SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR HAND-OFFS IN CLOUD ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20130132457A1
• Filed: 11/18/2011
• Published: 05/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Diwakar, Kiran P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,688,768 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A system, method, and computer-readable storage medium for handling hand-offs in a cloud computing environment is provided. The method includes identifying, at a cloud governance module of a server device, a plurality of applications executing on a plurality of servers belonging to a plurality of cloud computing service providers. The method includes determining based upon information in a policy module, to hand-off an execution of at least one identified application executing on a first cloud computing service provider platform to a second cloud computing service provider, determining whether the second cloud computing service provider satisfies one or more governance policies associated with the at least one identified application, and handing-off the execution of the at least one identified application to a second cloud computing provider platform based upon the second cloud computing provider being compliant with the one or more governance policies associated with the at least one identified application.

Claims

1. A method for handling hand-offs in a cloud computing environment, comprising:

identifying, at a cloud governance module of a server device, a plurality of applications executing on a plurality of servers belonging to a plurality of cloud computing service providers;

determining, at the cloud governance module, a plurality of governance policies associated with the identified plurality of applications;

determining, at the cloud governance module, based upon information in a policy module, to hand-off an execution of at least one identified application executing on a first cloud computing service provider platform to a second cloud computing service provider;

determining, at the cloud governance module, whether the second cloud computing service provider satisfies one or more governance policies associated with the at least one identified application; and

handing-off, using the cloud governance module, the execution of the at least one identified application to a second cloud computing provider platform based upon the second cloud computing provider being compliant with the one or more governance policies associated with the at least one identified application, wherein the handing-off comprises transferring a current state associated with the execution of the at least one identified application to the second cloud computing service platform.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of governance policies include policies associated with one or more of:

network security, network protocols, application support, network hardware support, user authentication, operating system requirements, audit compliance, user and cloud computing provider profile management, types of applications supported by the first and the second cloud computing service providers, storage parameters, and network operability.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of governance policies are stored in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file format in the cloud governance module of the computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining to hand-off the execution comprises at least one of:

receiving, at the cloud governance module, a first notification from the first cloud computing service provider of an inability to support executing the at least one identified application at a future instance of time;

receiving, at the cloud governance module, a second notification from a system administrator regarding an availability of a better application support capability and/or cost effectiveness of the second cloud computing service provider; and

receiving, at the cloud governance module, a third notification from a security device in the computing device regarding a security breach detected at the first cloud computing service provider.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the handing-off occurs without a disruption in the execution of the at least one identified application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the second cloud computing provider satisfies one or more governance policies associated with the at least one identified application further comprises:

determining an existence of the one or more policies at the cloud governance module;

updating the one or more existing policies at the cloud governance module; and

creating a new set of policies when the one or more policies are determined to be non-existent.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the second cloud computing provider satisfies one or more governance policies associated with the at least one identified application comprises searching for one or more resources for use by the at least one identified application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the handing-off is carried out in real-time such that the current state of the execution of the at least one identified application is used by the second cloud computing service provider platform continue the execution of the at least one identified application after the handing-off is completed.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein when the at least one identified application is detected to be dormant, the handing-off is carried out using a set of parameters associated with the at least one identified application stored at the computing device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second cloud computing service provider is determined by the cloud governance module to be selected based upon satisfying optimum performance metric conditions required for the execution of the at least one identified application.

11. A tangible computer-readable storage medium having one or more computer-readable instructions thereon for handling hand-offs in a cloud computing environment, which when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:

identify, at a cloud governance module of a server device, a plurality of applications executing on a plurality of servers belonging to a plurality of cloud computing service providers;

determine, at the cloud governance module, a plurality of governance policies associated with the identified plurality of applications;

determine, at the cloud governance module, based upon information in a policy module, to hand-off an execution of at least one identified application executing on a first cloud computing service provider platform to a second cloud computing service provider;

determine, at the cloud governance module, whether the second cloud computing service provider satisfies one or more governance policies associated with the at least one identified application; and

hand-off, using the cloud governance module, the execution of the at least one identified application to a second cloud computing provider platform based upon the second cloud computing provider being compliant with the one or more governance policies associated with the at least one identified application, wherein the hand-off comprises a transfer of a current state associated with the execution of the at least one identified application to the second cloud computing service platform.

12. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the plurality of governance policies include policies associated with one or more of:

network security, network protocols, application support, network hardware support, user authentication, operating system requirements, audit compliance, user and cloud computing provider profile management, types of applications supported by the first and the second cloud computing service providers, storage parameters, and network operability.

13. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the plurality of governance policies are stored in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file format in the cloud governance module of the computing device.

14. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform at least one of:

receiving, at the cloud governance module, a first notification from the first cloud computing service provider of an inability to support executing the at least one identified application at a future instance of time;

receiving, at the cloud governance module, a second notification from a system administrator regarding an availability of a better application support capability and/or cost effectiveness of the second cloud computing service provider; and

receiving, at the cloud governance module, a third notification from a security device in the computing device regarding a security breach detected at the first cloud computing service provider.

15. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the hand-off occurs without a disruption in the execution of the at least one identified application.

16. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

determine an existence of the one or more policies at the cloud governance module;

update the one or more existing policies at the cloud governance module; and

create a new set of policies when the one or more policies are determined to be non-existent.

17. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the one or more processors to search for one or more resources for use by the at least one identified application.

18. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the hand-off is carried out in real-time such that the current state of the execution of the at least one identified application is used by the second cloud computing service provider platform continue the execution of the at least one identified application after the hand-off is completed.

19. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein when the at least one identified application is detected to be dormant, the hand-off is carried out using a set of parameters associated with the at least one identified application stored at the computing device.

20. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the second cloud computing service provider is determined by the cloud governance module to be selected based upon satisfying optimum performance metric conditions required for the execution of the at least one identified application.

21. A system for handling hand-offs in a cloud computing environment, the system comprising:

one or more processors configured to;

identify, at a cloud governance module of a server device, a plurality of applications executing on a plurality of servers belonging to a plurality of cloud computing service providers;

determine, at the cloud governance module, a plurality of governance policies associated with the identified plurality of applications;

determine, at the cloud governance module, based upon information in a policy module, to hand-off an execution of at least one identified application executing on a first cloud computing service provider platform to a second cloud computing service provider;

determine, at the cloud governance module, whether the second cloud computing service provider satisfies one or more governance policies associated with the at least one identified application; and

hand-off, using the cloud governance module, the execution of the at least one identified application to a second cloud computing provider platform based upon the second cloud computing provider being compliant with the one or more governance policies associated with the at least one identified application, wherein the hand-off comprises a transfer of a current state associated with the execution of the at least one identified application to the second cloud computing service platform.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the plurality of governance policies include policies associated with one or more of:

network security, network protocols, application support, network hardware support, user authentication, operating system requirements, audit compliance, user and cloud computing provider profile management, types of applications supported by the first and the second cloud computing service providers, storage parameters, and network operability.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the plurality of governance policies are stored in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file format in the cloud governance module of the computing device.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to perform at least one of:

receiving, at the cloud governance module, a first notification from the first cloud computing service provider of an inability to support executing the at least one identified application at a future instance of time;

receiving, at the cloud governance module, a second notification from a system administrator regarding an availability of a better application support capability and/or cost effectiveness of the second cloud computing service provider; and

receiving, at the cloud governance module, a third notification from a security device in the computing device regarding a security breach detected at the first cloud computing service provider.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the hand-off occurs without a disruption in the execution of the at least one identified application.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

determine an existence of the one or more policies at the cloud governance module;

update the one or more existing policies at the cloud governance module; and

create a new set of policies when the one or more policies are determined to be non-existent.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to search for one or more resources for use by the at least one identified application.

28. The system of claim 21, wherein the hand-off is carried out in real-time such that the current state of the execution of the at least one identified application is used by the second cloud computing service provider platform continue the execution of the at least one identified application after the hand-off is completed.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein when the at least one identified application is detected to be dormant, the hand-off is carried out using a set of parameters associated with the at least one identified application stored at the computing device.

30. The system of claim 21, wherein the second cloud computing service provider is determined by the cloud governance module to be selected based upon satisfying optimum performance metric conditions required for the execution of the at least one identified application.