Information Technology Resource Allocation and Utilization Tracking in a Cloud-Based System

• US 20120166323A1
• Filed: 12/28/2010
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Guo, Feng Golfen
• Granted Patent: US 9,037,512 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

An apparatus for allocating and tracking utilization of information technology resources of a distributed virtual infrastructure comprises at least one processing platform associated with the distributed virtual infrastructure. The processing platform comprises at least one processing device having a processor coupled to a memory. The processing platform is operative to allocate at least a designated one of the information technology resources to a user responsive to a corresponding request, to track utilization of the designated information technology resource allocated to the user, and to generate one or more notifications if the utilization of the designated information technology resource by the user falls below a specified threshold. The distributed virtual infrastructure may comprise an enterprise private cloud infrastructure.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processing platform associated with a distributed virtual infrastructure comprising a plurality of information technology resources, the processing platform comprising at least one processing device having a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the processing platform is operative to allocate at least a designated one of the information technology resources to a user responsive to a corresponding request, to track utilization of the designated information technology resource allocated to the user, and to generate one or more notifications if said utilization of the designated information technology resource by the user falls below a specified threshold.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processing platform implements a plurality of processing modules, said processing modules comprising at least:

a resource allocation module;

a resource delivery module;

a resource utilization tracking module;

a resource utilization notification module;

a utilization fee charging module; and

a presentation interface module providing an interface between the user and said resource allocation, delivery, utilization tracking, utilization notification and utilization fee charging modules.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the distributed virtual infrastructure comprises an enterprise private cloud infrastructure.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processing platform is implemented at least in part within the distributed virtual infrastructure.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the plurality of processing modules further comprises:

a user management module; and

an enterprise systems integration module operative to obtain enterprise organization hierarchy information from one or more enterprise organization information systems and to provide said enterprise organization hierarchy information to the user management module.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the enterprise hierarchy information comprises for each of a plurality of employees of an enterprise an employee identifier, employee name, employee department, employee manager and employee business unit.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the resource allocation module further comprises:

a resource rental module operative to receive a user description of an information technology resource requirement from the user via the presentation interface module and to generate from that user description a resource request form; and

an authorization control module operative to receive the resource request form from the resource rental module and to approve or deny the corresponding request.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the utilization fee charging module further comprises a billing module operative to calculate a resource cost for the information technology resource requirement for incorporation into said resource request form.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the authorization control module accesses the enterprise organization hierarchy information in the user management module in determining whether to approve or deny said request.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the plurality of modules further comprises a user resource management module, and upon approval of said request, the resource rental module updates a user record in the user resource management module, and provides a notification to an information technology administrator regarding the approval of said request.

11. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the resource delivery module is operative to receive an administrator description of an information technology resource requirement from an information technology administrator via the presentation module, and responsive to said administrator description is operative to interact with an application programming interface of the distributed virtual infrastructure, to update a user record in a user resource management module, and to provide an indication via the presentation module to the user that the corresponding resource is available.

12. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the resource utilization tracking module is operative to obtain resource utilization data from the distributed virtual infrastructure and to provide said data to an associated user resource utilization tracking module that receives resource occupancy information for the user from a user resource management module and enterprise organization hierarchy information from a user management module.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the user resource utilization tracking module is operative to generate one or more of:

a resource utilization report of the user, which is presented to that user via the presentation module;

a resource utilization report of a business unit that includes the user, which is presented to a manager of said business unit via the presentation module; and

a resource utilization report of an enterprise that includes said business unit, which is presented to an information technology administrator of said enterprise via the presentation module.

14. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the resource utilization notification module comprises a policy-based notification module that is operative to receive an indication of a notification policy relating to a resource allocated to the user, to obtain resource utilization data for that resource from a user resource utilization tracking module, to obtain enterprise organization hierarchy information from a user management module, and to generate one or more notifications in accordance with the notification policy for presentation via the presentation module.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the notifications include one or more of:

a notification to the user requesting that the user release the resource;

a notification to a manager of a business unit that includes the user, indicating that continued allocation of the resource may be wasteful; and

a notification to an information technology administrator of an enterprise that includes said business unit, indicating that the allocated resource is a potential resource reclaim target.

16. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the utilization fee charging module further comprises:

a billing module operative to calculate a resource cost for an information technology resource requirement of the user; and

a charging module operative to receive the resource cost from the billing module, to receive resource occupancy information for the user from a user resource management module, and to receive enterprise organization hierarchy information from a user management module, the charging module being further operative to generate from the received resource cost, resource occupancy information, and enterprise organization hierarchy information an information technology service bill for delivery to a manager of a business unit that includes the user, and a information technology service bill report for delivery to a finance officer of an enterprise that includes the business unit.

17. A method comprising the steps of:

allocating at least a designated one of a plurality of information technology resources of a distributed virtual infrastructure to a user responsive to a corresponding request;

tracking utilization of the designated information technology resource allocated to the user; and

generating one or more notifications if said utilization of the designated information technology resource by the user falls below a specified threshold.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising the steps of:

obtaining resource utilization data from the distributed virtual infrastructure;

obtaining resource occupancy information for the user;

obtaining enterprise organization hierarchy information for an enterprise comprising a business unit that includes the user; and

generating at least one resource utilization report, comprising one or more of;

a resource utilization report of the user for presentation to the user;

a resource utilization report of the business unit for presentation to a manager of said business unit; and

a resource utilization report of the enterprise for presentation to an information technology administrator of said enterprise.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising the steps of

receiving an indication of a notification policy relating to a resource allocated to the user;

obtaining resource utilization data for that resource;

obtaining enterprise organization hierarchy information for an enterprise comprising a business unit that includes the user; and

generating at least one notification in accordance with the notification policy, comprising one or more of;

a notification to the user requesting that the user release the resource;

a notification to a manager of the business unit indicating that continued allocation of the resource may be wasteful; and

a notification to an information technology administrator of the enterprise indicating that the allocated resource is a potential resource reclaim target.

20. A computer program product comprising a processor-readable storage medium having encoded therein executable code of one or more software programs, wherein the one or more software programs when executed by a processing platform implement the steps of the method of claim 17.

21. An information processing system comprising:

a distributed virtual infrastructure comprising a plurality of information technology resources; and

at least one processing platform associated with the distributed virtual infrastructure, said processing platform being operative to allocate at least a designated one of the information technology resources to a user responsive to a corresponding request, to track utilization of the designated information technology resource allocated to the user, and to generate one or more notifications if said utilization of the designated information technology resource by the user falls below a specified threshold.