CLOUD COMPUTING OPERATING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20130124400A1
• Filed: 03/30/2011
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Disos Pty Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Disos Pty Ltd.
• Inventors: Hawkett, Colin James
• Granted Patent: US 9,547,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/22 Payment schemes or models
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources

Abstract

A cloud computing operating system is described. The system, in one aspect, includes a plurality of core data structures (100) each configured to define basic attributes that elements of the system contain. The system also including an indexing data structure (104) inherited from one of the core data structures (100) configured to index any number of core data structures (100) or elements inherited from a core data structure (100) and an encapsulating data structure (110) inherited from the indexing data structure (104) and configured to encapsulate any number of core data structures (100) or elements inherited from a core data structure (100). Each core data structure (100) is encapsulated within one encapsulating data structure and includes a reference to its encapsulating data structure. Other aspects of the cloud computing operating system are also described.

Claims

1. A cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of core data structures each configured to define basic attributes that elements of the system contain;

an indexing data structure inherited from one of the core data structures configured to index any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure; and

an encapsulating data structure inherited from the indexing data structure and configured to encapsulate any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure;

wherein each core data structure is encapsulated within one encapsulating data structure and includes a reference to its encapsulating data structure.

2. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 1 wherein each core data structure is configured to aggregate any number of core data structures or elements inherited from core data structures.

3. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 1 wherein every core data structure is indexed within zero or more indexing structures.

4. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 1 wherein each core data structure is associated with a reputation.

5. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 4 wherein each reputation is increased or decreased by an action of a user.

6. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 5 wherein said user is one of the plurality of users of a cloud computing operating system of including:

a plurality of groups and plurality of users, wherein each user owns at least one group, wherein at least some of the users are members of multiple groups, wherein each group assigns each member at least one role selected from a plurality of roles, wherein the roles form at least one hierarchy within the group, and wherein each member represents a subset of information of its corresponding user.

7. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 5 wherein the reputation of at least some core data structures influences the reputation of parent and/or child elements within a hierarchy of the core data structure.

8. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least some of the core data structures and elements inherited from a core data structure include a version identifier, and wherein at least some of the core data structures and elements inherited from a core data structure include executable code configured to migrate data between different versions of the core data structures or elements.

73. A method for allocating payment within a cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 1, wherein payment for use of an application instance of the cloud computing operating system is allocated based on an inheritance chain of the corresponding application.

74. A method as claimed in claim 73 wherein each of the components within the inheritance chain of the application is owned by one of the plurality of groups of a cloud computing operating system, and payment is allocated to each of these groups.

75. A method as claimed in claim 74 wherein payment is allocated in accordance with a payment method defined within each group.

76. A method as claimed in claim 75 wherein the payment method includes one or more methods selected from the set of a percentage of a sale price of the application, a fixed cost, or a combination of both.

77. A method as claimed in claim 76 wherein each component is a core data structure, or element inherited from a core data structure, of a cloud operating system including:

a plurality of core data structures each configured to define basic attributes that elements of the system contain;

an indexing data structure inherited from one of the core data structures configured to index any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure; and

an encapsulating data structure inherited from the indexing data structure and configured to encapsulate any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure;

wherein each core data structure is encapsulated within one encapsulating data structure and includes a reference to its encapsulating data structure.

78. A method as claimed in claim 77 wherein each component is a code encapsulating data structure of a cloud operating system including:

a plurality of code encapsulating data structures each configured to define executable code and to define the structure of one or more encapsulating data structures;

wherein said executable code is configured to instantiate the one or more encapsulating data structures and to perform runtime operations on the one or more encapsulating data structures, said plurality of code encapsulating data structures form an inheritance hierarchy, each code encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure itself and each encapsulating data structure is instantiated by an associated code encapsulating data structure.

79. A method as claimed in claim 78 wherein the inheritance chain of the application exists within the inheritance hierarchy of the cloud operating system.

80. A method as claimed in claim 73 wherein each application instance is owned by a group, and each application instance results in payments allocated from the group which owns the application instance to the group which owns the application.

81. A method as claimed in claim 80 wherein each group is one of the plurality of groups of a cloud computing operating system.

