CLOUD COMPUTING SYSTEM, DOCUMENT PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20110286037A1
• Filed: 04/21/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Hamada, Yoshinobu
• Granted Patent: US 8,717,602 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals

Abstract

A reception processing unit provided in a document processing system receives a document data processing request from a user device. A division processing unit divides document data corresponding to the processing request and generates divided document data. A document processing unit performs document processing for the divided document data, and a coupling processing unit combines the document-processed divided document data. A resource management unit increases or decreases the number of the division processing units, the document processing units, and the coupling processing units in response to the processing status of each thereof.

Claims

1. A cloud computing system comprising:

a request reception unit configured to be realized by executing a request reception program that stores a message corresponding to a job in a storage unit in response to the reception of a processing request for the job from an image forming apparatus;

a back-end processing unit configured to be realized by executing a back-end processing program that makes an acquisition request for the message to the storage unit at regular intervals, and when the message has been acquired from the storage unit, performs processing based on the acquired message;

wherein the back-end processing unit comprises;

a division processing back-end processing unit configured to generate divided document data by dividing document data corresponding to the processing request received by the request reception unit;

a document processing back-end processing unit configured to perform document processing for the divided document data; and

a coupling processing back-end processing unit configured to couple the document-processed divided document data, and

a management unit configured to provide instructions to increase or decreasing the number of the division processing back-end processing units, the document processing back-end processing units, and the coupling processing back-end processing units in response to the processing status of each of the back-end processing units.

2. The cloud computing system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit corresponding to each of the division processing back-end processing unit, the document processing back-end processing unit, and the coupling processing back-end processing unit,

wherein the management unit increases or decreases the number of the back-end processing units corresponding to the storage unit based on the number of the jobs stored in the storage unit, or the storage time of the job to the storage unit.

3. The cloud computing system according to claim 2, wherein the management unit decreases the number of the back-end processing units corresponding to the storage unit when the number of the jobs stored in the storage unit is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value, and increases the number of the back-end processing units corresponding to the storage unit when the number of the jobs stored in the storage unit exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

4. The cloud computing system according to claim 2, wherein the document processing back-end processing unit comprises a first document processing back-end processing unit having a first processing performance and a second document processing back-end processing unit having a second processing performance which is higher than the first processing performance, and

wherein the division processing back-end processing unit determines whether or not the size of divided document data to be generated when the document data is divided into the number of the first document processing back-end processing units exceeds a predetermined threshold value, stores the jobs for the number of the second document processing back-end processing units in a storage unit corresponding to the second document processing back-end processing unit when the size of the divided document data exceeds the threshold value, and stores the jobs for the number of the first document processing back-end processing unit in a queue corresponding to the first document processing back-end processing unit when the size of the divided document data does not exceed the threshold value.

5. A document processing method comprising:

storing, in a storage step, a message corresponding to a job in a storage unit in response to the reception of a processing request for the job from an image forming apparatus using a request reception unit configured to be realized by executing a request reception program; and

making, in a processing step, an acquisition request for the message to the storage unit at regular intervals, and when the message has been acquired from the storage unit, performing processing based on the acquired message using a back-end processing unit configured to be realized by executing a back-end processing program;

wherein the processing step further comprises;

generating divided document data by dividing document data corresponding to the processing request using a division processing back-end processing unit that is the back-end processing unit;

performing document processing for the divided document data using a document processing back-end processing unit that is the back-end processing unit;

coupling the document-processed divided document data using a coupling processing back-end processing unit that is the back-end processing unit; and

increasing or decreasing the number of the division processing back-end processing units, the document processing back-end processing units, and the coupling processing back-end processing units in response to the processing status of each of the back-end processing units.

6. A storage medium storing a computer-readable program for causing a computer to execute a document processing method comprising:

storing, in a storage step, a message corresponding to a job in a storage unit in response to the reception of a processing request for the job from an image forming apparatus using a request reception unit configured to be realized by executing a request reception program; and

making, in a processing step, an acquisition request for the message to the storage unit at regular intervals, and when the message has been acquired from the storage unit, performing processing based on the acquired message using a back-end processing unit configured to be realized by executing a back-end processing program;

wherein the processing step further comprises;

generating divided document data by dividing document data corresponding to the processing request using a division processing back-end processing unit that is the back-end processing unit;

performing document processing for the divided document data using a document processing back-end processing unit that is the back-end processing unit;

coupling the document-processed divided document data using a coupling processing back-end processing unit that is the back-end processing unit; and

increasing or decreasing the number of the division processing back-end processing units, the document processing back-end processing units, and the coupling processing back-end processing units in response to the processing status of each of the back-end processing units.