REMOTE APPLICATION PRESENTATION OVER A PUBLIC NETWORK CONNECTION

• US 20110153853A1
• Filed: 12/18/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: London, Kevin S., Howe, Travis M., Zhu, Ruiquing, Ben-Shachar, Ido, Erdogan, Ersev Samim
• Granted Patent: US 8,370,510 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/128 involving web programs, i.e. using technology especially used in internet, generally interacting with a web browser, e.g. hypertext markup language [HTML], applets, java
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• 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: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/08 specially adapted for terminal emulation, e.g. Telnet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

Web access over a public network for applications that operate on virtual desktops on a plurality of servers is facilitated. Through the web access the user is provided with the information necessary to establish a connection with an application by way of the virtual desktop. Applications that the user is authorized to access are determined and those applications that the user is not authorized to access are filtered out. The applications associated access control list is used for determining the user'"'"'s access to discover an application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving at a first server a request over a public network from a user, the request including a user identification;

determining a plurality of applications operating on a virtual desktop on at least one of a plurality of other servers;

determining at least one of the applications that the user is authorized to discover based on the user identification;

returning to the user an indicator for the determined at least one application.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 comprising providing an IP address to the user identifying the network location for the at least one virtual desktop.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 comprising querying a directory to determine whether the user is associated with a group that is authorized to discover the at least one application.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the user request is an HTTP request.

5. The method as recite in claim 1 wherein the virtual desktop is operating on virtual machine on a server comprising a plurality of virtual machines.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the act of determining whether a user is authorized to discover the at least one application comprises comparing the user identification to an access control list associated with the application.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the filtering is done by a broker server in communication with the first server.

8. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that when executed by a computing device cause:

the receipt of a request over a public network from a user, the request including a user identification;

the determination of at least one application operating on a virtual desktop on at least one server;

the determination that the user is authorized to discover the at least one application based on the user identification;

the return to the user of an indicator for the determined at least one application.

9. The computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 8 comprising providing an IP address to the user identifying the network location for the at least one virtual desktop.

10. The computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 8 comprising computer-readable instructions that when executed by a computing device cause a directory to be queried to determine whether the user is associated with a group that is authorized to discover the at least one application.

11. The computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 8 wherein the indicator is an icon that is displayable on a web page.

12. The computer-readable storage medium as recited in claim 8 comprising computer-readable instructions that when executed by a computing device cause the instruction to determine whether a user is authorized to discover the at least one application comprise instruction that compare the user identification to an access control list associated with the application.

13. A system adapted to connect a client computer to one of a plurality of virtual machines executing on a plurality of servers, comprising:

at least one computing device comprising a processor; and

at least one memory communicatively coupled to said at least one computing device when the system is operational, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed cause;

a web access module to request a plurality of applications operating on a virtual desktop on at least one of a plurality of servers that are accessible by the user; and

a broker module to determine at least one of the applications that the user is authorized to discover based on the user identification.

14. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the broker module is on a private network behind a firewall.

15. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the broker module has the capability to issue a query to a directory to determine whether the user is associated with a group that is authorized to access the at least one application.

16. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the broker module provides an IP address to the user identifying the network location for the at least one virtual desktop.

17. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the user identification is provided in a cookie.

18. The system as recited in claim 13 comprising at least one of the plurality of servers having stored thereon the virtual desktop.

19. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the broker module has the capability to determine whether a user is authorized to discover the at least one application by comparing the user identification to an access control list associated with the application.

20. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the broker module has the capability to filter out applications that are not associated with the user in an access control list.