Application marketplace for virtual desktops

• US 10,313,345 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2013
• Issued: 06/04/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Suryanarayanan, Deepak, Farrell, Eugene Michael, Brown, David Everard, Luszcz, Stephen William, Padukone, Ajit Nagendra, Ah Kun, Malcolm Russell
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Steven S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Choo, Johann Y
• Application Number:
  US13/794,600
• Publication Number:
  US 20140258155A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,276 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/18 Licensing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• 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 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

Systems and methods are presented for accessing an application available from a data center of a program execution service. The metadata associated with a user computing device may be used to determine whether the user computing device is authorized to access the application through a virtual desktop instance. At least a portion of the application may be executed by the virtual desktop instance and provided to the user. Applications may be purchased, licensed, or rented by a user.

Claims

1. A method for accessing an application available from a data center of a program execution service, the method comprising:

providing, by a Program Execution Service (PES) to a user computing device associated with a user of the PES, access to an application marketplace for searching for an application to be executed by a virtual desktop instance, wherein the PES includes a plurality of data centers, each data center including one or more physical computing systems configurable to execute one or more virtual desktop instances, each virtual desktop instance associated with a computing environment that includes an operating system configurable to execute one or more applications, the PES further comprising a plurality of data center computer systems, each data center computer system comprising a memory and a processor;

receiving, by a data center computer system through the application marketplace, a request from the user to access the application on the virtual desktop instance from the user computing device;

determining, by the data center computer system, an entity associated with the user, the entity one of a plurality of separate entities with access to the PES, each of the plurality of separate entities associated with entity-specific resource placement rules specific to the entity;

selecting, by the data center computer system, a resource placement rule from the entity-specific resource placement rules of the entity based at least in part on an identification of a user-group of the user, the user-group one of a plurality of user-groups determined by a role of the users included in the user-group, wherein different roles are associated with different resource placement rules within the entity-specific resource placement rules, wherein the resource placement rule specifies a maximum percentage of users from the user-group that are permitted to access computing resources on a first set of computing systems that share a physical computing resource, wherein additional users from the user-group access the computing resources on a second set of computing systems that do not share the physical computing resource reducing an amount of application down-time for the entity by managing distribution of the set of users among physical computing systems;

accessing, by the data center computer system, metadata associated with the user computing device, the metadata comprising authorization information indicative of whether the user is authorized to access the application from the PES and whether the user is authorized to access the application on the user computing device;

determining, by the data center computer system, based at least in part on the metadata and the resource placement rule, that the user is authorized to access the application on the user computing device;

selecting, by the data center computer system, the first set of computing systems of the data center to host the virtual desktop instance, the first set of computing systems selected based at least in part on the resource placement rule and an amount of users accessing the data center;

determining, by the data center computer system, that the maximum percentage of users from the user-group as specified in the resource placement rule are accessing the first set of computing systems, wherein users from other user-groups of the plurality of user-groups are permitted to access the computing resources on the first set of computing systems; and

responsive to determining that the maximum percentage of users from the user-group are accessing the first set of computing systems, the method further comprises;

selecting, by the data center computer system, the second set of computing systems of the data center to host the virtual desktop instance, the second computing system being accessed by less than the maximum percentage of users from the user-group;

determining, by the data center computer system, that an existing virtual desktop instance hosted by the second set of computing systems does not exist to satisfy the user request;

instantiating, by the data center computer system, the virtual desktop instance on a computing system from the second set of computing systems;

configuring, by the data center computer system, the application to be executed from the virtual desktop instance on the second computing system of the data center;

in response to receiving a command to execute the application, causing, by the data center computer system, the application to be executed from the virtual desktop instance on the computing system from the second set of computing systems; and

providing, by the data center computer system, to the user computing device, access to at least a portion of the application from the virtual desktop instance on the computing system from the second set of computing systems.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the application comprises a user interface of the application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the application comprises an entire copy of the application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access to at least a portion of the application comprises streaming the virtual desktop instance to the user computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a notification to the user at an expiration of an application rental period notifying the user of the expiration of the application rental period, the application rental period comprising a period of time during which the user is authorized to access the application.

6. A system for accessing an application available from a data center of a program execution service, the system comprising:

a Program Execution Service (PES) comprising a number of data centers, each data center including one or more physical computing systems configurable to execute one or more virtual desktop instances, each virtual desktop instance associated with a computing environment that includes an operating system configurable to execute one or more applications, each virtual desktop instance accessible by a computing device of a user of the PES via a network, the PES including an application marketplace accessible to search for one or more of the virtual desktop instances or one or more applications, the PES further comprising;

a data center computer comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

provide, to a user computing device associated with a user of the PES, access to the application marketplace for searching for an application to be executed by a virtual desktop instance;

receive, by the application marketplace, a request from the user to access the application on the virtual desktop instance from the user computing device;

determine an entity associated with the user, the entity one of a plurality of separate entities with access to the PES, each of the plurality of separate entities associated with entity-specific resource placement rules specific to the entity;

select a resource placement rule from the entity-specific resource placement rules of the entity based at least in part on an identification of a user-group of the user, the user-group one of a plurality of user-groups determined by a role of the users included in the user-group, wherein different roles are associated with different resource placement rules within the entity-specific resource placement rules, wherein the resource placement rule specifies a maximum percentage of users from the user-group that are permitted to access computing resources on a first set of computing systems that share a physical computing resource, wherein additional users from the user-group access the computing resources on a second set of computing systems that do not share the physical computing resource reducing an amount of application down-time for the entity by managing distribution of the set of users among physical computing systems;