100. A cloud computing apparatus, including:

a plurality of primary memory stores;

a plurality of secondary memory stores;

a plurality of processors, each connected to a primary memory store and to at least some of the plurality of secondary memory stores;

wherein the processors are configured to provide a virtual computing platform, and

wherein the virtual computing platform is configured to execute a cloud computing operating system of claim 1.

103. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each core data structure is owned by a group of the plurality of groups of a cloud computing system.

104. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each encapsulating data structure include a read-only flag and said read-only flag marks all core data structures encapsulated within the encapsulating data structure as read-only.

9. A cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of code encapsulating data structures each configured to define executable code and to define the structure of one or more encapsulating data structures;

wherein said executable code is configured to instantiate the one or more encapsulating data structures and to perform runtime operations on the one or more encapsulating data structures, said plurality of code encapsulating data structures form an inheritance hierarchy, each code encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure itself and each encapsulating data structure is instantiated by an associated code encapsulating data structure.

10. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 9 wherein each code encapsulating data structure provides a structured interface, accessible from a network interface module, to the executable code.

11. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the structured interface is a RESTful API.

12. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the RESTful API comprises a unique first identifier to an element of the cloud computing operating system, and wherein the first identifier encodes a unique second identifier for an encapsulating data structure and wherein the second identifier encodes a unique third identifier for the code encapsulated data structure that instantiated the encapsulating data structure.

13. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 12 wherein the RESTful API further comprises an action identifier selected from a set of get, delete, post, and put.

14. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 12 wherein the RESTful API further comprises a collection identifier comprising one from the set of aggregated, indexed, or encapsulated data structures.

15. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the encapsulating data structure is instantiated by the associated code encapsulating data structure by instantiation of each code encapsulating data structure in sequence from the root code encapsulating data structure down an inheritance chain within the inheritance hierarchy of the associated code encapsulating data structure.

16. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 9 wherein all encapsulating data structures access a database through the root of the inheritance hierarchy.

17. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 9 wherein each encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure of a cloud computing operating system.

18. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 9 wherein all encapsulating data structures are instantiated by one and only one code encapsulating data structure.

19. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the code encapsulating data structure is further configured to define user interface elements.

20. A cloud computing operating system including:

a request processor configured to receive a request relating to a specific core data structure of an instance of an encapsulating data structure and configured to load an invoker module from a predefined code encapsulating data structure; and

an invoker module configured to action the request on the specific core data structure via a code encapsulating data structure that instantiates the encapsulating data structure.

21. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 20 wherein the code encapsulating data structure is in turn instantiated by a parent code encapsulating data structure, and the request is actioned by the code encapsulating data structure via its parent.

22. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 21 wherein the parent code encapsulating data structure includes a resource locator configured to define a parsing and execution method for requests.

23. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 20 wherein each code encapsulating data structure forms an inheritance chain and wherein each code encapsulating data structure within the inheritance chain is instantiated by its own parent code encapsulating data structure, each parent code encapsulating data structure defines a resource locator, and wherein the invoker module selects the parent code encapsulating data structure based on resolution of the request to a code encapsulating data structure within the inheritance chain.

24. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 20, wherein the encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure of a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of code encapsulating data structures each configured to define executable code and to define the structure of one or more encapsulating data structures;

wherein said executable code is configured to instantiate the one or more encapsulating data structures and to perform runtime operations on the one or more encapsulating data structures, said plurality of code encapsulating data structures form an inheritance hierarchy, each code encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure itself and each encapsulating data structure is instantiated by an associated code encapsulating data structure.

25. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 20 wherein the code encapsulating data structure is one of the plurality of code encapsulating data structures of a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of code encapsulating data structures each configured to define executable code and to define the structure of one or more encapsulating data structures;

wherein said executable code is configured to instantiate the one or more encapsulating data structures and to perform runtime operations on the one or more encapsulating data structures, said plurality of code encapsulating data structures form an inheritance hierarchy, each code encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure itself and each encapsulating data structure is instantiated by an associated code encapsulating data structure.

65. A method for charging for application instance use within a cloud computing operating system, including allocating charges to a using group;

wherein said using group is a group of the plurality of groups of the cloud computing operating system of claim 25 which provides access to at least one of its plurality of members to at least one application instance.

