CENTRALLY MANAGING AND MONITORING OF CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICES

• US 20120296977A1
• Filed: 08/06/2012
• Published: 11/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 1, LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: III Holdings 1, LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: ELLISON, Brian Lee, Pierce, Elizabeth Nord
• Granted Patent: US 9,026,620 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

An apparatus, system, method and program providing a multi-tenant software as a service (SaaS) application or cloud computing service that manages and monitors the use of other SaaS applications or cloud computing services via a common connection and database framework. An Internet-based interface is provided as a single portal for monitoring and managing the use of SaaS applications or cloud computing services. Objects and the state of these objects including all associated attributes related to the SaaS applications or cloud computing services are stored in databases associated with the Internet-based interface. The Internet-based interface also provides a social networking infrastructure and an application exchange infrastructure that allows sharing of information related to the SaaS applications or cloud computing services.

Claims

1-25. -25. (canceled)

26. A method for monitoring the use of a plurality of cloud computing services within a common connection and database framework, the method comprising:

receiving a request for monitoring information and attributes related to a plurality of cloud computing services, the request being received via a single portal within a common connection and database framework;

displaying an Internet-based interface that is configured to display, select and access information and attributes related to the plurality of cloud computing services;

receiving a selection criteria for an object related to the plurality of cloud computing services within the Internet-based interface to be monitored;

selecting at least one item from a list of available items for performing a monitoring operation related to the object selected;

selecting at least one cloud computing service from a list of available cloud computing services related to the object selected;

selecting a type of report needed for reporting monitoring results;

selecting a time period for performing monitoring, when a time period is necessary;

providing a monitoring result of the monitoring operation for the at least one cloud computing service and the at least one item selected; and

determining when additional monitoring is required,

wherein monitoring is performed for selected objects, items and cloud computing services displayed in the Internet-based interface via the single portal within the common connection and database framework.

27. The method according to claim 26, further comprising:

partitioning of the information and attributes available for display, selection and access via the Internet-based interface, wherein the partitioning is based on cloud computing services registered to a user or corporate entity.

28. The method according to claim 26, wherein the monitoring operation includes reading, extracting, analyzing, correlating and reporting information related to the plurality of cloud computing services.

29. The method according to claim 27, wherein the monitoring operation relates to operational metrics of the cloud computing services registered to the user or corporate entity.

30. The method according to claim 26, wherein the providing the monitoring result includes providing information via a textual or graphical representation.

31. The method according to claim 26, wherein the objects include users, groups, policies, mailboxes and phones related the use of the plurality of cloud computing services.

32. The method according to claim 31, wherein the items include subsets of the users, the groups, the policies, the mailboxes and the phones related the use of the plurality of cloud computing services.)

33. The method according to claim 26, further comprising:

providing an application exchange infrastructure that allows sharing of information related to the plurality of cloud computing services by connecting to the common connection and database framework, the providing of the application exchange infrastructure comprises;

receiving a request for connection to the common connection and database framework;

displaying the Internet-based interface that is configured to display, select and access information related to a number of the plurality of cloud computing services;

receiving a selection criteria for a category of services related to the number of the plurality of cloud computing services within the Internet-based interface to be searched;

selecting a sub-category related to a selected category of services from a list of available sub-categories related to at least one of the number of the plurality of cloud computing services to be searched;

providing access to the information related to the selected sub-category of services;

initiating an application exchange related to the at least one of the number of the plurality of cloud computing services related to the selected sub-category;

storing new information related to the selected sub-category, when new information is to be stored; and

determining when a category or sub-category for another of the number of the plurality of cloud computing services is to be searched via the Internet-based interface.

34. The method according to claim 26, further comprising:

providing a social networking infrastructure that allows sharing of information related to the plurality of cloud computing services by connecting to the common connection and database framework, the providing of the social networking infrastructure comprises;

receiving a request for connection to the common connection and database framework;

displaying the Internet-based interface that is configured to display, select and access information related to a number of the plurality of cloud computing services;

receiving a selection criteria for a category of services related to the number of the plurality of cloud computing services within the Internet-based interface to be searched;

selecting a sub-category related to the selected service from a list of available sub-categories related to at least one of the number of the plurality of cloud computing services to be searched;

providing access to the information related to the selected sub-category;

storing new information related to the selected sub-category, when new information is to be stored; and

determining when a category or sub-category for another of the number of the plurality of cloud computing services to be searched via the Internet-based interface.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the social networking infrastructure further provides the monitoring of information and attributes related the plurality of cloud computing services via the Internet-based interface.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the application exchange includes the exchange of an application program interface enabling the use of a cloud computing service.

