System and method to combine a product database with an existing enterprise to model best usage of funds for the enterprise

• US 20030212643A1
• Filed: 05/09/2002
• Published: 11/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Hogan, Katherine, Steele, Doug, Campbell, Randy
• Application Number:
  US10/140,932
• Publication Number:
  US 20030212643A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/400
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

A data center has a network of resources with one or more virtual networks within it. Each virtual network represents an enterprise. A return on investment (ROI) analysis is performed for dollars or other currency spent toward achieving optimal performance within an enterprise. An analysis is performed using the amount of money available to spend and the product database as inputs to return options on the best way or ways to spend that money to achieve optimal performance and/or redundancy within the enterprise. A product database containing costs is combined with existing analysis tools to suggest improved or replacement resources. The combined report puts a dollar value on replacement resources and estimates the cost of increasing performance/capacity of a customer enterprise.

Claims

1. A method for modeling best usage of funds for an enterprise, said method comprising steps of:

retrieving runtime performance metrics from an enterprise customer'"'"'s environment;

executing at least one performance modeling tool on the runtime performance metrics of the enterprise, the executing being performed remotely from the enterprise;

determining an inventory of components in the enterprise; and

applying cost data from a products database to results of the at least one performance modeling tool, wherein the cost data corresponds to the inventory of components, thereby resulting in return on investment (ROI) recommendations.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, said method further comprising a step of:

comparing the enterprise with one or more like enterprises, wherein reported problems provide a subjective performance measure of a given enterprise.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the comparing uses data from a world-wide customer enterprise database comprising historical runtime performance metrics, cost data and corresponding information defining upgrades and modifications made for a plurality of enterprises.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the plurality of enterprises are remotely monitored.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the runtime performance metrics are retrieved through one or more firewalls by a support node.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the runtime performance metrics are retrieved through a firewall by an external support node for analysis using a simple object access protocol (SOAP) request mechanism, and wherein simple network management protocol (SMTP) events generated from clients within a firewall are packaged in XML and transported via HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) listeners.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one performance modeling tool is a commercial-off-the-shelf tool.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining an inventory of components in the enterprise is conducted via one or more firewalls by support node.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining an inventory of components in the enterprise is conducted off-line using an image backup of the enterprise.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a proposed change in a customer'"'"'s computing environment is checked for effectiveness using historical customer enterprise data for enterprises that have also made a change similar the proposed change.

11. A system for best usage of funds modeling for an enterprise, comprising:

a plurality of components in an enterprise;

a metrics database for storing a plurality of runtime performance metrics for each component in an enterprise;

a product database for storing cost and configuration information corresponding to both components in the enterprise and viable substitute/replacement components;

a customer enterprise database for storing historical data corresponding to a plurality of monitored enterprises; and

an analysis engine for modeling cost information with performance metrics and historical enterprise data, wherein the modeling results in at least one recommendation for maximizing return on investment, given a desired investment amount and a selected enterprise.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the analysis engine resides remotely from the selected enterprise.

13. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the enterprise is a virtual local area network (VLAN) in a data center and managed by a control plane means for high availability purposes, and wherein the control plane means is supported by a network operation center (NOC), the VLAN, control plane means and NOC communicating through one or more firewalls.

14. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the runtime performance metrics are collected by a support node via a firewall using simple object access protocol (SOAP) request mechanism, and wherein SOAP events generated from clients within a firewall are packaged in XML and transported via HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) listeners.

15. A system for modeling best usage of funds for an enterprise, comprising:

a plurality of components in a target enterprise;

means for collecting run-time performance metrics for each component in the target enterprise;

storage means for storing run-time performance metrics for each component in the target enterprise;

product information storage means for storing cost and configuration information corresponding to components in the target enterprise and viable substitute/replacement components;

customer enterprise information storage means for storing historical data corresponding to a plurality of monitored enterprises; and

means for performing analysis using cost information, performance metrics and historical enterprise data, wherein the analysis results in at least one recommendation for identifying a return on investment (ROI).

16. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the means for performing analysis uses a desired investment amount to generate at least one ROI recommendation.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the means for performing analysis uses information retrieved from the customer enterprise information storage means to generate at least one ROI recommendation, wherein the information retrieved corresponds to enterprise investment information for at least one like enterprise.

18. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein performance of the at least one like enterprise is superior to performance of the enterprise.

19. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the analysis means is external to the enterprise being analyzed.

20. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the analysis means compares historical enterprise data corresponding to enterprises experiencing a like change to a proposed enterprise change.

21. A method for recommending modifications to a target enterprise relating to the cost effectiveness of the target enterprise, said method comprising steps of:

retrieving runtime performance metrics from a target enterprise customer'"'"'s environment;

executing at least one performance modeling tool on the runtime performance metrics of the target enterprise, the executing being performed remotely from the target enterprise;

determining an inventory of components in the target enterprise; and

applying cost data from a products database to results of the at least one performance modeling tool, wherein the cost data corresponds to the inventory of components in the target enterprise.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, further comprising:

retrieving information from a customer enterprise database corresponding to at least one like enterprise, wherein the at least one like enterprise is of a type similar to the target enterprise;

comparing performance and cost information of the at least one like enterprise to performance and cost information of the target enterprise; and

generating at least one recommendation report.

23. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the at least on recommendation report suggests modifications to the target enterprise to cost effectively improve performance.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the recommendation report suggests modifications to the target enterprise selected from the group consisting of adding components, deleting components, substituting like components, replacing components, and upgrading software.