Analytics mediation for microservice architectures

• US 10,242,073 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2016
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Koerner, Dennis, Linke, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Vy, Hung T
• Application Number:
  US15/221,009
• Publication Number:
  US 20180032534A1
• Time in Patent Office: 972 Days
• Field of Search: 707728, 707738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries

Abstract

An analytics mediator facilitates operations of an analytics engine and a corresponding analytics user interface (UI) in analyzing operations of a plurality of microservices. The analytics mediator enables the analytics engine to execute various types of conventional and new types of analyses with respect to the microservices, and to present the results of such analyses using the analytics UI, in a manner that is highly convenient and efficient for a user of the analytics engine, while also maintaining an independence, scalability, and other advantageous features of the microservices.

Claims

1. A computer program product, the computer program product being tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and comprising instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause at least one computing device to:

receive a first registration request from a first microservice for registration within a microservice data directory of first data access metadata;

register the first data access metadata within the microservice data directory, in response to the first registration request;

receive a second registration request from a second microservice for registration within the microservice data directory of the second data access metadata;

register the second data access metadata within the microservice data directory, in response to the second registration request;

receive a data analytics request that requires first data of the first microservice and second data of the second microservice;

access the microservice data directory to obtain the first data access metadata characterizing a structure and access methodology for the first data of the first microservice, and the second access metadata characterizing a structure and access methodology for the second data of the second microservice;

obtain the first data of the first microservice using the first access metadata, and the second data of the second microservice using the second access metadata; and

provide the first data of the first microservice and the second data of the second microservice to thereby respond to the data analytics request.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one computing device, are further configured to:

register the first data access metadata within the microservice data directory using a first directory interface of the first microservice; and

register the second data access metadata within the microservice data directory using a second directory interface of the second microservice.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the first data access metadata and the second data access metadata characterize content of the first data and the second data, respectively.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one computing device, are further configured to:

obtain the first data of the first microservice using a first data-level interface of the first microservice, and the second data of the second microservice using a second data-level interface of the second microservice.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one computing device, are further configured to:

provide the first data and the second data to an analytics engine from which the data analytics request was received.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the microservice data directory receives a manual update including third access metadata characterizing a structure and access methodology for third data of a third microservice, and the third data is provided in response to the data analytics request.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one computing device, are further configured to:

analyze the analytics request to identify, from a plurality of microservices, the first microservice and the second microservice as including the first data and the second data required to satisfy the analytics request.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one computing device, are further configured to:

combine the first data of the first microservice and the second data of the second microservice to thereby respond to the data analytics request including facilitating a holistic analysis of an aggregation of the first data and the second data.

9. A method of executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium using at least one processor, the method comprising:

receiving a first registration request from a first microservice for registration within a microservice data directory of first data access metadata characterizing a structure and access methodology for first data of the first microservice;

registering the first data access metadata within the microservice data directory;

receiving a second registration request from a second microservice for registration within the microservice data directory of second data access metadata characterizing a structure and access methodology for second data of the second microservice;

registering the second data access metadata within the microservice data directory;

receiving a data analytics request that requires the first data of the first microservice and the second data of the second microservice;

accessing the microservice data directory to obtain the first data access metadata and the second access metadata; and

obtaining the required first data of the first microservice and the second data of the second microservice

including interfacing with the first microservice using the first data access metadata to obtain the first data of the first microservice and interfacing with the second microservice using the second data access metadata to obtain the second data of the second microservice to thereby respond to the data analytics request.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first data access metadata and the second data access metadata characterize content of the first data and the second data, respectively.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein obtaining the first data and the second data comprises:

obtaining the first data of the first microservice using a first data-level interface of the first microservice, and the second data of the second microservice using a second data-level interface of the second microservice.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing the first data and the second data to an analytics engine from which the data analytics request was received.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

combining the first data of the first microservice and the second data of the second microservice to thereby respond to the data analytics request including facilitating a holistic analysis of an aggregation of the first data and the second data.

14. A microservice comprising:

a microservice data repository configured to store data of the microservice;

a microservice application program interface (API) configured to interact with a second microservice API of a second microservice to thereby provide a combined functionality of the microservice and the second microservice; and

a data access mediator configured to interface with an analytics mediator to register microservice metadata characterizing the data of the microservice with the analytics mediator, and further configured, based on a data request from the analytics mediator formulated in accordance with the microservice metadata, to provide requested data from the microservice data to thereby enable combined analysis of the requested data together with second data of the second microservice,

wherein the data access mediator includes

a metadata repository configured to store the microservice metadata characterizing a structure, access methodology, and content of the data of the microservice data repository, and

a directory interface configured to register the microservice metadata with a microservice data directory storing the microservice metadata along with second microservice metadata characterizing a structure, access methodology, and content of the second data of the second microservice.

15. The microservice of claim 14, wherein the data access mediator comprises:

a data-level interface configured to receive the data request from the analytics mediator, access the microservice data repository, and return the requested data to the analytics mediator.

16. The microservice of claim 14, wherein the data access mediator implements a first instance of a service-agnostic interface to register the microservice metadata and respond to the data request, a second instance of the service-agnostic interface also being used by the second microservice to register second microservice metadata of the second microservice with the analytics mediator and provide the second data to the analytics mediator to enable the combined analysis.