Cross-cloud vendor mapping service in cloud marketplace

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8954564-B2
Application number	US-79022910-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 28, 2010
Priority date	May 28, 2010
Publication date	Feb 10, 2015
Grant date	Feb 10, 2015

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for a cross-cloud vendor mapping service in a dynamic cloud marketplace. The cloud marketplace system receives bids from a user for the provisioning of applications or other software in the cloud, and registers selected provisioning clouds to deliver the requested software. The set of provisioning clouds can be re-selected on a scheduled and/or other ongoing basis, creating a sequence of provisioning clouds. A vendor mapping service can be abstracted and provided external to the cloud marketplace system, and track the user's software usage across the shifting sets of provisioning clouds. The vendor mapping service can aggregate the usage history over time, and generate billing and/or other subscription reports. The cloud marketplace system need only register the user ID, software applications, and/or other subscription data to the vendor mapping service one time, after which the service can track the user's software usage history automatically.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a processor, a request to provision a first computing resource, the request comprising an operational specification of the first computing resource;
selecting a first provisioning cloud from a plurality of marketplace clouds in view of the operational specification and provisioning bids received from the plurality of marketplace clouds;
receiving an updated operational specification of the first computing resource;
receiving updated provisioning bids responsive to the updated operational specification;
selecting a second provisioning cloud from the plurality of marketplace clouds in view of the updated provisioning bids;
providing an interface between the first computing resource and a second computing resource residing in the second provisioning cloud; and
tracking resource usage data of the first computing resource across the first provisioning cloud and the second provisioning cloud, wherein usage of the first computing resource in the second provisioning cloud is initiated after termination of usage of the first computing resource in the first provisioning cloud.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first computing resource comprises at least one of a software appliance, a software application, or an operating system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request further comprises at least one of a subscription cost, a minimum number of software images to be deployed, a maximum number of software images to be deployed, a software version specification, or a software support specification.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tracking comprises communicating with a cloud management system.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tracking comprises extracting the resource usage data from the two or more provisioning clouds via a cloud management system.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tracking comprises storing the resource usage data to a marketplace usage database.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting an additional provisioning cloud from the plurality of marketplace clouds in view of the updated operational specification.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating at least one of a billing or subscription record in view of the resource usage data.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising aggregating resource usage data of the first computing resource across the first provisioning cloud and the second provisioning cloud.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request to provision the first computing resource comprises a request to instantiate one or more virtual machines.

11. A system, comprising:
an interface to a plurality of marketplace clouds; and
a processor, to communicate with the plurality of marketplace clouds via the interface, the processor to:
receive a request to provision a first computing resource, the request comprising an operational specification of the first computing resource;
select a first provisioning cloud from a plurality of marketplace clouds in view of the operational specification and provisioning bids received from the plurality of marketplace clouds;
receive an updated operational specification of the first computing resource;
receive updated provisioning bids responsive to the updated operational specification;
select a second provisioning cloud from the plurality of marketplace clouds in view of the updated provisioning bids;
provide an interface between the first computing resource and a second computing resource residing in the second provisioning cloud; and
track resource usage data of the first computing resource across the first provisioning cloud and the second provisioning cloud, wherein usage of the first computing resource in the second provisioning cloud is initiated after termination of usage of the first computing resource in the first provisioning cloud.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first computing resource comprises at least one of a software appliance, a software application, or an operating system.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the request further comprises at least one of a subscription cost, a minimum number of software images to be deployed, a maximum number of software images to be deployed, a software version specification, or a software support specification.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the tracking comprises communicating with a cloud management system.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein tracking comprises extracting the resource usage data from the two or more provisioning clouds via a cloud management system.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the tracking comprises storing the resource usage data to a marketplace usage database.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further to select an additional provisioning cloud from the plurality of marketplace clouds in view of the updated operational specification.

18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further to
generate at least one of a billing or subscription record in view of the usage data.

19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further to aggregate resource usage data of the first computing resource across the first provisioning cloud and the second provisioning cloud.

20. The system of claim 11 , wherein the request to provision the first computing resource comprises a request to instantiate one or more virtual machines.

Assignees

• Ferris James Michael
• Riveros Gerry Edward
• Red Hat Inc

Inventors

• Ferris James Michael
• Riveros Gerry Edward

Classifications

• H04L47/70

  Admission control; Resource allocation · CPC title

• G06F9/5072 Primary

  Grid computing · CPC title

• G06F2209/508

  Monitor · CPC title

• G06Q30/08 Primary

  Auctions · CPC title

• H04L43/20

  the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV · CPC title