System to provide computing as a product using dynamic computing environments

• US 20020171678A1
• Filed: 01/30/2002
• Published: 11/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clouding Corporation (Marathon Patent Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Jareva Technologies Inc. (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Nanja, Sekaran, Bandhole, Jagadish, Balasubramaniam, Shan
• Granted Patent: US 7,036,006 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system enabling computing to be provided as a packaged product or as a remote resource to users. Computing is delivered as a product or a resource by providing dynamic computing environments to users based on users'"'"' choices of virtual components (hardware, software or network components). A customer can choose the components and configure a computing environment. The system packages this environment and makes it available for users to compute. A service provider can use the system to create computing environments, automatically, on demand and thus providing computing as a remote resource to customers. The system monitors the usage of the customers and they are billed accordingly. In either case users can carry out their computing activity remotely using a client device such as a web browser.

Claims

1. A system using a computer system to provide computing as a product to a user, where computing is supported through a dynamic computing environment, the system comprising:

an interface to present components of a dynamic computing environment to the user;

an interface to accept user inputs for selection of components of a dynamic computing environment;

an interface to accept user inputs specifying a configuration of the dynamic computing environment;

a framework for creating the dynamic computing environment from allocable resources; and

an interface for the user to compute on the dynamic computing environment.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the components include hardware components wherein hardware components comprising:

computing devices or CPUs; and

storage devices.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the components include software components wherein software components comprising:

operating systems; and

applications software.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the components include network components wherein network components comprising:

network switches and ports in switches;

network routers or gateways; and

network security elements wherein network security elements include firewalls.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the components include virtual components comprising:

software licenses;

network connections with specified bandwidth; and

IP addresses or subnets where a subnet is a range of IP Addresses.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprising:

a configuration manager that can save user configurations as components in the database;

wherein the interface to present components can present configurations as components to the user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the system further comprising:

an interface to accept user inputs for scheduling computing sessions;

a scheduler to keep track of scheduled sessions and to reserve resources for sessions and to release the resources once a computing session is completed;

8. The system of claim 1, wherein all the interfaces are web-based user interfaces accessible through a web client device i.e., a browser.

9. A method to provide computing as a product the method comprising:

the step of presenting components of a dynamic computing environment;

the step of accepting user inputs for choices of components;

the step of accepting user inputs for configuration of the dynamic computing environment from the chosen components;

the step of creating a dynamic computing environment from the configuration in response to user inputs for configuration; and

the step of present the dynamic computing environment to the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the components include hardware components wherein hardware components comprising:

computing devices or CPUs; and

storage devices.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the components include software components wherein software components comprising:

operating systems; and

applications software.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the components include network components wherein network components comprising:

network switches and ports in switches;

network routers or gateways; and

network security elements wherein network security elements include firewalls.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the components include virtual components comprising:

software licenses;

network connections with specified bandwidth; and

IP addresses or subnets where a subnet is a range of IP Addresses.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein components include user configurations.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the method further comprising:

the step of accepting user inputs for scheduling computing sessions;

the step of scheduling requested sessions and reserving resources for sessions; and

the step of releasing the resources once a computing session is completed;

17. The system of claim 16, wherein

a first user computes on a first dynamic computing environment;

a second user computes on a second dynamic computing environment; and

the first and the second dynamic computing environment exist concurrently and share the allocable resources;

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the system further ensures that:

the first user has secure access to the first dynamic computing environment;

the second user has secure access to the second dynamic computing environment;

the first user'"'"'s computing has no impact on the second dynamic computing environment; and

the second user'"'"'s computing has no impact on the first dynamic computing environment;

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the system further comprises a resource monitor that monitors the allocable resources to guarantee the Quality of Service requirements of the user.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the system further comprises a usage meter that measures the usage of the components of the dynamic computing environment.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the system further includes a billing subsystem to convert the usage measurements and the quality of service to a bill price for the user.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the billing subsystem is a pay-per-use billing system.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the billing subsystem is a periodic billing system.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the billing subsystem is an installment billing system.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the billing subsystem is a combination of one or more billing systems.

16. A system of using a computer system to provide computing as a resource to a user, wherein the system comprising:

a framework for providing a dynamic computing environment using allocable resources; and

wherein the dynamic computing environment is used for computing by the user.

31. An apparatus for providing computing as a packaged product to a user, where the package is a dynamic computing environment on which the user computes, the apparatus configured to perform the following method:

accepting one or more user inputs for components of the dynamic computing environment and configuration of the same;

configuring the dynamic computing environment;

presenting the package as a product to the user;

billing the user for the product based on the price of the components.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, further configured to perform the steps:

accepting a schedule of one or more user computing sessions;

scheduling the sessions and reserving resources for the dynamic computing environments for those sessions; and

releasing the resources on session completion.