66. A method as claimed in claim 65 wherein the application instance is an instance of one of the plurality of code encapsulating data structures of a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of code encapsulating data structures each configured to define executable code and to define the structure of one or more encapsulating data structures;

wherein said executable code is configured to instantiate the one or more encapsulating data structures and to perform runtime operations on the one or more encapsulating data structures, said plurality of code encapsulating data structures form an inheritance hierarchy, each code encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure itself and each encapsulating data structure is instantiated by an associated code encapsulating data structure.

67. A method as claimed in claim 65 wherein the charges are distributed within the using group to its members.

68. A method as claimed in claim 67 wherein the charges are distributed to its members based on the role of the member.

69. A method as claimed in claim 65 wherein the charges for the application instance use include charges based on one or more of the following factors:

physical computing resources consumed by the application instance by the using group, the number of members in the using group, and the number of application instances used by the using group.

70. A method as claimed in claim 65, wherein the charges are based at least in part on the payments allocated based on an inheritance chain of the corresponding application.

71. A method as claimed in claim 65 wherein at least some of the charges are paid by a parent group of the using group.

72. A method as claimed in claim 65 wherein the charges are allocated to the using group periodically.

101. A computer program product configured to be operable to perform the method of claim 65.

102. A cloud computing apparatus, including:

a plurality of primary memory stores;

a plurality of secondary memory stores;

a plurality of processors, each connected to a primary memory store and to at least some of the plurality of secondary memory stores;

wherein the processors are configured to provide a virtual computing platform, and

wherein the virtual computing platform is configured to execute the computer program product of claim 101.

26. A cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of groups and plurality of users, wherein each user owns at least one group, wherein at least some of the users are members of multiple groups, wherein each group assigns each member at least one role selected from a plurality of roles, wherein the roles form at least one hierarchy within the group, and wherein each member represents a subset of information of its corresponding user.

27. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 26 wherein each group is an encapsulating data structure of a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of core data structures each configured to define basic attributes that elements of the system contain;

an indexing data structure inherited from one of the core data structures configured to index any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure; and

an encapsulating data structure inherited from the indexing data structure and configured to encapsulate any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure;

wherein each core data structure is encapsulated within one encapsulating data structure and includes a reference to its encapsulating data structure.

28. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 26 wherein a new group is created by a member of one of the plurality of groups.

29. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 26 wherein the plurality of groups form a hierarchy.

30. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 29 wherein at least some new groups are created by a member of an existing group of the plurality of groups.

31. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 30 wherein the at least some new groups are children of said existing group in the hierarchy.

32. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 26 wherein at least some roles within a group are associated with one or more invitation mechanisms.

33. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 32 wherein the invitation mechanism includes criteria for users for joining the role within the group.

34. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 33 wherein the criteria includes one or more selected from the set of a fixed state, a specific role within another group, a set of achievements, or a reputation threshold.

35. A cloud computing operating system as claimed claim 26 wherein not every group is owned by a user.

36. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 26 wherein each role determines the level of access for members to resources owned by the group.

37. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 36 wherein the level of access includes any combination selected from the set of read, write, update, delete, and non-access.

38. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 36 wherein the resources include structures of the cloud computing operating system.

39. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 38 wherein the resources are encapsulated within an encapsulating data structure, and the encapsulating data structure defines the level of access for each type of role to each encapsulated resource.

40. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 38 wherein the structures include core structures, process structures, and inherited modules.

41. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 36 wherein the resources include web-based applications and data stores.

42. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 41 wherein the web-based applications are implemented using the structures of the cloud computing operating system.

43. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 26 wherein at least one of the plurality of groups provides access for at least one of its plurality of members to at least one application instance.

44. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 43 wherein the at least one application instance is derived from one of the plurality of core data structures of a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of core data structures each configured to define basic attributes that elements of the system contain;

an indexing data structure inherited from one of the core data structures configured to index any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure; and

an encapsulating data structure inherited from the indexing data structure and configured to encapsulate any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure;

wherein each core data structure is encapsulated within one encapsulating data structure and includes a reference to its encapsulating data structure.

45. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 43 wherein the at least one application instance is an instantiation of one of the plurality of code encapsulating data structures of a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of code encapsulating data structures each configured to define executable code and to define the structure of one or more encapsulating data structures;

wherein said executable code is configured to instantiate the one or more encapsulating data structures and to perform runtime operations on the one or more encapsulating data structures, said plurality of code encapsulating data structures form an inheritance hierarchy, each code encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure itself and each encapsulating data structure is instantiated by an associated code encapsulating data structure.

46. A cloud computing operating system including:

an interface module configured to provide access to modules of the cloud computing operating system by parsing requests using polymorphic matching, wherein the requests are made using an internet protocol.

47. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 46 wherein the internet protocol is HTTP.

48. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 46 wherein said modules communicate with one another through the interface defined in a cloud computing operating system including:

an interface configured to parse a received uniform resource identifier (URI) and associated operation to extract a structured representation mapping to an inheritance hierarchy related to the identified resource.

49. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 46 wherein said modules are the executable code of a plurality of code encapsulating data structures including:

a plurality of code encapsulating data structures each configured to define executable code and to define the structure of one or more encapsulating data structures;

wherein said executable code is configured to instantiate the one or more encapsulating data structures and to perform runtime operations on the one or more encapsulating data structures, said plurality of code encapsulating data structures form an inheritance hierarchy, each code encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure itself and each encapsulating data structure is instantiated by an associated code encapsulating data structure.

50. A cloud computing operating system including:

an interface configured to parse a received uniform resource identifier (URI) and associated operation to extract a structured representation mapping to an inheritance hierarchy related to the identified resource.

51. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 50 wherein the interface is configured to generate a plurality of possible representations from the inheritance hierarchy using the structured representation.

52. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 51 wherein the interface is further configured to authorise the URI request in accordance with a method of authorising a uniform resource identifier (URI) request, including authorising the request when a role of a user associated with the request matches an authorisation level mapped to the role and that authorisation level is mapped to an URI pattern which matches the URI request;

wherein roles are mapped to authorisation levels within an encapsulating data structure and authorisation levels are mapped to URI patterns, and wherein the match is defined by the URI pattern matching any one of the plurality of possible representations.

53. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 50 wherein the interface is further configured to identify manifestations of representations from the plurality of possible representations.

54. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 53 wherein the representations are manifested by the existence of executable code corresponding to the representation.

55. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 54 wherein the interface is further configured to execute the code on the resource.

56. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 55 wherein said code is executed on the resource in accordance with the received operation.

57. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 53 wherein the manifestation of the representation is associated with an achievement generating module.

58. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 50 wherein the interface is further configured to receive an identifier associated with the URI.

59. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 58 wherein said identifier identifies a member of a group of the plurality of groups of a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of groups and plurality of users, wherein each user owns at least one group, wherein at least some of the users are members of multiple groups, wherein each group assigns each member at least one role selected from a plurality of roles, wherein the roles form at least one hierarchy within the group, and wherein each member represents a subset of information of its corresponding user.

60. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 59 wherein the achievement generation module is configured to record or observe progress towards an achievement and to generate an achievement related to the resource for said member when a defined threshold is met.

61. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 50 wherein an achievement generating module is associated with the identified resource.

105. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 50, wherein the identified resource is an instance of a core data structure, or element inherited from a core structure, from a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of core data structures each configured to define basic attributes that elements of the system contain;

an indexing data structure inherited from one of the core data structures configured to index any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure; and

an encapsulating data structure inherited from the indexing data structure and configured to encapsulate any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure;

wherein each core data structure is encapsulated within one encapsulating data structure and includes a reference to its encapsulating data structure.

106. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 105, wherein the core data structure, or element inherited from a core data structure, is associated with a type name that identifies said core data structure or element and its position in an inheritance chain.

107. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 106, wherein said structured representation mapping to an inheritance hierarchy related to the identified resource represents an execution sequence in correspondence to the inheritance chain of the identified core data structure or the element inherited from a core data structure.

108. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 107, wherein execution of code existing in relation to each of said manifestations occurs according to the sequence identified from the inheritance chain, wherein the execution sequence starts with code existing at the identified manifestation associated with the core data structure, or element, whose position in the inheritance chain is the furthest from the core data structure, or element, and ends with code existing at the manifestation associated with the core data structure, or element, at the root of the inheritance chain.

109. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 50, wherein at least one said URI specifies a collection of resources associated with the identified resource.

110. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 109, wherein the said collection is identified by said type name within the URI.

111. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 109, wherein said execution sequence is derived from both the identified resource and the specified collection.

62. A cloud computing operating system, including:

an interface module configured to provide access to modules to users of the cloud computing operating system by parsing user requests using polymorphic matching, wherein said matching uses patterns assigned to roles.

63. A cloud computing operating system as claimed in claim 62 wherein each module is one of the encapsulating data structures of a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of code encapsulating data structures each configured to define executable code and to define the structure of one or more encapsulating data structures;

wherein said executable code is configured to instantiate the one or more encapsulating data structures and to perform runtime operations on the one or more encapsulating data structures, said plurality of code encapsulating data structures form an inheritance hierarchy, each code encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure itself and each encapsulating data structure is instantiated by an associated code encapsulating data structure.

64. A cloud computing operating system configured to provide development of applications and deployment of said applications within the same environment, wherein each application includes multiple versions and a new version of an application is deployed by locking that version of the application from further development.

82. A method for providing access to applications through a plurality of marketplaces within a cloud computing operating system, including each marketplace providing access to one or more applications;

wherein each marketplace defines its own marketplace fees and wherein at least some of the applications are available from within more than one marketplace.

83. A method as claimed in claim 82 wherein each application is one of the plurality of code encapsulating data structures of a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of code encapsulating data structures each configured to define executable code and to define the structure of one or more encapsulating data structures;

wherein said executable code is configured to instantiate the one or more encapsulating data structures and to perform runtime operations on the one or more encapsulating data structures, said plurality of code encapsulating data structures form an inheritance hierarchy, each code encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure itself and each encapsulating data structure is instantiated by an associated code encapsulating data structure.

84. A method as claimed in claim 82 wherein each marketplace is owned by a group.

85. A method as claimed in claim 84 wherein said marketplace fees are allocated to the owning group.

86. A method as claimed in claim 84 wherein each group is one of the plurality of groups of a cloud computing operating system.

87. A method as claimed in claim 82 further including:

a group purchasing an application from one of the marketplaces, instantiating said application as an application instance; and

providing access to the application instance to the group.

88. A method as claimed in claim 87 wherein the group is one of the plurality of groups of the cloud computing operating system.

89. A method as claimed in claim 88 further including:

following purchase of the application, allocating charges for the purchase to the purchasing group based on an inheritance chain of the corresponding application.

90. A method as claimed in claim 82 wherein at least some applications are charged at zero fees.

91. A method as claimed in claim 82 wherein each application is owned by a group.

92. A method as claimed in claim 91 wherein at least some of the applications are made available in the marketplace at the discretion of the owning group.

93. A method as claimed in claim 91 wherein the price is set by the owning group for each application.

94. A method as claimed in claim 91 wherein each owning group is one of the plurality of groups of a cloud computing operating system.

95. A method of authorising a uniform resource identifier (URI) request, including authorising the request when a role of a user associated with the request matches an authorisation level mapped to the role and that authorisation level is mapped to an URI pattern which matches the URI request;

wherein roles are mapped to authorisation levels within an encapsulating data structure and authorisation levels are mapped to URI patterns.

96. A method as claimed in claim 95 wherein each role is a role within one of the plurality of groups of a cloud computing operating system.

97. A method as claimed in claim 95 wherein the encapsulating data structure is an encapsulating data structure of a cloud computing operating system including:

a plurality of core data structures each configured to define basic attributes that elements of the system contain;

an indexing data structure inherited from one of the core data structures configured to index any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure; and

an encapsulating data structure inherited from the indexing data structure and configured to encapsulate any number of core data structures or elements inherited from a core data structure;

wherein each core data structure is encapsulated within one encapsulating data structure and includes a reference to its encapsulating data structure.

98. A method as claimed in claim 95 wherein the URI pattern is a regex pattern.

99. A method as claimed in claim 98 wherein the URI pattern includes a HTTP request method.

112. (canceled)