EXTENSIBLE SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SERVICE OFFERINGS

• US 20130013462A1
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Deng, Yu, Devarakonda, Murthy V., Head, Michael Reuben, Hosn, Rafah A., Kochut, Andrzej, Munson, Jonathan Paul, Shaikh, Hidayatullah Habeebullah
• Granted Patent: US 9,047,577 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/27.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/82 Miscellaneous aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for integration, provisioning and management of entities and processes in a computing system such as, by way of example only, business entities and business processes. In particular, techniques are disclosed for implementing an extensible support system for multiple service offerings. For example, such a support system can be a business support system which may be employed in conjunction with a cloud computing environment.

Claims

1. A business support system (BSS) for provisioning computing network assets to one or more users for users to operate and manage the assets, the system comprising:

one or more user interfaces that provide service offering information to a user about service offerings of a plurality of service providers;

a selection function on the user interface used to select one or more of the service offerings;

one or more interfaces that connect to one or more locations on one or more networks, each of the locations having one or more network assets associated with the selected service offering and the respective service provider; and

a mapping function that matches the user selection to one or more provisioning processes, wherein when the provisioning processes are executed, and one or more physical network resources are provisioned to the user from one or more of the network locations in an order that the user can use the service.

2. A system, as in claim 1, wherein the asset includes one or more of:

a memory allocation, an amount of storage, a virtual machine, an internet protocol (IP) address, and a computer program.

3. A system, as in claim 1, wherein one or more of the interfaces is an application programming interface (API) which is used to connect the BSS to one or more operational support systems (OSS) each associated with one of the respective service providers, the OSS establishing one or more relationships between the selected service offering and one or more of the network assets.

4. A system, as in claim 1, wherein the provisioning processes are executed on one or more of:

the BSS and an operational support system (OSS).

5. A system, as in claim 1, wherein the service offerings are a set of service offerings provided by more than one provider.

6. A system, as in claim 1, further comprising one or more status processes that are performed to change a service offering.

7. A system, as in claim 6, wherein a status process performs one or more of:

an upgrade, a downgrade, adding a key, and patching an operating system.

8. An apparatus for provisioning computing network assets to one or more users for users to operate and manage the assets, the apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

receive a user request regarding one or more service offerings where two or more of the service offerings are provided by different providers;

for each service offering, determine a location for the provider of the service offering;

select one or more provisioning processes associated with the service offering for the respective provider from a plurality of provisioning processes; and

execute the provisioning processes in an order to interact with an operational support system (OSS) resulting in a set of assets that are provided to the user from the provider.

9. An apparatus, as in claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to execute one or more status processes that are performed to change a service offering.

10. An apparatus, as in claim 8, wherein the location comprises one or more network locations on a computer network.

11. An apparatus, as in claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to create one or more account entries that associate the change in the set of assets with the user requesting the service offering.

12. An apparatus, as in claim 8, wherein the physical network resources associated with the service offerings are provisioned by executing one or more processes in an order determined by traversing a path through an ontology, the ontology having one or more sets of relationships between a plurality of service offerings provided by one or more of the service providers.

13. An article of manufacture for provisioning computing network assets to one or more users for users to operate and manage the assets, the article of manufacture comprising a computer readable storage medium having tangibly embodied thereon computer readable program code which, when executed, causes a computer to:

receive a user request regarding one or more service offerings where two or more of the service offerings are provided by different providers;

for each service offering, determine a location for the provider of the service offering;

select one or more provisioning processes associated with the service offering for the respective provider from a plurality of provisioning processes; and

execute the provisioning processes in an order to interact with an operational support system (OSS) resulting in a set of assets that are provided to the user from the provider.