METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR COMMUNICATING WITH THIRD PARTY RESOURCES IN A CLOUD COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20100217864A1
• Filed: 02/23/2009
• Published: 08/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Ferris, James Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,930,138 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

A cloud computing environment can be configured to allow third party, user-controlled resources to be included in the pool of resources available in the cloud, regardless of the type of system supporting the user-controlled resources. A cloud management system can identify a particular type of management system supporting the user-controlled resources and the commands necessary to communicate with the particular type of management system. Once the particular type of management system is identified, the cloud management system can communicate with the particular type of management system, utilizing the determined commands and protocols, to coordinate access to the user-controlled resources. The cloud management system can identify, allocate, and manage a set of resources from the user-controlled resources utilizing the commands and protocols.

Claims

1. A method of incorporating third party resources in a cloud computing environment, comprising:

receiving a request to include user-controlled resources in a cloud;

determining a management system for the user-controlled resources;

determining commands to communicate with the management system to allocate a set of resources, from the user-controlled resources, to the cloud; and

allocating the set of resources utilizing the determined commands to communicate with the management system.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining the set of resources, from the user-controlled resources, to be allocated to the cloud.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the set of resources comprises:

receiving an indication of the set of resources from a user of the user-controlled resources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of resources comprises at least one of a range of memory accessible by the cloud, a processor accessible by the cloud, storage devices accessible by the cloud, and software resources accessible by the cloud.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the commands to communicate with the management system comprises:

maintaining a set of records comprising types of different management systems and different commands associated with the types of the different management systems;

identifying one record from the set of records associated with the identified management system for the user-controlled resources; and

retrieving the different commands associated with the one record to communicate with the identified management system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein allocating the set of resources comprises:

identifying particular commands necessary to allow the cloud to utilize the set of resources; and

providing the particular commands to the identified management system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the particular commands comprises at least one of commands to establish a communication pathway between the cloud and the set of resources, commands to configure the set of resources, and commands to establish access control to the set of resources.

8. A system for incorporating third party resources in cloud computing environments, comprising:

a network interface to user controlled resources; and

a cloud management system, communicating with the network interface, the cloud management system being configured to—

receive a request to include the user-controlled resources in a cloud;

determine a management system for the user-controlled resources;

determine commands to communicate with the management system to allocate a set of resources, from the user-controlled resources, to the cloud; and

allocate the set of resources utilizing the determined commands to communicate with the management system.

9. The system of claim 8, the cloud management system being further configured to—

determine the set of resources, from the user-controlled resources, to be allocated to the cloud.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein determining the set of resources comprises:

receiving an indication of the set of resources from a user of the user-controlled resources.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the set of resources comprises at least one of a range of memory accessible by the cloud, a processor accessible by the cloud, storage devices accessible by the cloud, and software resources accessible by the cloud.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein determining the commands to communicate with the management system comprises:

maintaining a set of records comprising types of different management systems and different commands associated with the types of the different management systems;

identifying one record from the set of records associated with the identified management system for the user-controlled resources; and

retrieving the different commands associated with the one record to communicate with the identified management system.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein allocating the set of resources comprises:

identifying particular commands necessary to allow the cloud to utilize the set of resources; and

providing the particular commands to the identified management system.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the particular commands comprises at least one of commands to establish a communication pathway between the cloud and the set of resources, commands to configure the set of resources, and commands to establish access control to the set of resources.

15. A computer readable storage medium comprising instructions for causing a processing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving a request to include user-controlled resources in a cloud;

determining a management system for the user-controlled resources;

determining commands to communicate with the management system to allocate a set of resources, from the user-controlled resources, to the cloud; and

allocating the set of resources utilizing the determined commands to communicate with the management system.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

determining the set of resources, from the user-controlled resources, to be allocated to the cloud.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein determining the set of resources comprises:

receiving an indication of the set of resources from a user of the user-controlled resources.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the set of resources comprises at least one of a range of memory accessible by the cloud, a processor accessible by the cloud, storage devices accessible by the cloud, and software resources accessible by the cloud.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein determining the commands to communicate with the management system comprises:

maintaining a set of records comprising types of different management systems and different commands associated with the types of the different management systems;

identifying one record from the set of records associated with the identified management system for the user-controlled resources; and

retrieving the different commands associated with the one record to communicate with the identified management system.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein allocating the set of resources comprises:

identifying particular commands necessary to allow the cloud to utilize the set of resources; and

providing the particular commands to the identified management system.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the particular commands comprises at least one of commands to establish a communication pathway between the cloud and the set of resources, commands to configure the set of resources, and commands to establish access control to the set of resources.