Cloud federation as a service

• US 20110153727A1
• Filed: 12/17/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Hong
• Granted Patent: US 8,924,569 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/41 where a single sign-on provides access to a plurality of computers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

A Cloud federator may be used to allow seamless and transparent access by a Cloud Client to Cloud services. Federation may be provided on various terms, including as a subscription based real-time online service to Cloud Clients. The Cloud federator may automatically and transparently effect communication between the Cloud Client and Clouds and desired services of the Clouds, and automatically perform identity federation. A Service Abstraction Layer (SAL) may be implemented to simplify Client communication, and Clouds/Cloud services may elect to support the SAL to facilitate federation of their services.

Claims

1. A federation method for a Cloud Client seeking a cloud service from a Cloud, comprising:

receiving a request from the Cloud Client to subscribe to a profile federation service;

authenticating the Cloud Client based at least in part on the request;

retrieving at least a portion of a profile associated with the Cloud Client; and

providing the portion of the Cloud Client profile to facilitate the Cloud Client accessing the cloud service of the Cloud.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the Cloud Client profile is provided to selected ones of:

the Cloud Client, or the Cloud providing the service.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising authenticating the Cloud Client based at least in part on a characteristic associated with the Cloud Client.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the characteristic is a selected one of:

a cached data associated with the Cloud Client, a Cloud Client location, a communication speed with the Cloud Client, a communication throughput with the Cloud Client, a communication cost associated with the Cloud Client, and a maximum payment preference.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying validation data required to allow the Cloud Client to access the service of the Cloud;

wherein the at least a portion includes the identified validation data.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an interface for the Cloud providing the service;

comparing the interface to an interface preference associated with the Cloud Client; and

transparently mapping the interface to the interface preference.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

proxying communication between the Cloud Client and the Cloud.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein selected ones of the Cloud Client and the Cloud are virtual machines.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the mapping data is transparent to the Cloud Client.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying a second interface of the second Cloud corresponding to the interface preference, the second interface having a second format different from the first format; and

mapping data between the Cloud Client and the second Cloud to make data from the second Cloud having the second format to be in accord with the interface preference.

9. A method for a Cloud Federator to federate access by a Cloud Client to services of a first and second Cloud, comprising:

receiving at least one request from the Cloud Client to access at least a first service of the first Cloud and a second service of the second Cloud;

validating the Cloud Client to access the first and second Cloud services;

determining an interface preference associated with the Cloud Client;

identifying a first interface of the first Cloud corresponding to the interface preference; and

mapping data between the Cloud Client and the first Cloud to make data from the first Cloud having a first format to be in accord with the interface preference.

12. A method according to claim 9, in which the first service has a first access term, the method further comprising:

receiving another request from the Cloud Client to access a third service of the first Cloud, the third service having a second access term different from the first access term; and

validating the Cloud Client to access the third Cloud service;

wherein validating the Cloud Client to access the first and third Cloud Service is respectively based at least in part on the first and second access terms.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising validating the Cloud Client to access services in real-time.

14. A federation method for a Cloud Client seeking Cloud services, comprising:

subscribing the Cloud Client to a profile federation service;

receiving a service request from the Cloud Client identifying a type of service;

determining first and second Clouds offering the type of service respectively on first and second terms;

comparing the first and second terms to a preference associated with the Cloud Client to determine a best match Cloud offering the type of service; and

proxying communication between the Cloud Client and the best match Cloud.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing a service abstraction layer (SAL), wherein the Cloud Client is configured to communicate with the SAL.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the proxying communication comprises transparently mapping a communication format for the best match Cloud to the SAL.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the best match Cloud is configured to communicate with the SAL so that the Cloud Client can transparently access a service of the best match Cloud.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining if the first Cloud has a characteristic violating a policy of the Cloud Client, and if so, disallowing the first Cloud to be the best match Cloud.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining Clouds offer the type of service comprises applying at least a heuristic to characteristics of a set of known Clouds to identify at least the first and second Clouds of the set offering the type of service.

20. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having one or more associated instructions for federating Cloud Client access to a cloud service of a Cloud, wherein the one or more instructions, if executed, results in a machine performing:

receiving a request from the Cloud Client to subscribe to a profile federation service;

authenticating the Cloud client based at least in part on the request;

retrieving at least a portion of a profile associated with the Cloud Client; and

providing the portion of the Cloud Client profile to facilitate the Cloud Client accessing the cloud service of the Cloud.

21. The article of claim 20 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes instructions, when executed, results in the machine performing:

authenticating the Cloud Client based at least in part on a characteristic associated with the Cloud Client, the characteristic being a selected one of;

a cached data associated with the Cloud Client, a Cloud Client location, a communication speed with the Cloud Client, a communication throughput with the Cloud Client, a communication cost associated with the Cloud Client, and a maximum payment preference.

22. The article of claim 20 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes instructions, when executed, results in the machine performing:

identifying an interface for the Cloud providing the service;

comparing the interface to an interface preference associated with the Cloud Client;

transparently mapping the interface to the interface preference; and

proxying communication between the Cloud Client and the Cloud.

23. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having one or more associated instructions for a Cloud Federator to federate access by a Cloud Client to services of a first and second Cloud, wherein the one or more instructions, if executed, results in a machine performing:

receiving at least one request from the Cloud Client to access at least a first service of the first Cloud and a second service of the second Cloud;

validating the Cloud Client to access the first and second Cloud services;

determining an interface preference associated with the Cloud Client;

identifying a first interface of the first Cloud corresponding to the interface preference; and

mapping data between the Cloud Client and the first Cloud to make data from the first Cloud having a first format to be in accord with the interface preference.

24. The article of claim 23 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes instructions, when executed, results in the machine performing:

identifying a second interface of the second Cloud corresponding to the interface preference, the second interface having a second format different from the first format; and

mapping data between the Cloud Client and the second Cloud to make data from the second Cloud having the second format to be in accord with the interface preference.

25. The article of claim 23, in which the first service has a first access term, and wherein the machine-accessible media further includes instructions, when executed, results in the machine performing

receiving another request from the Cloud Client to access a third service of the first Cloud, the third service having a second access term different from the first access term;

and

validating in real-time the Cloud Client to access the third Cloud service based at least in part on the second access term.

26. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having one or more associated instructions for federating access for a Cloud Client seeking Cloud services, wherein the one or more instructions, if executed, results in a machine performing A federation method for, comprising:

subscribing the Cloud Client to a profile federation service;

receiving a service request from the Cloud Client identifying a type of service;

determining first and second Clouds offering the type of service respectively on first and second terms;

comparing the first and second terms to a preference associated with the Cloud Client to determine a best match Cloud offering the type of service; and

proxying communication between the Cloud Client and the best match Cloud.

27. The article of claim 26 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes instructions, when executed, results in the machine performing:

providing a service abstraction layer (SAL) with which the Cloud Client is configured to communicate.

28. The article of claim 26 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes instructions, when executed, results in the machine performing transparently mapping a communication format for the best match Cloud to the SAL.