Method and system for providing disaster recovery services using elastic virtual computing resources

• US 10,002,058 B1
• Filed: 11/26/2014
• Issued: 06/19/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Shanmugam, Elangovan, Zhou, Wei, Nguyen, Dong The Diep, Tran, Luu, Cabrera, Luis Felipe, de I'Isle, Seth B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Loan L. T.
• Application Number:
  US14/555,474
• Time in Patent Office: 1,301 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2038 with a single idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2048 where the redundant components share neither address space nor persistent storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual

Abstract

A method and system provides disaster recovery services in an expandable environment of virtual computing resources, according to one embodiment. The method and system provide a financial service with a primary financial service system, according to one embodiment. The method and system operate, on virtual computing resources in a second computing environment, a disaster recovery system for the primary financial service system, and the second computing environment is a virtual computing resources service provider computing environment that provides requested quantities of virtual computing resources for use by the disaster recovery system, in exchange for payment, according to one embodiment. If a loss of service for the primary financial service is detected, the method and system execute a secondary financial system from the disaster recovery system, within the second computing environment, by allocating additional virtual computing resources to the disaster recovery system within the second computing environment, according to one embodiment.

Claims

1. A computing system implemented method for providing disaster recovery services in an expandable computing environment of virtual computing resources that are dynamically and elastically allocated within the expandable computing environment, comprising:

providing, from a first computing environment, a financial service to users through a network with a primary financial service system of a financial service provider,

wherein the primary financial service system includes a financial service application executing over a first number of servers and application data storage that receives, stores, and retrieves application data to support operations of the financial service application;

operating, on a first set of virtual computing resources in a second computing environment, a disaster recovery system for the primary financial service system,

wherein the second computing environment is a virtual computing resources service provider computing environment that provides requested quantities of virtual computing resources for use by the disaster recovery system, in exchange for payment from the financial service provider, the second computing environment continuously executing a limited-feature version of the financial services application over less than the first number of servers, the limited-feature version of the financial services application being configured to perform a feature set having a fewer number of features than a full feature version of the application,

wherein the disaster recovery system maintains a secondary copy of the application data storage; and

if a loss of service for the primary financial service system is detected, executing a secondary financial system from the disaster recovery system, within the second computing environment, to provide the financial service to the users, wherein executing the secondary financial system includes;

allocating a second set of virtual computing resources to the disaster recovery system within the second computing environment, the allocation including increasing the number of servers over which the financial services application is executing from less than the first number of servers to at least a number of servers exceeding the first number of servers;

updating the already-executing limited feature application to a full feature application executing within the second computing environment, the full feature application being updated from the limited feature set version of the application to perform a full feature set having a greater number of features than the limited feature version of the application, and

using the secondary copy of the application data storage to support the execution of the financial service application within the second computing environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second computing environment is a cloud computing environment that provides an on-demand elastic allocation of the virtual computing resources.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary financial service system consumes a first set of computing resources, the disaster recovery system consumes a second set of computing resources, and the second set of computing resources is smaller than the first set of computing resources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the disaster recovery system includes installation files for the financial service application,

wherein executing the financial service application within the second computing environment includes installing the application in the second computing environment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein installing the application in the second computing environment includes installing the application in the second set of virtual computing resources allocated to the disaster recovery system as part of executing the secondary financial system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the secondary financial system includes creating a third copy of the secondary copy of the application data storage in a third set of virtual computing resources within the second computing environment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the third set of virtual computing resources uses hardware, power, and physical network resources that are independent from the hardware, power, and physical network resources of the first and second sets of virtual computing resources.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the disaster recovery system is a first disaster recovery system,

wherein the third set of virtual computing resources includes a second disaster recovery system for the second financial system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary financial service system includes a backup manager that is configured to generate the secondary copy of the application data storage in the disaster recovery system by transmitting incremental backup copies to the disaster recovery system.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the incremental backup copies include differences in the application data store between two points in time.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the backup manager transmits incremental backup copies to the disaster recovery system approximately every 5 minutes to maintain recovery points in 5 minute increments.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the backup manager transmits incremental backup copies to the disaster recovery system to maintain recovery points that have less than 10 minute increments.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the disaster recovery system monitors the primary financial service system for loss of communications and for loss of service,

wherein the disaster recovery system determines loss of service has occurred for the primary financial service system if the disaster recovery system fails to receive communications from the primary financial service system within a predetermined period of time.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the predetermined period of time is less than 5 minutes.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

de-allocating the second set of virtual computing resources, in response to a return of service by the primary financial service system.