access metadata associated with the user computing device, the metadata comprising information indicative of whether the user is authorized to access the application from the PES on the user computing device and whether the user is authorized to access the application;

determine, based at least in part on the metadata and the resource placement rule, that the user is authorized to access the application on the user computing device;

select the first set of computing systems of a data center to host the virtual desktop instance, the first set of computing systems selected based at least in part on the resource placement rule and an amount of users accessing the data center;

determine that the maximum percentage of users from the user-group as specified in the resource placement rule are accessing the first set of computing systems, wherein users from other user-groups of the plurality of user-groups are permitted to access the computing resources on the first set of computing systems; and

responsive to determining that the maximum percentage of users from the user-group are accessing the first set of computing systems, the data center computer is further programmed to;

select the second set of computing systems of the data center to host the virtual desktop instance, the second computing system being accessed by less than the maximum percentage of users from the user-group;

determine that an existing virtual desktop instance hosted by the second set of computing systems does not exist to satisfy the user request;

instantiate the virtual desktop instance on a computing system from the second set of computing systems;

cause the application to be executed from the virtual desktop instance on the on the computing system from the second set of computing systems; and

provide, to the user computing device, access to at least a portion of the application from the virtual desktop instance on the computing system from the second set of computing systems.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the portion of the application comprises a user interface of the application.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the portion of the application comprises an entire copy of the application.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the data center computer is further programmed to provide access to at least a portion of the application by streaming the virtual desktop instance to the user computing device.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the metadata further comprises purchasing information indicative of whether the user has purchased, rented, or licensed the application from the application marketplace.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the data center computer is further programmed to send a notification to the user at an expiration of an application rental period notifying the user of the expiration of the application rental period, the application rental period comprising a period of time during which the user is authorized to access the application.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein to provide access to the portion of the application, the data center computer is programmed to stream the portion of the application to the user computing device.

13. The system of claim 6, wherein the data center computer is further programmed to remove the portion of the application from the user computing device upon completion of a usage session for the application.

14. Non-transitory physical computer storage comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by a processor direct a computing system to perform a method for accessing an application available from a data center of a program execution service, the method comprising:

providing, by a Program Execution Service (PES) to a user computing device associated with a user of the PES, access to an application marketplace for searching for an application to be executed by a virtual desktop instance, wherein the PES includes a plurality of data centers, each data center including one or more physical computing systems configurable to execute one or more virtual desktop instances, each virtual desktop instance associated with a computing environment that includes an operating system configurable to execute one or more applications;

receiving, by the application marketplace, a request from the user to access the application on the virtual desktop instance from the user computing device;

determining an entity associated with the user, the entity one of a plurality of separate entities with access to the PES, each of the plurality of separate entities associated with entity-specific resource placement rules specific to the entity;

selecting a resource placement rule from the entity-specific resource placement rules of the entity based at least in part on an identification of a user-group of the user, the user-group one of a plurality of user-groups determined by a role of the users included in the user-group, wherein different roles are associated with different resource placement rules within the entity-specific resource placement rules, wherein the resource placement rule specifies a maximum percentage of users from the user-group that are permitted to access computing resources on a first set of computing systems that share a physical computing resource, wherein additional users from the user-group access the computing resources on a second set of computing systems that do not share the physical computing resource reducing an amount of application down-time for the entity by managing distribution of the set of users among physical computing systems;

accessing metadata associated with the user computing device, the metadata comprising information indicative of whether the user is authorized to access the application from the PES and whether the user is authorized to access the application on the user computing device;

determining, based at least in part on the metadata and the resource placement rule, that the user is authorized to access the application on the user computing device;

selecting the first set of computing systems of a data center to host the virtual desktop instance, the first set of computing systems selected based at least in part on the resource placement rule and an amount of users accessing the data center;

determining that the maximum percentage of users from the user-group as specified in the resource placement rule are accessing the first set of computing systems, wherein users from other user-groups of the plurality of user-groups are permitted to access the computing resources on the first set of computing systems; and

responsive to determining that the maximum percentage of users from the user-group are accessing the first set of computing systems, the method further comprises;

selecting the second set of computing systems of the data center to host the virtual desktop instance, the second computing system being accessed by less than the maximum percentage of users from the user-group;

determining that an existing virtual desktop instance hosted by the second set of computing systems does not exist to satisfy the user request;

instantiating the virtual desktop instance on a computing system from the second set of computing systems;

causing the application to be executed from the virtual desktop instance on the second computing system of the data center; and

providing, to the user computing device, access to at least a portion of the application from the virtual desktop instance on the computing system from the second set of computing systems.

15. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein the portion of the application comprises a user interface of the application.

16. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein the portion of the application comprises an entire copy of the application.

17. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein providing access to at least a portion of the application comprises streaming a portion of the application to the user computing device.

18. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein providing access to at least a portion of the application comprises streaming the virtual desktop instance to the user computing device.

19. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein the metadata further comprises purchasing information indicative of whether the user has purchased, rented, or licensed the application from the application marketplace.

20. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises sending a notification to the user at an expiration of an application rental period notifying the user of the expiration of the application rental period, the application rental period comprising a period of time during which the user is authorized to access the application.