Mesh Platform Utility Computing Portal

• US 20100154045A1
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mullins, Christropher Lee, Pairault, Remy, Moore, George
• Granted Patent: US 8,019,873 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/828 Allocation of resources per group of connections, e.g. per group of users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A utility computing portal supports public and private modules for application development in a cloud computing environment. The public modules support downloads, customer support and access to a development community. The private modules are accessible to users with valid login credentials or those authenticated via a related entity, such as a Live ID. The private modules may include modules for testing, analysis, and billing. The utility computing portal also supports access to application configuration, for example, allowing a manager to change the number of front end and backend physical/virtual machines available to various application roles.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions that are executed on a computing platform comprising:

a home module implementing a home page supporting selection of a secondary pages;

an application selector module, accessible from the home module, supporting developer access to an existing application;

an application creation module, accessible from the home module, supporting developer creation of a new application;

an analysis module, accessible from the home module, supporting a set of tools allowing developer analysis of an application;

a test module, accessible from the home module, allowing run-time management of the application; and

a billing module, accessible from the home module, supporting establishment of a billing account and related service.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

a security manager that limits access to secured modules to authorized developers.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, further comprising:

a downloads module that supports downloading developer-related tools;

a customer support module that supports access to account establishment and problem reports; and

a development community module supporting access to documentation, tutorials, and other developers.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the downloads module comprises:

development tool add-ins.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the analysis module comprises:

an application metrics module that reports memory usage;

an application metrics module that reports at least one of storage usage and database usage;

a processor usage module that reports machine and virtual machine usage; and

a click stream reporting tool that reports selection activity.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the test module comprises:

an instance provisioning module that creates an executing copy of a program;

a configuration module that sets a number of processors usable by the executing copy of the program; and

a connection security module for configuring transport security settings.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the billing module comprises:

a first module for initial provisioning of billing information; and

a second module for viewing and paying a current bill; and

a third module for one of auditing and bill dispute resolution.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

a demographics module, supporting allowing developer analysis of users of the application.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the secured modules comprise the application selector module, the application creation module, the analysis module, the test module and the billing module, whereas modules for which the security manager does not limit access to authorized developers comprise the downloads module, the customer support module, and the development community module.

10. A method of providing support to cloud computing developers comprising:

providing an access page presenting public and private modules, the access page supporting login access to the private modules and open access to the public modules;

accepting login credentials for access to the private modules;

validating login credentials when provided;

when the validating succeeds, providing access to the private modules, including an application selector module, an application creation module, an analysis module, a test module, and a billing module;

providing access to the public modules, including a downloads module, a customer support module and a development community module;

publishing a catalog of development applications; and

providing a development sandbox for isolated application testing.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing setting of a number of front end and back end processors for development application operation.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing support for one of a user interface-oriented application and a no-user interface batch processing application.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising provisioning a service with a tenant identifier;

and

assigning each tenant identifier a role.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the role is one of a front end virtual machine and a back end virtual machine.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

setting access to a set of cloud application development data for a group of developers;

assigning a developer to one or more groups of developers; and

providing the developer access to the cloud application development data according to group membership.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein providing the developer access to the cloud application development data comprises providing varying degrees of access the cloud application development data.