SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPUTER CLOUD MANAGEMENT

• US 20100223378A1
• Filed: 02/27/2010
• Published: 09/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yottaa, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Yottaa, Inc.
• Inventors: WEI, COACH
• Granted Patent: US 8,209,415 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/781 Centralised allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data

Abstract

A method for auto-scaling the infrastructure capacity of an application in response to client demands includes providing an application configured to run on an application infrastructure comprising a plurality of server nodes and to be accessed by clients via a first network. Next, providing traffic management means directing traffic from the clients to the server nodes of the application infrastructure. Providing monitoring means gathering performance metrics of the application and metrics of the application infrastructure. Providing controlling means configured to change the application infrastructure. Next, monitoring the performance metrics of the application and the metrics of the application infrastructure via the monitoring means thereby obtaining metrics information and then changing the application infrastructure based on the metrics information via the controlling means. Finally directing network traffic targeted to access the application to server nodes of the changed application infrastructure via the traffic management means.

Claims

1. A method for auto-scaling the infrastructure capacity of an application in response to client demands, comprising:

providing an application configured to run on an application infrastructure comprising a plurality of server nodes and to be accessed by clients via a first network;

providing traffic management means directing traffic from said clients to said server nodes of the application infrastructure;

providing monitoring means gathering performance metrics of said application and metrics of the application infrastructure;

providing controlling means configured to change said application infrastructure;

monitoring said performance metrics of said application and said metrics of the application infrastructure via said monitoring means thereby obtaining metrics information;

changing said application infrastructure based on said metrics information via said controlling means;

directing network traffic targeted to access said application to server nodes of the changed application infrastructure via said traffic management means.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said application infrastructure comprises a cloud computing environment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said application infrastructure comprises virtual machines.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said application infrastructure comprises virtual machines and physical server machines.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said application infrastructure comprises server nodes running in different geographic locations.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein said controlling means comprise means for starting, means for stopping and means for managing virtual machine instances.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said metrics information comprises geographic proximity of said clients to said server nodes of said application infrastructure.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said metrics information comprises application load demand.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said metrics information comprises application performance data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said traffic management means comprises means for resolving a domain name of said application via a Domain Name Server (DNS).

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said traffic management means performs traffic management by providing IP addresses of said server nodes in said application infrastructure to said clients.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said traffic management means performs load balancing among said server nodes in said application infrastructure.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said traffic management means selects one or more optimal server nodes among said server nodes in said application infrastructure for serving client requests.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said traffic management means selects one or more servers nodes among said server nodes in said application infrastructure based on geographic proximity of said server nodes to said clients.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said traffic management means selects one or more server nodes among said server nodes in said application infrastructure based on optimized network performance to certain clients.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said traffic management means selects a persistent server node among said server nodes in said application infrastructure for serving requests from the same client.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure capacity in response to said metrics information.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure capacity in response to a certain policy.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure capacity in response to instructions received from a third party.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure capacity by launching new server nodes in said application infrastructure.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure capacity by shutting down sever nodes in said application infrastructure.

22. A system for auto-scaling the infrastructure capacity of an application in response to client demands, comprising:

an application configured to run on an application infrastructure comprising a plurality of server nodes and to be accessed by clients via a first network;

traffic management means directing traffic from said clients to said server nodes of the application infrastructure;

monitoring means gathering performance metrics of said application and metrics of the application infrastructure;

controlling means configured to change said application infrastructure;

wherein said monitoring means monitor said performance metrics of said application and said metrics of the application infrastructure and thereby obtain metrics information;

wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure based on said metrics information; and

wherein said traffic management means direct network traffic targeted to access said application to server nodes of the changed application infrastructure.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein said application infrastructure comprises a cloud computing environment.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein said application infrastructure comprises virtual machines.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein said application infrastructure comprises virtual machines and physical server machines.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein said application infrastructure comprises server nodes running in different geographic locations.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein said controlling means comprise means for starting, means for stopping and means for managing virtual machine instances.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein said metrics information comprises geographic proximity of said clients to said server nodes of said application infrastructure.

29. The system of claim 22, wherein said metrics information comprises application load demand.

30. The system of claim 22, wherein said metrics information comprises application performance data.

31. The system of claim 22, wherein said traffic management means comprises means for resolving a domain name of said application via a Domain Name Server (DNS).

32. The system of claim 22, wherein said traffic management means performs traffic management by providing IP addresses of said server nodes in said application infrastructure to said clients.

33. The system of claim 22, wherein said traffic management means performs load balancing among said server nodes in said application infrastructure.

34. The system of claim 22, wherein said traffic management means selects one or more optimal server nodes among said server nodes in said application infrastructure for serving client requests.

35. The system of claim 22, wherein said traffic management means selects one or more servers nodes among said server nodes in said application infrastructure based on geographic proximity of said server nodes to said clients.

36. The system of claim 22, wherein said traffic management means selects one or more server nodes among said server nodes in said application infrastructure based on optimized network performance to certain clients.

37. The system of claim 22, wherein said traffic management means selects a persistent server node among said server nodes in said application infrastructure for serving requests from the same client.

38. The system of claim 22, wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure capacity in response to said metrics information.

39. The system of claim 22, wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure capacity in response to a certain policy.

40. The system of claim 22, wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure capacity in response to instructions received from a third party.

41. The system of claim 22, wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure capacity by launching new server nodes in said application infrastructure.

42. The system of claim 22, wherein said controlling means change said application infrastructure capacity by shutting down sever nodes in said application infrastructure.

43. The system of claim 22 further comprising configuration management means and wherein said configuration management means comprise one of a user interface or an application programming interface (API).