MORPHING A DATA CENTER IN A VIRTUAL WORLD

• US 20100023859A1
• Filed: 09/29/2009
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sledge, Brian W., Osias, Michael J., Dawson, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,682,931 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/18 Image warping, e.g. rearranging pixels individually
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery

Abstract

The present invention re-renders data center visualizations at different levels of abstraction based on roles or activities of an avatar. Morphing of data center objects is accomplished by either combining or decomposing existing data center objects in a manner that will result in a new object that maintains its relationship to the original objects. An example of this would be when creating an application object by combining an existing infrastructure objects (e.g., a server, a network and storage) used to support the application object runtime environment. This allows for the avatar to not only relate the application object to the supporting infrastructure objects, but also provides a view of how the application object is impacted whenever the supporting infrastructure objects change or break.

Claims

1. A method for morphing a data center in a data center system having data center objects in a virtual world, the virtual world having avatars, the method for morphing being based upon roles, events and activities of the avatars, the method comprising:

morphing a data center object by combining existing data center objects;

creating a new data center object, the new data center object having a relationship with the existing data center objects; and

maintaining the new data center object'"'"'s relationship to the existing data center objects.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising decomposing existing data center objects and maintaining the new data center object'"'"'s relationship to the existing data center objects.

3. The method as defined in claim 2 wherein the data center system has an existing supporting infrastructure objects used to support the application runtime environment, the method further comprising morphing an existing data center object into an application object by combining existing supporting infrastructure objects used to support the application runtime environment.

4. The method as defined in claim 3 further comprising relating the application object to the existing supporting infrastructure objects.

5. The method as defined in claim 4 further comprising providing a view of how the application object is impacted whenever the existing supporting infrastructure objects change.

6. The method as defined claim 5 further comprising influencing, by the activities of the avatar, the rendering of the data center objects in the virtual world by the role of the avatar.

7. The method as defined in claim 6 further comprising predefining the roles to organization, function or group membership.

8. The method as defined in claim 7 further comprising creating the roles in real time or on an ad-hoc basis based upon inventory being carried by the avatar.

9. The method as defined in claim 8 further comprising identifying a role, morphing the data center objects into data center objects meaningful to that role and allowing the avatar to interact with into objects meaningful to that role.

10. The method as defined in claim 9 wherein the data center objects have exposed attributes and methods, the method further comprising selecting an activity within a drop down list and executing a command or interacting directly with the exposed attributes and methods.

11. The method as defined in claim 10 wherein the avatar has a role, the method further comprising morphing data center objects based upon the role of the avatar.

12. The method as defined in claim 11 wherein the avatar has an activity, the method further comprising morphing data center objects based upon the activity of an avatar.

13. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium for operating in a system comprising a processing unit, a memory, a bus, and input/output (I/O) interfaces for implementing a process in a virtual world, the virtual world having avatars which have roles, create events and activities, the virtual world further having existing data center objects, the process may morph the existing data center objects in a virtual world based upon roles, events and activities of avatars within the virtual world, the process comprising:

morphing an existing data center object by combining other existing data center objects;

creating a new data center object, the new data center object having a relationship with the existing data center objects; and

maintaining the new data center object'"'"'s relationship to the existing data center objects.

14. The computer program product as defined in claim 13 wherein the process further comprises decomposing existing data center objects and maintaining the relationship of the new data center object to the existing data center objects.

15. The computer program product as defined in claim 14 wherein the process further comprises morphing the data center object into an application object by combining an existing supporting infrastructure object used to support the application runtime environment.

16. A system in a virtual world having avatars having roles, creating events and activities and data center objects for morphing the data center objects based upon the roles, events and activities of the avatars, the system comprising:

a data center object morphing component that combines existing data center objects;

a new data center object creating component; and

a relationship maintaining component for maintaining the relationship between a new data center object to the existing data center objects.

17. The system as defined in claim 16 further comprising a decomposing component for decomposing existing data center objects to create a new data center object and further wherein the relationship maintaining component maintains the relationship of the new data center object to the existing data center objects.

18. The system as defined in claim 17 further comprising a combining component for morphing the data center object into an application object by combining an existing supporting infrastructure object used to support the application runtime environment.

19. A method for deploying computing infrastructure comprising integrating computer-readable code into a computing system, wherein the code in combination with the computing system is capable of performing a process in a virtual world having avatars having roles, creating events and activities and data center objects for morphing the data center objects based upon the roles, events and activities of the avatars, the process comprising:

morphing a data center object by combining existing data center objects;

creating a new data center object; and

maintaining the new data center object'"'"'s relationship to the existing data center objects.

20. The method as defined in claim 19 wherein the process further comprises decomposing existing data center objects and maintaining the new data center object'"'"'s relationship to the existing data center objects.

21. The method as defined in claim 20 wherein the process further comprises morphing the data center object into an application object by combining existing supporting infrastructure objects used to support the application runtime environment.

22. The method as defined in claim 21 wherein the process further comprises relating the application object to the existing supporting infrastructure objects.