Cloud service utilization

• US 10,264,073 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2017
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kadowaki, Isao, Nishikawa, Yuriko, Ohtani, Munetaka, Saitoh, Masaki, Unno, Asuka
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder, Patrice L
• Application Number:
  US15/643,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20180041580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 648 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• 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 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data

Abstract

Cloud services may be utilized by implementing an I/O hook that can intercept a data access from an application, migrating data accessed by the application to a cloud server that provides a cloud service, receiving, from the I/O hook, a data access intercepted from the application, and redirecting the intercepted data access to the cloud server.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform operations comprising, for each of a plurality of applications:

implementing a respective I/O hook configured to intercept a data access from a corresponding application of the plurality of applications;

selecting a cloud service from a plurality of cloud services based on data access statistics generated by the respective I/O hook for the corresponding application;

migrating data accessed by the corresponding application to a cloud server that provides the selected cloud service;

receiving, from the respective I/O hook, a data access intercepted from the corresponding application; and

redirecting the intercepted data access to the cloud server that provides the selected cloud service.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the migrating includes transmitting the data accessed by the corresponding application from a local storage to the cloud server.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the selecting includes collecting information relating to the plurality of storage services, and is further based on the information.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the collecting includes:

collecting at least part of the information from a third party server that obtains the part of the information from at least one of the cloud services among the plurality of cloud services.

5. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the selecting is further based on at least one of a price, a free storage size, a maximum storage size, a performance, an availability, or a security of each cloud storage service.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising migrating each file that has not been migrated to the cloud server in response to receiving a data access to the file.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

registering at least one file that has not been migrated to the cloud server in response to receiving a data access to the at least one file, and

transferring the at least one registered file to the cloud server asynchronously.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the migrating includes:

determining whether a number of write-only files in a directory exceeds a threshold, and

transferring the directory to the cloud server in response to the determination that the number of write-only files in the directory exceeds the threshold.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring a frequency of data access of the corresponding application to a file which has not been migrated to the cloud server, and

moving the file from a local storage to a back-up storage in response to the frequency falling below a threshold.

10. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein selecting the cloud service from the plurality of cloud services further comprises selecting a respective cloud service for each file of a plurality of files based on data access statistics corresponding to each file.

11. A computer comprising:

a processor;

one or more computer readable mediums collectively including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

for each of a plurality of applications;

implement a respective I/O hook configured to intercept a data access from a corresponding application of the plurality of applications;

select a cloud service from a plurality of cloud services based on data access statistics generated by the respective I/O hook for the corresponding application;

migrate data accessed by the corresponding application to a cloud server that provides the selected cloud service;

receive, from the respective I/O hook, a data access intercepted from the corresponding application; and

redirect the intercepted data access to the cloud server that provides the selected cloud service.

12. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to migrate the data by transmitting the data accessed by the corresponding application from a local storage to the cloud server.

13. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to select the cloud service based on at least one of a price, a free storage size, a maximum storage size, a performance, an availability, or a security of each cloud storage service.

14. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to migrate each file that has not been migrated to the cloud server in response to receiving a data access to the file.

15. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to:

register at least one file that has not been migrated to the cloud server in response to receiving a data access to the at least one file, and

transfer the at least one registered file to the cloud server asynchronously.

16. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to migrate the data accessed by the corresponding application to the cloud server that provides the selected cloud service by:

determining whether a number of write-only files in a directory exceeds a threshold, and

transferring the directory to the cloud server in response to the determination that the number of write-only files in the directory exceeds the threshold.

17. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to:

monitor a frequency of data access of the corresponding application to a file which has not been migrated to the cloud server, and

move the file from a local storage to a back-up storage in response to the frequency falling below a threshold.

18. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to select a respective cloud service for each file of a plurality of files based on data access statistics corresponding to each file.