SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR EXPORTING USAGE HISTORY DATA AS INPUT TO A MANAGEMENT PLATFORM OF A TARGET CLOUD-BASED NETWORK

• US 20110296000A1
• Filed: 05/28/2010
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Ferris, James Michael, Riveros, Gerry Edward
• Granted Patent: US 8,606,897 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for exporting usage history data as input to a management platform of a target cloud-based network. A usage export service can be abstracted and provided external to a host cloud-based network, which can capture the usage history of software or resources by one or more users in the host cloud-based network. Those user(s) or others may wish to export some or all of the usage history to a target cloud or clouds, to perform management or configuration actions in the target cloud(s). The selective subset of the usage history can be transmitted to the cloud management system of the target cloud-based network. The selective subset can be used for management actions in the target cloud(s), such as for instance, to instantiate or configure a set of virtual machines for failover or re-clouding purposes, or to aggregate usage history from the host and target cloud(s).

Claims

1. A method of generating usage history information to export from a cloud computing environment, comprising:

accessing a usage history representing at least one of the consumption of resources or usage of software in a host cloud-based network;

receiving a set of export filter criteria;

applying the set of export filter criteria to the usage history to generate at least a selective subset of the usage history; and

exporting the selective subset of the usage history to a management platform of a target cloud-based network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage history of the first cloud-based network is captured by a cloud management system of the first cloud-based network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the management platform of the target cloud-based network comprises a cloud management system of the target cloud-based network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage history comprises a set of data indicating at least one of usage time of the software, a number of instances of the software, a number of registered users of the software, a number of support events associated with the software, an amount of bandwidth associated with usage of the software, or an amount of data consumption associated with the software.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the export filter criteria is received via user input.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the export filter criteria is received from a service operating in the target cloud-based network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the data in the set of usage histories usage is accessed from a set of vendor repositories hosted in the host cloud-based network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage history comprises at least one of a billing or subscription report.

9. A system for generating usage history information to export from a host cloud-based network, comprising:

a network interface to the host cloud-based network; and

a processor, communicating with the host cloud-based network via the network interface, the processor being configured to—

access a usage history representing at least one of the consumption of resources or usage of software in a host cloud-based network,

receive a set of export filter criteria,

apply the set of export filter criteria to the usage history to generate at least a selective subset of the usage history, and

export the selective subset of the usage history to a management platform of a target cloud-based network.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the usage history of the first cloud-based network is captured by a cloud management system of the first cloud-based network.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the management platform of the target cloud-based network comprises a cloud management system of the target cloud-based network.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the usage history comprises a set of data indicating at least one of usage time of the software, a number of instances of the software, a number of registered users of the software, a number of support events associated with the software, an amount of bandwidth associated with usage of the software, or an amount of data consumption associated with the software.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the export filter criteria is received via user input.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the export filter criteria is accessed from a service operating in the target cloud-based network.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein at least a portion of the data in the set of usage histories usage is received from a set of vendor repositories hosted in the host cloud-based network.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the usage history comprises at least one of a billing or subscription report.

17. A method of processing usage history information in a target cloud-based network, comprising:

transmitting, from the target cloud-based network, a set of export filter criteria to a host cloud-based network;

receiving, from the host cloud-based network, a selective subset of a usage history representing at least one of the consumption of resources or usage of software in the host cloud-based network in a management platform of the target cloud-based network; and

generating a management action in a set of virtual machines in the target cloud-based network.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the management action comprises at least one or instantiating or configuring a set of virtual machines in the target cloud-based network.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the set of virtual machines in the target cloud-based network are instantiated or configured in response to at least one of a failure event in the host cloud-based network or reaching a capacity limit in the host cloud-based network.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the management action comprises aggregating the selective subset of the usage history with a set of usage history data in the target cloud-based network.