16. A computing system implemented method for providing disaster recovery services in cloud computing environment having dynamically allocateable virtual computing resources, comprising:

hosting a disaster recovery system on a first set of computing resources in a first computing environment,

wherein the first set of computing resources are a first set of virtual computing resources, the second computing environment continuously executing a limited-feature version of a financial services application over less than a first number of servers, the limited-feature version of the financial services application being configured to perform a limited feature set having a fewer number of features than a full feature version of the application,

wherein the disaster recovery system is for a primary financial service system executing over the first number of servers and that operates on a second set of computing resources in a second computing environment, to provide financial services to users,

wherein the first set of computing resources is smaller than the second set of computing resources,

wherein hosting the disaster recovery system includes maintaining a secondary copy of data for the primary financial service system with the first set of computing resources;

monitoring, with the disaster recovery system, the primary financial service system for a loss of service event; and

hosting a secondary financial service system on a third set of computing resources, in response to detecting the loss of service event, with the disaster recovery system, for the primary financial service system,

wherein hosting the secondary financial service system includes allocating the third set of computing resources to use by the secondary financial service system, the allocation including increasing the number of servers over which the financial services application is executing from less than the first number of servers to at least a number of servers exceeding the first number of servers,

wherein the third set of computing resources are a second set of virtual computing resources,

wherein the secondary financial service system uses the secondary copy of data to provide the financial service to the users;

updating the already-executing limited feature application to a full feature application, the full feature application being updated from the limited feature set version of the application to perform a full feature set having a greater number of features than the limited feature version of the application.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first computing environment is different than the second computing environment and the second computing environment is a traditional data center.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

de-allocating the third computing resources to return control over the third computing resources to a pool of computing resources for the first computing environment.

19. A system for providing disaster recovery services in an expandable environment of virtual computing resources, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory coupled to the at least one processor, the at least one memory having stored therein instructions which, when executed by any set of the at least one processors, perform a process for providing disaster recovery services in an expandable environment of virtual computing resources, the process including;

providing, from a first computing environment, a financial service to users through a network with a primary financial service system of a financial service provider,

wherein the primary financial service system includes a financial service application executing over a first number of servers and application data storage that receives, stores, and retrieves application data to support operations of a financial service application;

operating, on a first set of virtual computing resources in a second computing environment, a disaster recovery system for the primary financial service system,

wherein the second computing environment is a virtual computing resources service provider computing environment that provides requested quantities of virtual computing resources for use by the disaster recovery system, in exchange for payment from the financial service provider, the second computing environment continuously executing a limited-feature version of the financial services application over less than the first number of servers, the limited-feature version of the financial services application being configured to perform a limited feature set having a fewer number of features than the full feature version of the application,

wherein the disaster recovery system maintains a secondary copy of the application data storage; and

if a loss of service for the primary financial service system is detected, executing a secondary financial system from the disaster recovery system, within the second computing environment, to provide the financial service to the users,

wherein executing the secondary financial system includes;

allocating a second set of virtual computing resources to the disaster recovery system within the second computing environment, the allocation including increasing the number of servers over which the financial services application is executing from the less than a first number of servers to at least a number of servers exceeding the first number of servers;

updating the already-executing limited feature application to a full feature application, the full feature application being updated from the limited feature set version of the application to perform a full feature set having a greater number of features than the limited feature version of the application;

executing the financial service application within the second computing environment, and

using the secondary copy of the application data storage to support the execution of the financial service application within the second computing environment.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the second computing environment is a cloud computing environment.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the primary financial service system consumes a first set of computing resources, the disaster recovery system consumes a second set of computing resources, and the second set of computing resources is smaller than the first set of computing resources.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the disaster recovery system includes installation files for the financial service application,

wherein executing the financial service application within the second computing environment includes installing the application in the second computing environment.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein installing the application in the second computing environment includes installing the application in the second set of virtual computing resources allocated to the disaster recovery system as part of executing the secondary financial system.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein executing the secondary financial system includes creating a secondary copy of the secondary copy of the application data storage in a third set of virtual computing resources within the second computing environment.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the third set of virtual computing resources uses hardware, power, and physical network resources that are independent from the hardware, power, and physical network resources of the first and second sets of virtual computing resources.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the disaster recovery system is a first disaster recovery system,

wherein the third set of virtual computing resources includes a second disaster recovery system for the second financial system.

27. The system of claim 19, wherein the primary financial service system includes a backup manager that is configured to generate the secondary copy of the application data storage in the disaster recovery system by transmitting incremental backup copies to the disaster recovery system.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the incremental backup copies include differences in the application data store between two points in time.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the backup manager transmits incremental backup copies to the disaster recovery system approximately every 5 minutes to maintain recovery points in 5 minute increments.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein the backup manager transmits incremental backup copies to the disaster recovery system to maintain recovery points that have less than 10 minute increments.

31. The system of claim 19, wherein the disaster recovery system monitors the primary financial service system for loss of communications and for loss of service,

wherein the disaster recovery system determines loss of service has occurred for the primary financial service system if the disaster recovery system fails to receive communications from the primary financial service system within a predetermined period of time.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the predetermined period of time is less than 5 minutes.

33. The system of claim 19, wherein the process further comprises:

de-allocating the second set of virtual computing resources, in response to a return of service by the primary financial service system.