37. The method of claim 34, wherein the new information includes existing experiences with the use of a cloud computing service.

38. The method of claim 34, wherein the new information includes a rating of a cloud computing service.

39. The method of claim 33, wherein the new information includes objects, attributes and operational data that will allow interaction with selected cloud computing services.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the rating is presented in a graphical format along with text comments related to the rating of the cloud computing service.

41. A program stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium for monitoring the use of a plurality of cloud computing services within a common connection and database framework, the program causing a computer to perform steps comprising:

receiving a request for monitoring information and attributes related to a plurality of cloud computing services, the request being received via a single portal within a common connection and database framework;

displaying an Internet-based interface that is configured to display, select and access information and attributes related to the plurality of cloud computing services;

receiving a selection criteria for an object related to the plurality of cloud computing services within the Internet-based interface to be monitored;

selecting at least one item from a list of available items for performing a monitoring operation related to the object selected;

selecting at least one cloud computing service from a list of available cloud computing services related to the object selected;

selecting a type of report needed for reporting monitoring results;

selecting a time period for performing monitoring, when a time period is necessary;

providing a monitoring result of the monitoring operation for the at least one cloud computing service and the at least one item selected; and

determining when additional monitoring is required,

wherein monitoring is performed for selected objects, items and cloud computing services displayed in the Internet-based interface via the single portal within the common connection and database framework.

42. A system for monitoring the use of a plurality of cloud computing services within a common connection and database framework, the system comprising:

a plurality of databases configured to store information and attributes related to a plurality of cloud computing services;

an Internet-based interface configured to display, select and access the information and attributes related to the plurality of cloud computing services,

a first data access layer configured to establish data communications between the Internet-based interface and the plurality of databases based on a command received via the Internet-based interface, the data communications including at least retrieving and storing the information and attributes related to the plurality of cloud computing services,

a push-pull data layer configured to push data to and pull data from the plurality of cloud computing services based on a command received via the Internet-based interface; and

a second data access layer configured to established data communications between the push-pull data layer and the plurality of cloud computing services based on a command received from the Internet-based interface;

a first network interface configured to establish a connection to the Internet-based interface from a third-party apparatus via a public network; and

a second network interface configured to establish a connection between the plurality of cloud computing services and the push-pull data layer via the public network,

wherein the system is configured to monitor selected information and attributes of the plurality of cloud computing services available within the Internet-based interface via a single portal and the first network interface,

the plurality of databases includes an objects database, a methods database and a logs database,

the objects database includes all tables, queries, stored procedures and application code required to store, add, append, delete and modify the object and object attributes related to the monitoring of the use of the plurality of cloud computing services,

the methods database includes all tables, queries, stored procedures and application code required to store, add, append, delete, modify and execute actions related to the monitoring of the use of the plurality of cloud computing services, and

the logs database includes all tables, queries, stored procedures and application code required to store, add, append, delete and modify all activity, events, incidents, security, performance related to the plurality of cloud computing services.

43. An apparatus for monitoring the use of a plurality of cloud computing services within a common connection and database framework, the apparatus comprising:

an Internet-based interface configured to display, select and access information and attributes related to a plurality of cloud computing services;

a first data access layer configured to establish data communications between the cloud computing services monitoring apparatus and a plurality of databases based on a command received via the Internet-based interface, the data communications including storing and retrieving the information and attributes stored in the plurality of databases;

a push-pull data layer configured to push data to and pull data from the plurality of cloud computing services based on a command received via the Internet-based interface;

a second data access layer configured to established data communications between the cloud computing services monitoring apparatus and the plurality of cloud computing services based on a command received from the push-pull data layer;

a social networking infrastructure that allows sharing of information related to the plurality of cloud computing services by connecting to the common connection and database framework; and

an application exchange infrastructure that allows sharing of information related to the plurality of cloud computing services by connecting to the common connection and database framework,

wherein the cloud computing services monitoring apparatus is configured to monitor selected information and attributes of the plurality of cloud computing services available within the Internet-based interface via a single portal to the cloud computing services monitoring apparatus.