Monitoring Geographic Location Changes of Assets in a Cloud

• US 20130054780A1
• Filed: 08/26/2011
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bade, Steven A., Moss, Harold III, Zurko, Mary Ellen
• Application Number:
  US13/218,674
• Publication Number:
  US 20130054780A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/20 the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

Despite the best intentions of a cloud service provider, digital assets of may be moved to a geographic location that deviates from a geographic preference, policy, or setting of the owner of the digital assets. A monitoring tool can monitor network location of a digital asset hosted by a cloud service provider. Movement of the digital asset from a first network location to a second network location is detected. In response to detecting that the digital asset moves, a geographic location that corresponds to the second network location is determined. It is then determined that the geographic location deviates from a geographic setting configured for the digital asset. A notification that the digital asset has been moved to the geographic location that deviates from the geographic setting is generated.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring geographic location of a digital asset, the method comprising:

monitoring network location of the digital asset hosted by a third party service provider;

detecting that the digital asset moves from a first network location to a second network location;

responsive to said detecting that the digital asset moves, determining a geographic location that corresponds to the second network location;

determining that the geographic location deviates from a geographic setting configured for the digital asset; and

generating a notification that the digital asset has been moved to the geographic location that deviates from the geographic setting.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining that the geographic location deviates from the geographic setting configured for the digital asset comprises determining a jurisdiction of the geographic location.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising at least one of determining that the geographic setting indicates the jurisdiction as disallowed and determining that the jurisdiction imposes a regulation indicated by the geographic constraint as disallowed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring the network location of the digital asset comprises requesting network location information of the digital asset from the third party service provider at a given interval, wherein the third party service provider comprises a cloud service provider.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said requesting the network location information of the digital asset comprises:

sending a message to a uniform resource identifier of the digital asset;

determining that the uniform resource identifier resolves to a network address of the second network location based, at least in part, on a response to the message.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

sending a message to a network address of the first network location;

determining that a response to the message does not conform to an expected response.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said detecting that the digital asset moves from the first network location to the second network location comprises:

determining that a first network address of the first network location does not match a second network address of the second network location.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising masking out parts of the first network address and the second network address that do not identify a subnet, wherein the first network address indicates a subnet different than the second network address.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining an action associated with the digital asset responsive to said determining that the geographic location deviates from the geographic setting configured for the digital asset; and

executing the action.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

counting down a window of time for moving the digital asset to a different jurisdiction that comports with the geographic constraint; and

monitoring the digital asset at the second network location at a greater frequency than monitored at the first network location.

11. A computer program product for monitoring geographic location of digital assets, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising a computer usable program code configured to;

monitor network location of a digital asset hosted by a third party service provider;

detect if the digital asset moves from a first network location to a second network location managed by the third party service provider, wherein the third party service provider managers a cloud;

determine a geographic location that corresponds to the second network location if the digital asset moves from the first network location to the second network location;

determine that the geographic location deviates from a geographic setting configured for the digital asset; and

generate a notification that the digital asset has been moved to the geographic location that deviates from the geographic setting.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer usable program code configured to determine that the geographic location deviates from the geographic setting configured for the digital asset comprises the computer usable program code configured to determine a jurisdiction of the geographic location.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer usable program code further configured to, at least one of, determine that the geographic setting indicates the jurisdiction as disallowed and determine that the jurisdiction imposes a regulation indicated by the geographic constraint as disallowed.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer usable program code configured to monitor the network location of the digital asset comprises the computer usable program code configured to request network location information of the digital asset from the third party service provider at a given interval.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer usable program code configured to request the network location information of the digital asset comprises the computer usable program code configured to:

send a message to a uniform resource identifier of the digital asset;

determine that the uniform resource identifier resolves to a network address of the second network location based, at least in part, on a response to the message.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer usable program code is further configured to:

send a message to a network address of the first network location;

determine that a response to the message does not conform to an expected response.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer usable program code configured to detecting if the digital asset moves from the first network location to the second network location comprises the computer usable program code configured to:

determine that a first network address of the first network location does not match a second network address of the second network location.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the computer usable program code is further configured to mask out parts of the first network address and the second network address that do not identify a subnet, wherein the first network address indicates a subnet different than the second network address.

19. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer usable program code is further configured to:

determine an action associated with the digital asset responsive to determining that the geographic location deviates from the geographic setting configured for the digital asset; and

executing the action.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer usable program code is further configured to:

count down a window of time for moving the digital asset to a different jurisdiction that comports with the geographic constraint; and

monitor the digital asset at the second network location at a greater frequency than monitored at the first network location.

21. A computer program product for monitoring geographic location of digital assets, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising a computer usable program code configured to;

monitor network location of a digital asset hosted by a third party service provider;

detect if the digital asset moves from a first network location to a second network location managed by the third party service provider;

determine a geographic location that corresponds to the second network location if the digital asset moves from the first network location to the second network location;

determine if the geographic location deviates from a geographic setting configured for the digital asset; and

determine an action associated with the digital asset responsive to determining that the geographic location deviates from the geographic setting configured for the digital asset; and

executing the action.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the computer usable program code configured to determine that the geographic location deviates from the geographic setting configured for the digital asset comprises the computer usable program code configured to determine a jurisdiction of the geographic location, wherein the third party service provider comprises a cloud service provider.

23. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the computer usable program code is further configured to:

count down a window of time for moving the digital asset to a different jurisdiction that comports with the geographic constraint; and

monitor the digital asset at the second network location at a greater frequency than monitored at the first network location.

24. An apparatus comprising:

a processor unit;

a network interface coupled with the processor unit; and

a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising a computer usable program code configured to;

monitor network location of a digital asset hosted by a third party service provider;

detect if the digital asset moves from a first network location to a second network location managed by the third party service provider;

determine a geographic location that corresponds to the second network location if the digital asset moves from the first network location to the second network location;

determine that the geographic location deviates from a geographic setting configured for the digital asset; and

generate a notification that the digital asset has been moved to the geographic location that deviates from the geographic setting.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the computer usable program code is further configured to:

determine an action associated with the digital asset responsive to determining that the geographic location deviates from the geographic setting configured for the digital asset; and

executing the action, wherein the third party service provider comprises a cloud service provider and the first network location and the second network location are within a cloud managed by the cloud service provider.