VENDOR OPTIMIZATION IN AGGREGATED ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20130013377A1
• Filed: 07/07/2011
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Inventors: Kruglick, Ezekiel
• Application Number:
  US13/510,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20130013377A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

Technologies are generally described for systems and methods effective to optimize vendors in a cloud computing environment. In an example, bundled services can be de-aggregated and a hierarchical tree can be generated showing the relationships between the service providers and infrastructure providers. When itemized bills are received from the service providers, the hierarchical tree can be used to match items from the itemized bills to specific infrastructure providers. A transaction report showing all the services rendered by the infrastructure providers can then be sent to the respective infrastructure providers to take advantage of discounts and bulk rates. In another example, a set of infrastructure providers that provide the services at the lowest cost can be determined, and the service providers can be configured or requested to switch to that set of infrastructure providers.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

de-aggregating bundled services into top-level services and sub-services;

mapping the top-level services and the sub-services to create a hierarchical dependency tree; and

configuring dependencies of the top-level services and the sub-services including modifying the hierarchical dependency tree based on a set of rules to consolidate the sub-services.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the de-aggregating the bundled services comprises receiving a list of sub-services used by a respective top-level service of the top-level services.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the mapping comprises creating a data store including information representative of the list of sub-services used by the respective top-level service, and generating a hierarchical map based on the information.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving the list of sub-services comprises tracking a usage of the respective top-level service and determining the sub-services used by the respective top-level service.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving the list of sub-services comprises receiving a pre-specified list.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving the list of sub-services further comprises receiving a list of sub-services compatible with the respective top-level service.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuring the dependencies of the top-level services and the sub-services comprises reducing a number of the sub-services used by the top-level services.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying the hierarchical dependency tree based on the set of rules comprises modifying the dependencies of the top-level services in response to meeting a condition with respect to a volume of usage of the sub-service.

8. The method of 1, wherein the modifying the hierarchical dependency tree based on the set of rules comprises modifying the dependencies of the top-level services in response to a cost of the sub-service.

10. A system, comprising:

a de-aggregation component configured to analyze bundled services and extract information about services of the bundled services;

a mapping component configured to generate a hierarchical tree of services and infrastructure providers as a function of the information about the bundled services, wherein the hierarchical tree of services represents relationships between the service providers and the infrastructure providers; and

a configuration engine component configured to modify the relationships between the services and the infrastructure providers based on a set of rules.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the mapping component is further configured to map the infrastructure providers based on pre-existing relationships between the services and the infrastructure providers.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the configuration engine component is further configured to consolidate the infrastructure providers based on potential relationships between the services and the infrastructure providers.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the de-aggregation component is further configured to receive a pre-specified list of the relationships between the services and the infrastructure providers.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising a rule generation component configured to create the set of rules used by the configuration engine component, wherein the set of rules comprise conditions that lead to creation of a relationship with an infrastructure provider.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the conditions are based on a cost of the infrastructure provider.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the conditions are based on a volume of usage of the infrastructure provider.

17. A method, comprising:

receiving itemized bills from a plurality of service providers;

accessing a hierarchical tree of the service providers and infrastructure providers;

matching items on the itemized bills from the plurality of service providers to services provided by the infrastructure providers including analyzing the hierarchical tree; and

sending a consolidated listing of the services provided by respective infrastructure providers to the infrastructure providers.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the matching the items further comprises determining that the plurality of service providers used the infrastructure providers.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the sending the consolidated listing of the services comprises sending a price and a usage of respective services provided by the infrastructure providers as billed by the plurality of service providers.

20. A computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computing system to perform operations, comprising:

receiving itemized bills from respective service providers;

creating a listing of services provided by infrastructure providers based on the itemized bills, wherein the listing of services comprises a price and a usage of the services; and

consolidating the infrastructure providers by configuring the service providers to switch to common infrastructure providers.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the receiving the itemized bills further comprises receiving itemized costs for storage, a storage transaction, a compute time, and a data transfer for respective infrastructure providers of the infrastructure providers used by the plurality of service providers.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the consolidating the infrastructure providers further comprises:

creating sets of the infrastructure providers;

determining a cost for the sets of the infrastructure providers; and

selecting a set of infrastructure providers from the sets with a lowest cost.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the creating the sets further comprises ensuring that the set of infrastructure providers links to the service providers on a hierarchical tree of the service providers and the infrastructure providers.

24. A system, comprising:

a billing component configured to receive itemized bills from service providers;

a matching component configured to analyze the itemized bills and a hierarchical tree of the service providers and infrastructure providers, and match items from the itemized bills to the infrastructure providers; and

a grouping component configured to cluster the items matched to the infrastructure providers and send the infrastructure providers a grouped transaction report.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the hierarchical tree of the service providers and the infrastructure providers represents dependencies between the infrastructure providers and the service providers.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the itemized bills comprise information related to services provided by the service providers and the infrastructure providers that provided the services.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the grouped transaction report comprises information about a price and a usage of each of the services provided by each of the infrastructure providers as billed by the service providers.

28. A system, comprising:

a set creation component configured to create sets of infrastructure providers, wherein the sets of the infrastructure providers are configured to provide a set of services used by service providers;

a selection component configured to analyze a price per usage and a usage of infrastructure providers in the sets of infrastructure providers and select a set of infrastructure providers from the sets with a lowest cost; and

a consolidation component configured to send a request to modify a configuration of the service providers to switch to the set of infrastructure providers selected by the selection component.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the sets of the infrastructure providers comprise infrastructure providers that are linked on a hierarchical tree to the service providers.

30. A system, comprising:

means for matching items on itemized bills from a plurality of service providers to services provided by a plurality of infrastructure providers;

means for consolidating the items from the itemized bills into groups based on the services provided by the plurality of infrastructure providers; and

means for sending a consolidated list of the services provided by an infrastructure provider to the plurality of infrastructure providers.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the means for matching comprises means for determining that the plurality of service providers used the services provided by the plurality of infrastructure providers.