MATCHING SERVICE ENTITIES WITH CANDIDATE RESOURCES

• US 20110179041A1
• Filed: 01/15/2010
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: ESPERANDIO, Filipe Gomes, SOUTO, Farlon de Alencar, Da SILVA, Leonardo Fagundes
• Granted Patent: US 8,260,763 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals

Abstract

A method comprises using a processor to list candidate resources that may be matched with a plurality of service entities. The method also comprises eliminating at least one possible match between the candidate resources and the plurality of service entities. The method further comprises, for each of the plurality of service entities, rating the candidate resources. The method still further comprises ranking the plurality of service entities. The method still further comprises matching each of the plurality of service entities with at least one of the candidate resources.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining, by a processor, candidate resources that may be matched with a plurality of service entities;

eliminating, by said processor, at least one possible match between said candidate resources and said plurality of service entities;

for each of the plurality of service entities, rating said candidate resources by said processor;

ranking, by said processor, the plurality of service entities; and

matching, by said processor, each of the plurality of service entities with at least one of said candidate resources.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using a processor to determine said candidate resources comprises using said processor to scour a network to which said processor is connected to determine said candidate resources.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said elimination comprises comparing candidate resource attributes to service entity attributes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein comparing candidate resource attributes to service entity attributes comprises using service entity attribute information selected from the group consisting of:

locations of said service entities;

interconnections between said service entities;

interconnections between said service entities and other hardware or software;

capabilities of said service entities; and

environmental factors associated with said service entities.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein rating said candidate resources for each of the plurality of service entities comprises giving higher ratings to candidate resources that consume fewer other resources.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein rating said candidate resources for each of the plurality of service entities comprises, for each of the plurality of service entities, giving lower ratings to those candidate resources that are present in one or more other service entities'"'"' lists.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking said plurality of service entities comprises ranking as highest those service entities that correspond to the fewest candidate resources after said eliminating step.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said matching comprises using at least one of said candidate resource ratings and at least one of said service entity rankings.

9. A computer-readable storage medium comprising executable code, which, when executed, causes a processor to:

determine, for each of a plurality of entities, a list of possible resources with which said entity could be matched;

refine one or more of said lists so as to eliminate, for at least one of the plurality of entities, one or more possible resources;

for each of the plurality of entities, rate said possible resources according to predetermined criteria;

rank said plurality of entities; and

associate at least one of the plurality of entities with at least one of said possible resources.

10. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein, if any one of the plurality of entities fails to be associated with a possible resource, then, as a result, the processor eliminates the association between said at least one of the plurality of entities and the at least one of said possible resources.

11. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the processor searches a network to which the processor couples to locate said possible resources.

12. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein, to refine the one or more of said lists, the processor compares entity attributes to resource attributes.

13. The storage medium of claim 12, wherein said entity attributes are selected from the group consisting of:

locations of the entities;

interconnections between said entities and other hardware or software;

interconnections between said entities;

capabilities of said entities; and

environmental factors associated with said entities.

14. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein said predetermined criteria includes a degree of consumption of other resources.

15. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein said predetermined criteria includes a frequency of appearances in other entities'"'"' lists.

16. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the processor ranks the plurality of entities in accordance with lengths of said lists.

17. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a display coupled to the processor; and

an input device coupled to the processor;

wherein the display and input device are usable to generate a service template, said service template describing service entity attributes associated with electronic service entities;

wherein the processor uses candidate resource attributes, rules and said service entity attributes to determine which of a plurality of electronic candidate resources can match with said electronic service entities;

wherein the processor rates said plurality of electronic candidate resources, ranks said electronic service entities, and uses said ratings and rankings to associate at least one of the plurality of electronic candidate resources with at least one of said electronic service entities.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein, to rate the electronic candidate resources, the processor determines and uses a degree of resource consumption for at least one of the electronic candidate resources.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein, to rank the electronic service entities, the processor determines and uses a number of said electronic candidate resources corresponding to each of said electronic service entities.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the plurality of electronic candidate resources are selected from the group consisting of computers, servers, storage, electronic communication infrastructure, networks, software and virtual machines.