Establishing cross-vendor secure connectivity in a shared computing environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018255142-A1
Application number	US-201715448114-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 2, 2017
Priority date	Mar 2, 2017
Publication date	Sep 6, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method, computer program product, and a device for establishing a direct communications connection between gateways of two computing systems includes a processor(s) of a first system receiving configuration instructions in a generic format and translating the configuration instructions into a first set of gateway configuration commands that are in a format compatible with a first gateway of the first system. The processor(s) executes the first set to configure the first gateway. The processor(s) transmits, via a communication protocol, the configuration instructions, to a program(s) of a second computing systems, the program(s) translates the configuration instructions into a second set of gateway configuration commands, in a format compatible with the second gateway, and executes the second set to configure the second gateway. The processor(s) establishes a direct communications connection between the first gateway and the second gateway, based on the configurations matching.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors of a first computing system, configuration instructions in a generic format; translating, by the one or more processors, the configuration instructions into a first set of gateway configuration commands, wherein the first set of gateway configuration commands is in a format compatible with a first gateway of the first computing system; executing, by the one or more processors, the first set of gateway configuration commands, to configure the first gateway in accordance with the configuration instructions; transmitting, by the one or more processors, via a communication protocol, the configuration instructions, to one or more programs of a second computing systems, wherein based on receiving the configuration instructions, the one or more programs translate the configuration instructions into a second set of gateway configuration commands, wherein the second set of gateway configuration commands is in a format compatible with the second gateway, and execute the second set of gateway configuration commands to configure the second gateway in accordance with the configuration instructions; and establishing, by the one or more processors, a direct communications connection between the first gateway and the second gateway, based on a configuration of the first gateway matching a configuration of the second gateway.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing, by the one or more processors, over the direct communications connection, a resource of the second computing system.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing, from the second gateway, over the direct communications connection, a resource of the first computing system.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the format of the first set of gateway configuration commands is not compatible with the second gateway.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first gateway is provided by a first vendor and the second gateway is provided by a second vendor.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first computing system or the second computing system comprises a cloud computing system.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first computing system comprises a private cloud and the second computing system comprises a public cloud.

8 . The computer-implemented of claim 7 , wherein the one or more programs of the second computing system comprise an abstraction layer of the public cloud.

9 . The computer-implemented of claim 1 , the direct communications connection comprising a two way tunnel for direct data communication between the first gateway and the second gateway.

10 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the configuration instructions comprise connectivity configuration instructions comprising parameters selected from the group consisting of: a type of connectivity for connecting, in data communications, computing resources of the first computing system to computing resources external to the first computing system, authentication information for connecting, in data communications, the computing resources of the first computing system to the computing resources external to the first computing system, Internet Protocol information for connecting, in data communications, the computing resources of the first computing system to the computing resources external to the first computing system, and subnet information for connecting, in data communications, the computing resources of the first computing system to the computing resources external to the first computing system.

11 . The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the configuration instructions are further selected from the group consisting of: firewall configuration information for connecting to the gateway of the first computing system, the computing resources of the first computing system, and the computing resources external to the first computing system, routing related information for connecting, in data communication, the computing resources of the first computing system to the computing resources external to the first computing system, network address translation information for connecting, in data communication, the computing resources of the first computing system to the computing resources external to the first computing system, and virtual private network related information for connecting, in data communication, the computing resources of the first computing system to the computing resources external to the first computing system.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, by the one or more processors, via the communication protocol, the configuration instructions, to one or more programs of a third computing system, wherein based on receiving the configuration instructions, the one or more programs translate the configuration instructions into a third set of gateway configuration commands, wherein the third set of gateway configuration commands is in a format compatible with the third gateway, and execute the third set of gateway configuration commands to configure the third gateway in accordance with the configuration instructions; and establishing, by the one or more processors, a direct communications connection between at least one of the first gateway and the second gateway to the third gateway, based on a configuration of the third gateway matching the configuration of the first gateway or the configuration of the second gateway.

13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, configuration data from the first gateway indicating a change to the configuration of the first gateway; translating, by the one or more processors, the configuration data into the generic format; and transmitting, by the one or more processors, to the second gateway, over the direct communications connection, the configuration data in the generic format.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, over the direct communications connection, configuration data from the second gateway indicating a change to the configuration of the second gateway, wherein the configuration data is in a generic format; translating, by the one or more processors, the configuration data into a third set of gateway configuration commands, wherein the third set of gateway configuration commands is in the format compatible with a first gateway of the first computing system; and executing, by the one or more processors, the third set of gateway configuration commands, to implement the change to the configuration of the second gateway to the configuration of the first gateway.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the communication protocol is selected from the group consisting of: a wireless communication protocol, a proprietary communication protocol.

16 . A computer program product comprising:
a computer readable storage medium readable by one or more processors and storing instructions for execution by the one or more processors for performing a method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors of a first computing system, configuration instructions in a generic format;
translating, by the one or more processors, the configuration instructions into a first set of gateway configuration commands, wherein the first se

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Benantar Messaoud
• Chang David Y
• Chang John Y
• Venkataramappa Vishwanath

Classifications

• H04L12/66

  Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways · 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

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• H04L67/141 Primary

  Setup of application sessions (admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70) · CPC title

• H04L63/166

  at the transport layer · CPC title