SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING SCORECARDS TO VISUALIZE SERVICES IN AN INTELLIGENT WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20110125895A1
• Filed: 04/09/2010
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus Software, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Murray, Alan, Spiers, Adam, Anderson, Eric W.B.
• Granted Patent: US 9,210,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/14 for detecting or protecting against malicious traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3213 using tickets or tokens, e.g. Kerberos network architectures or network communication protocols for entities authentication using tickets in a packet data network H04L63/0807

Abstract

The system and method described herein for providing scorecards to visualize services in an intelligent workload management system may include a computing environment having a model-driven, service-oriented architecture for creating collaborative threads to manage workloads. In particular, the management threads may converge information for describing services, applications, workloads, in an information technology infrastructure. For example, a discovery engine may reference an identity vault to capture enriched models of an infrastructure, and a management infrastructure may then generate one or more scorecards that can be used to manage the infrastructure. In particular, the scorecards may provide information for tuning or otherwise controlling risk, complexity, cost, availability, and agility versus rigidness in the infrastructure.

Claims

1. A system for providing scorecards to visualize services in an intelligent workload management system, comprising:

an identity vault that stores federated information defining entitlements for a plurality of unique identities across a plurality of authentication domains;

a discovery engine that discovers an operational state for an information technology infrastructure from the federated information stored in the identity vault and actual activity monitored for the plurality of unique identities in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the discovery engine is configured to;

discover information that describes one or more physical resources and one or more virtualized resources in the information technology infrastructure from the federated information stored in the identity vault;

discover information that describes one or more services, one or more applications, and one or more workloads running in the information technology infrastructure from the federated information stored in the identity vault;

discover dependencies that define relationships between the physical resources, the virtualized resources, the services, the applications, and the workloads running in the information technology infrastructure from the federated information stored in the identity vault; and

discover information that describes the plurality of unique identities access to the information technology infrastructure, wherein the discovered access information includes the entitlements defined in the identity vault and the actual activity monitored for the plurality of unique identities in the information technology infrastructure; and

a display device configured to display a plurality of scorecards that visualize the discovered physical resources, the discovered virtualized resources, the discovered services, the discovered applications, the discovered workloads, the discovered dependencies, and the discovered access information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of scorecards include a service listing scorecard that describes business value, usage, and cost associated with the discovered services, the discovered applications, and the discovered workloads.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a management infrastructure configured to generate a plan to move or retire one or more of the discovered services, the discovered applications, or the discovered workloads identified in a request to tune the cost of the information technology infrastructure.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of scorecards include an operation index scorecard having a primary graphical object and a plurality of secondary graphical objects that visualize an overall operational state for the information technology infrastructure.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a management infrastructure configured to generate a plan to tune a balance between agility and rigidness in the information technology infrastructure in response to a request that moves a primary slider mechanism associated with the primary graphical object within a range defined in the primary graphical object.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to refresh the plan to tune complexity, cost, or availability in the information technology infrastructure in response to the request moving one or more secondary slider mechanisms associated with one or more of the plurality of secondary graphical object.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of scorecards include a risk heat map scorecard that describes risk in one or more areas of the information technology infrastructure across a plurality of different coverage ratios.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a management infrastructure configured to generate a plan to tune the risk in one or more of the areas of the information technology infrastructure identified in a request that further identifies one or more of the plurality of different coverage ratios associated with the identified area.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of scorecards include a service placement scorecard that provides a recommended target for deploying one or more of the discovered services, the discovered applications, or the discovered workloads.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a management infrastructure configured to generate a plan to deploy one or more of the discovered services, the discovered applications, or the discovered workloads identified in a request to the recommended target, wherein the recommended target includes on of a physical data center, a virtualized data center, or a cloud data center.

11. A method for providing scorecards to visualize services in an intelligent workload management system, comprising:

storing, in an identity vault, federated information defining entitlements for a plurality of unique identities across a plurality of authentication domains;

discovering, by a discovery engine, an operational state for an information technology infrastructure from the federated information stored in the identity vault and actual activity monitored for the plurality of unique identities in the information technology infrastructure, wherein discovering the operational state for the infrastructure includes;

discovering, by the discovery engine, information that describes one or more physical resources and one or more virtualized resources in the information technology infrastructure from the federated information stored in the identity vault;

discovering, by the discovery engine, information that describes one or more services, one or more applications, and one or more workloads running in the information technology infrastructure from the federated information stored in the identity vault;

discovering, by the discovery engine, dependencies that define relationships between the physical resources, the virtualized resources, the services, the applications, and the workloads running in the information technology infrastructure from the federated information stored in the identity vault; and

discovering, by the discovery engine, information that describes the plurality of unique identities access to the information technology infrastructure, wherein the discovered access information includes the entitlements defined in the identity vault and the actual activity monitored for the plurality of unique identities in the information technology infrastructure; and

displaying, on a display device, a plurality of scorecards that visualize the discovered physical resources, the discovered virtualized resources, the discovered services, the discovered applications, the discovered workloads, and the discovered dependencies, and the discovered access information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of scorecards include a service listing scorecard that describes business value, usage, and cost associated with the discovered services, the discovered applications, and the discovered workloads.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating, by a management infrastructure, a plan to move or retire one or more of the discovered services, the discovered applications, or the discovered workloads identified in a request to tune the cost of the information technology infrastructure.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of scorecards include an operation index scorecard having a primary graphical object and a plurality of secondary graphical objects that visualize an overall operational state for the information technology infrastructure.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising generating, by a management infrastructure, a plan to tune a balance between agility and rigidness in the information technology infrastructure in response to a request that moves a primary slider mechanism associated with the primary graphical object within a range defined in the primary graphical object.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising refreshing, by the management infrastructure, the plan to tune complexity, cost, or availability in the information technology infrastructure in response to the request moving one or more secondary slider mechanisms associated with one or more of the plurality of secondary graphical object.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of scorecards include a risk heat map scorecard that describes risk in one or more areas of the information technology infrastructure across a plurality of different coverage ratios.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising generating, by a management infrastructure, a plan to tune the risk in one or more of the areas of the information technology infrastructure identified in a request that further identifies one or more of the plurality of different coverage ratios associated with the identified area.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of scorecards include a service placement scorecard that provides a recommended target for deploying one or more of the discovered services, the discovered applications, or the discovered workloads.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising generating, by a management infrastructure, a plan to deploy one or more of the discovered services, the discovered applications, or the discovered workloads identified in a request to the recommended target, wherein the recommended target includes on of a physical data center, a virtualized data center, or a cloud data center.