• H04L67/20

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/10 Primary

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

• H04L67/16 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06Q20/145

  Payments according to the detected use or quantity · CPC title