Systems and methods for cloud-based device configuration management of heterogeneous devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9800994-B1
Application number	US-201615094257-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Apr 8, 2016
Priority date	Apr 8, 2016
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure provides for information handling systems and methods to configure and manage any number of heterogeneous devices. In various embodiments, a shared device configuration is simultaneously applied to a selected group of otherwise incompatible heterogeneous devices that may use different communication protocols and operating systems. Certain embodiments create and maintain a database of configuration and operational information that is accessible across platforms. A group device configuration may be automatically applied to all devices in the selected group via a batch command. Some embodiments allow independent heterogeneous devices that have similar functionality to have different device configuration settings.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system to manage heterogeneous devices, the system performing the steps of:
receiving device-related data for heterogeneous devices, at least some of the devices having differing configuration settings;
generating a schema by analyzing the device-related data to determine a commonality of a group of heterogeneous devices from the heterogeneous devices; and
based on the commonality, generating device configuration data for the group of heterogeneous devices.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the schema transforms the device configuration data into a searchable format.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the commonality is based on at least one of a location and an association with an individual.

4. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the schema considers user-selectable rules.

5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein at least one rule is used to identify the commonality.

6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein applying comprises using a portable device that establishes a communication to one or more of the heterogeneous devices.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the step of generating comprises grouping device configuration values associated with a group of heterogeneous devices.

8. A method to manage heterogeneous devices, at least some of the devices having differing configuration settings, the method comprising:
identifying a group of devices from heterogeneous devices, the heterogeneous devices being analyzed by a schema that analyzes device-related data to determine a commonality at least between two heterogeneous devices that have different functionality and generates device configuration data for at least the two heterogeneous devices;
communicating the configuration data to a communication interface that is coupled to a user interface and a cloud system; and
applying at least one of a number of configuration values and some of the device configuration data to the group of devices.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the step of identifying is performed based on a database query.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the step of identifying comprises at least one of associating a device with the group of devices and removing a device from the group of devices.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the step of identifying is performed via an application.

12. The method according to claim 8 , wherein based on the commonality, the schema is used to generate configuration metadata from the device-related data.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein, in a registration phase, the configuration metadata is used to pre-populate at least one of the configuration values at the user interface.

14. A system for managing heterogeneous device configurations, the system comprising:
one or more communication interfaces that facilitate data communication with a user device and with at least some of a set of heterogeneous devices;
one or more processors;
non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, causes steps to be performed comprising:
receiving, via the one or more communication interfaces, device-related data from at least one of the user device and at least some of the set of heterogeneous devices;
analyzing the device-related data to determine a commonality for a group of heterogeneous devices to generate device configuration data for the group of heterogeneous devices; and

applying, based on the commonality, at least one of a number of configuration values and some of the device configuration data to at least some of the group of heterogeneous devices.

15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein at least two of the heterogeneous devices differ in at least one of an operating platform and a communication protocol.

16. The system according to claim 14 , further comprising the step of:
providing to the user, via the one or more communication interfaces, a recommendation for a device configuration setting for a specific type of device based upon analyzing the device-related data.

17. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the system determines the group of heterogeneous devices based on the commonality.

18. The system according to claim 14 , wherein at least one of the heterogeneous devices in the group of heterogeneous devices cannot directly communicate via the one or more communication interfaces with the system and the system sends to the user device the at least one of the number of configuration values and some of the device configuration data for the user device to relay to the at least one of the heterogeneous devices.

19. The system according to claim 18 wherein the at least one of the number of configuration values and some of the device configuration data that is sent to user device to relay to the at least one of the heterogeneous devices is configured to be communicated via a short range communication interface.

20. The system according to claim 19 , wherein the short range communication interface is a Near Field Communication tag.

Assignees

• Quest Software Inc

Inventors

• Tegegne Abel
• Abraham Vineetha
• Brisebois Michel Albert

Classifications

• H04W4/70

  Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] · CPC title

• H04W4/50 Primary

  Service provisioning or reconfiguring · CPC title

• H04W4/001 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/10

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