SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR BUSINESS NETWORK MANAGEMENT DISCOVERY AND CONSOLIDATION

• US 20120124140A1
• Filed: 11/11/2010
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Ritter, Daniel, Bhatt, Ankur, Denner, Jürgen, Westmann, Till
• Granted Patent: US 8,543,653 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation

Abstract

According to some embodiments, a plurality of interconnected entities may be discovered in a network landscape. A subset of the entities may then be automatically consolidated into a business participant, the consolidating may performed in accordance with at least one rule based algorithm. A business process landscape, including the business participant, may then be generated and/or displayed to an operator.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

discovering a plurality of interconnected entities in a network landscape; and

automatically consolidating a subset of the entities into a business participant, wherein said consolidating is performed in accordance with at least one rule based algorithm; and

generating a business process landscape including the business participant.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the entities are associated with at least one of:

(i) a business application, (ii) a business system, (iii) a file system, (iv) a database management system, or (v) an enterprise resource planning system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said discovering comprises analyzing incoming call configuration information and outgoing call configuration information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said discovering is based at least in part on information received from an operator.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said consolidating is based at least in part on a matching, similarity, or relation analysis.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said consolidating is based at least in part on information received from an operator.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the algorithm comprises a heuristic algorithm.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the algorithm is based at least in part on:

(i) an application system overview, (ii) product versions, (iii) connectivity information, (iv) integration running on middleware systems or application systems, (v) interfaces, (vi) integration process models, (vii) operational data, (viii) business process descriptions, (ix) business roles and participants, (x) business conversations, or (xi) business collaborations.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said discovering and said consolidating are performed in substantially real time.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said discovering and said consolidating comprise substantially continuous processes.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said discovering and said consolidating are based on a source model representing meta models and operation data accessible via an application programming interface.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the application programming interface is associated with at least one of:

(i) an application system, or (ii) an integration bus.

13. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing program code executable by a computer to perform a method, said method comprising:

identifying a plurality of unique hosts and systems in a landscape of interconnected systems;

determining incoming to and outgoing calls from each system based on source models;

determining message flows from each system based on outgoing calls;

determining message flows to each system based on incoming calls;

merging call graphs for the systems to create a business process network of the landscape; and

linking message flows, application content, and integration content for the business process network.

14. The medium of claim 13, wherein said identifying is associated with a source model.

15. The medium of claim 13, wherein the determination of incoming calls is based at least in part on incoming call configuration information.

16. A network management server, comprising:

a network service layer platform to discover a plurality of interconnected entities in a network landscape; and

a network consolidation layer platform to automatically consolidate a subset of the entities into a business participant, wherein said consolidating is performed in accordance with at least one rule based algorithm.

17. The network management server of claim 16, wherein network source layer platform further includes at least one of:

(i) an explore and analysis service, (ii) an integration model deployment service, (iii) a source read agent, (iv) a source write agent, or (v) source models.

18. The network management server of claim 16, wherein the network consolidation layer platform further includes at least one of:

(i) a consolidated network model or (ii) a consolidator.

19. The network management server of claim 16, further comprising:

a network integration model layer platform to provide a graphical user interface displaying a business process landscape that includes the business participant.

20. The network management server of claim 19, wherein the network integration model layer platform includes at least one of:

(i) an operation linker, (ii) a simulator and optimizer, or (iii) an enrichment and integration model component.