Usage tracking in hybrid cloud computing systems

• US 10,225,253 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2016
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Pogrebinsky, Vladimir
• Primary Examiner(s): Shayanfar, Ali
• Application Number:
  US15/217,541
• Publication Number:
  US 20180026985A1
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0892 by using authentication-authorization-accounting [AAA] servers or protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1425 Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Techniques for facilitating usage tracking in hybrid cloud computing systems are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method can include receiving, from a private cloud computing system, a request for uploading usage data to a storage in a public cloud computing system. The method can also include authenticating the received request based on a service subscription of the private cloud computing system, and upon authentication, providing the private cloud computing system with an access permission to store the usage data in the storage of the computing system. The method can further include receiving the usage data from the private cloud computing system submitted with the access permission and storing the received usage data in the storage of the public cloud computing system.

Claims

1. A method of usage tracking between a public cloud computing system interconnected with a private cloud computing system via a computer network, the method comprising:

receiving, at the public cloud computing system and from a connection service of the private cloud computing system, an authentication request;

in response to receiving the authentication request, authenticating, at the public cloud computing system, the connection service based on a service subscription of the connection service at the public cloud computing system;

upon authentication, transmitting, from the public cloud computing system, to the connection service of the private cloud computing system an access permission to store usage data in a network storage in the public cloud computing system, the usage data including data representing one or more accumulated durations of use of software deployed in the private cloud computing system; and

receiving, at the public cloud computing system, the usage data and the access permission from the private cloud computing system and storing the received usage data in the network storage under a storage account that is associated with the connection service of the private cloud computing system upon validating the access permission.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on the service subscription associated with the connection service of the private cloud computing system, whether the connection service is allowed to upload usage data to the public cloud computing system; and

in response to determining that the connection service is allowed to upload the usage data to the public cloud computing system, providing the connection service of the private cloud computing system the access permission.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the usage data includes data representing an accumulated duration of executing software of a cloud computing platform in the private cloud computing system or of executing one or more applications on the cloud computing platform in the private cloud computing system.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the usage data includes a digital signature, and wherein the method further includes analyzing the digital signature of the usage data to verify that the uploaded usage data is indeed from the private cloud computing system, and that the uploaded usage data is not altered during transmission.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the access permission includes generating, at the public cloud computing system, the access permission to the connection service of the private cloud computing system upon authentication.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

copying the stored usage data from the storage account associated with the connection service of the private cloud computing system to another storage account associated with the access service at the public cloud computing system.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising performing anomaly detection on the copied usage data in the another storage account associated with the access service at the public cloud computing system.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

performing anomaly detection on the copied usage data in the another storage account associated with the access service at the public cloud computing system; and

subsequent to performing the anomaly detection, providing the usage data to a billing service in the public cloud computing system.

9. A method of usage tracking between a public cloud computing system interconnected with a private cloud computing system via a computer network, the method comprising:

transmitting, from a connection service of the private cloud computing system, a request for storing usage data to the public cloud computing system, the usage data including data representing one or more accumulated durations of use of software deployed in the private cloud computing system, wherein the request includes credential of the connection service associated with a service subscription of the connection service at the public cloud computing system; and

upon the public cloud computing system granting access to store the usage data in a network storage in the public cloud computing system, transmitting and storing the usage data from the private cloud computing system in the network storage of the public cloud computing system under a storage account that is associated with the connection service of the private cloud computing system.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein transmitting the request includes transmitting, from the connection service of the private cloud computing system, the request for storing the usage data and the usage data in a single package to the public cloud computing system.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising generating the usage data by accumulating one or more durations of use of software deployed in the private cloud computing system, the software including software of a cloud computing platform deployed in the private cloud computing system.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising generating the usage data by accumulating one or more durations of use of software deployed in the private cloud computing system, the software including one or more applications executed on a cloud computing platform in the private cloud computing system.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving, from the public cloud computing system, connection information in response to the transmitted request for storing usage data in the public cloud computing system.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving, from the public cloud computing system, connection information in response to the transmitted request for storing usage data in the public cloud computing system, and wherein storing the usage data includes uploading the usage data from the private cloud computing system to the network storage of the public cloud computing system based on the received connection information.

15. The method of claim 14, further composing:

generating the usage data by utilizing a usage tracking service at the private cloud computing system;

passing, from the connection service, the received connection information to the usage tracking service; and

wherein storing the usage data includes utilizing the usage tracking service to upload the usage data from the private cloud computing system to the network storage of the public cloud computing system based on the received connection information.

16. The method of claim 9, further composing repeating the transmitting and storing operations on a periodic basis.

17. A computing system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory containing instructions executable by the one or more processors to cause the computing system to;

receive, from another computing system, a request for uploading usage data to a storage in the computing system, the usage data including data representing one or more accumulated durations of use of software deployed in the another computing system;

in response to receiving the request, authenticate the received request based on a service subscription of the another computing system;

upon authentication, transmit, to the another computing system, an access permission to store the usage data in the storage of the computing system; and

receive the usage data from the other computing system submitted with the access permission and, upon validating the access permission, store the received usage data in the storage of the computing system under a storage account that is associated with the another computing system without having direct access to other data in the another computing system.

18. The computing system of claim 17 wherein the memory contains additional instructions executable by the one or more processor to cause the computing system to copy the stored usage data from the storage account associated with the other computing system to another storage account.

19. The computing system of claim 17 wherein the memory contains additional instructions executable by the one or more processor to cause the computing system to:

copy the stored usage data from the storage account associated with the other computing system to another storage account; and

perform post-processing on the copied usage data in the another storage account.

20. The computing system of claim 19 wherein:

performing post-processing includes performing anomaly detection on the copied usage data in the another storage account; and

subsequent to performing the anomaly detection, generating charges based on the post-processed usage data to users of the another computing system.