Service Oriented Collaboration

• US 20110138394A1
• Filed: 12/09/2009
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Vaidya, Sham M., van Riel, Paul, Ravishankar, Ram
• Granted Patent: US 8,943,508 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups

Abstract

When a service is requested at a platform in a collaborative services environment, a service orchestration engine accesses a service definition from a repository and schedules a number of tasks at a number of end points in accordance with a number of end point profiles and a number of policies associated with the end points.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a number of service definitions in a registry connected to a platform;

responsive to receiving a request for a service at the platform, identifying a service definition in a registry;

responsive to identifying the service definition, accessing the service definition to determine a number of tasks and a number of end points, each of the number of end points having an end point profile;

accessing a number of end point profiles, and responsive to a number of data in the end point profiles, enabling communication between the number of end points;

accessing a number of policies, each policy associated with an end point profile; and

responsive to determining the number of tasks, the number of end points, and the number of policies, scheduling the number of tasks at the number of end points in accordance with the number of policies.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by an agreement among a number of parties, the number of service definitions to be provided by the platform, each of the number of service definitions providing the number of tasks to be performed by an end point.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by an agreement among the number of parties, the number of policies, each policy governing scheduling of the number of tasks to be performed; and

responsive to determining the number of polices, publishing the number of policies to the registry.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring the number of tasks for compliance with the number of policies.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring an interface for a number of changes to the number of policies, to the number of service definitions, and to the number of end point profiles; and

updating the number of policies, the number of service definitions, and the number of end point profiles.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

integrating the platform into the service oriented collaboration environment so that the service orchestration engine, based on an end point profile, accesses a number of communications systems, a number of management systems, and a number of data systems in the services oriented collaboration environment.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

integrating the platform into the service oriented collaboration environment so that the service orchestration engine, based on an end point profile, accesses a number of access channels and a number of business participants.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

a collaborative service platform connected to a registry, a number of customers, a number of manufacturers, a number of suppliers, and a number of businesses;

a service orchestration engine in the collaborative service platform, the service orchestration engine configured to perform actions comprising;

providing a number of service definitions in a registry connected to a platform;

responsive to receiving a request for a service at the platform, identifying a service definition in a registry;

responsive to identifying the service definition, accessing the service definition to determine a number of tasks and a number of end points, each of the number of end points having an end point profile;

accessing a number of end point profiles, and responsive to a number of data in the end point profiles, enabling communication between the number of end points;

accessing a number of policies, each policy associated with an end point profile; and

responsive to determining the number of tasks, the number of end points, and the number of policies, scheduling the number of tasks at the number of end points in accordance with the number of policies.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the service orchestration engine is further configured to perform actions comprising:

determining, by an agreement among a number of parties, the number of service definitions to be provided by the platform, each of the number of service definitions providing the number of tasks to be performed by an end point.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the service orchestration engine is further configured to perform actions comprising:

determining, by an agreement among the number of parties, the number of policies, each policy governing scheduling of the number of tasks to be performed; and

responsive to determining the number of polices, publishing the number of policies to the registry.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the service orchestration engine is further configured to perform actions comprising:

monitoring the number of tasks in accordance with the number of policies.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

monitoring an interface for changes to the number of policies, to the number of service definitions, and to the number of end point profiles; and

updating the number of policies, the number of service definitions, and the number of end point profiles.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

integrating the platform into the service oriented collaboration environment so that the service orchestration engine, based on an end point profile, accesses a number of communications systems, a number of management systems, and a number of data systems in the services oriented collaboration environment.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

integrating the platform into the service oriented collaboration environment so that the service orchestration engine, based on an end point profile, accesses a number of access channels and a number of business participants.

15. A program product, comprising:

a computer readable medium;

a number of instructions stored in the computer readable medium, the number of instructions configured to cause a processor of a computer to perform actions comprising;

providing a number of service definitions in a registry connected to a platform;

responsive to receiving a request for a service at the platform, identifying a service definition in a registry;

responsive to identifying the service definition, accessing the service definition to determine a number of tasks and a number of end points, each of the number of end points having an end point profile;

accessing a number of end point profiles, and responsive to a number of data in the end point profiles, enabling communication between the number of end points;

accessing a number of policies, each policy associated with an end point profile; and

responsive to determining the number of tasks, the number of end points, and the number of policies, scheduling the number of tasks at the number of end points in accordance with the number of policies.

16. The program product of claim 15, further comprising:

determining, by an agreement among a number of parties, the number of service definitions to be provided by the platform, each of the number of service definitions providing the number of tasks to be performed by an end point.

17. The program product of claim 15, further comprising:

determining, by an agreement among the number of parties, the number of policies, each policy governing scheduling of the number of tasks to be performed; and

responsive to determining the number of polices, publishing the number of policies to the registry.

18. The program product of claim 15, further comprising:

monitoring the number of tasks in accordance with the number of policies.

19. The program product of claim 15, further comprising:

monitoring an interface for changes to the number of policies, to the number of service definitions, and to the number of end point profiles; and

updating the number of policies, the number of service definitions, and the number of end point profiles.

20. The program product of claim 15, further comprising:

integrating the platform into the service oriented collaboration environment so that the service orchestration engine, based on an end point profile, accesses a number of communications systems, a number of management systems, and a number of data systems in the services oriented collaboration environment.

21. The program product of claim 15, further comprising:

integrating the platform into the service oriented collaboration environment so that the service orchestration engine, based on an end point profile, accesses a number of access channels and a number of business participants.