SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GENERATING OPTIMIZED RESOURCE CONSUMPTION PERIODS FOR MULTIPLE USERS ON COMBINED BASIS

• US 20120226796A1
• Filed: 03/01/2011
• Published: 09/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Morgan, Christopher Edwin
• Granted Patent: US 8,832,219 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1453 Methods or systems for payment or settlement of the charges for data transmission involving significant interaction with the data transmission network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for generating optimized resource consumption periods for multiple users on a combined basis. A set of aggregate usage history data can record consumption of processor, software, or other resources subscribed to by a set of users, in one cloud or across multiple clouds. An entitlement engine can analyze the usage history data to identify a subscription margin for the subscribed resources, reflecting collective under/over-consumption of cloud resources by the users against subscription limits. The entitlement engine can track the short-term subscription margin for one or multiple resources over hours of a day, or over other intervals. The entitlement engine can thereby generate a set of variable or dynamic consumption periods over which to track the resource consumption, based on trends or conditions demonstrated in that consumption pattern by the set of users on a combined basis. Combined consumption can be metered on smaller, larger, and/or more rapidly changing intervals when the collective consumption rate is rapidly changing.

Claims

1. A method of managing cloud consumption periods, comprising:

accessing a set of aggregate usage history data for a set of users each operating a set of machines consuming a set of resources in at least one host cloud;

generating a set of variable consumption periods over which the consumption of the set of resources will be tracked for the set of users on a combined basis;

identifying a set of subscription margins for at least one resource in the set of resources based on a comparison of the consumption of the at least one resource to a resource subscription limit for the set of users on a combined basis over the set of variable consumption periods;

generating a set of marginal consumption values for the set of users for at least one resource for the set of variable consumption periods in the at least one host cloud; and

generating at least one management action based on the marginal consumption value for the set of variable consumption periods.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of variable consumption periods comprise a set of time periods whose interval is based on relative changes in the set of marginal consumption values over the set of time periods for the set of users on a combined basis.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the interval is configured to decrease based on increasing relative changes in the set of marginal consumption values over the set of time periods for the set of users on a combined basis.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the interval is configured to increase based on decreasing relative changes in the set of marginal consumption values over the set of time periods for the set of users on a combined basis.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one management action comprises adjusting the resource consumption limit for at least one of the users in the set of users.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one management action comprises generating a restriction on the consumption of the set of resources for at least one of the users in the set of users.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one management action comprises initiating a rollover operation to migrate the consumption of at least a portion of the resources by at least one of the users in the set of users to at least one additional host cloud.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of variable consumption periods comprises an instantaneous consumption value indicating the set of subscription margins for the set of users on a combined basis in substantially real-time.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating a running average of the instantaneous consumption value for the set of users on a combined basis.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating an alert when the instantaneous consumption value exceeds the running average of the instantaneous consumption value for the set of users on a combined basis.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of subscription margins comprises at least one of an over-limit consumption total for the at least one resource or an under-limit consumption total for the at least one resource for the set of users on a combined basis.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of variable consumption periods comprise a set of time periods metered in units of at least one of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of aggregate usage history data comprises at least one of processor usage data, memory usage data, storage usage data, communications bandwidth usage data, operating system usage data, application usage data, service usage data, virtual machine instance data, or appliance usage data.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource consumption limit comprises at least one of a combined instance limit for a set of virtual machines, a combined instance limit for a set of appliances, a combined instance limit for an operating system, a combined instance limit for at least one application, a combined communications bandwidth throughput limit, or a combined storage amount limit.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one host cloud comprises a set of host clouds.

16. A system for managing cloud consumption periods, comprising:

an interface to a data store, the data store storing a set of aggregate usage history data for a set of users operating a set of machines consuming a set of resources in a set of host clouds; and

a processor, communicating with the data store via the interface, the processor being configured to;

access a set of aggregate usage history data for a set of users each operating a set of machines consuming a set of resources in at least one host cloud,

generate a set of variable consumption periods over which the consumption of the set of resources will be tracked for the set of users on a combined basis,

identify a set of subscription margins for at least one resource in the set of resources based on a comparison of the consumption of the at least one resource to a resource subscription limit for the set of users on a combined basis over the set of variable consumption periods,

generate a set of marginal consumption values for the set of users for at least one resource for the set of variable consumption periods in the at least one host cloud, and

generate at least one management action based on the marginal consumption value for the set of variable consumption periods.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the set of variable consumption periods comprise a set of time periods whose interval is based on relative changes in the set of marginal consumption values over the set of time periods for the set of users on a combined basis.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the interval is configured to decrease based on increasing relative changes in the set of marginal consumption values over the set of time periods for the set of users on a combined basis.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the interval is configured to increase based on decreasing relative changes in the set of marginal consumption values over the set of time periods for the set of users on a combined basis.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one management action comprises adjusting the resource consumption limit for at least one of the users in the set of users.