TRANSPORTABLE PRIVATE CLOUD COMPUTING PLATFORM AND ASSOCIATED METHOD OF USE

• US 20130198384A1
• Filed: 01/27/2012
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MicroTechnologies LLC
• Original Assignee: MicroTechnologies LLC
• Inventors: Channing, Roger Joseph, Kirsch, Robert A. II, Guzman, Alfredo Cesar
• Granted Patent: US 9,213,580 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/161 Computing infrastructure, e.g. computer clusters, blade chassis or hardware partitioning casings, cabinets, racks or drawers for data centers H05K5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

The present invention is a transportable private cloud computing platform, having a rack, several servers, a system management server, an interface device, a network switch, a power supply circuit, and a transit case. The present invention also includes a method for initializing the transportable private cloud computing platform, and a method for migrating software applications to the transportable private cloud computing platform.

Claims

1. A transportable private cloud computing platform, comprising:

at least one rack with sufficient storage capacity to hold hardware components necessary to run a private cloud instance;

a plurality of servers mounted on the rack and capable of hosting private cloud operating systems, software applications and data storage, wherein the at least one of the plurality of servers includes a system management server that utilizes system management software for managing the physical resources, the virtual server instances, and the software;

an interface device that allows a system administrator to interact with the private cloud instance and the interface device provides guidance to the system administrator to create and administer a fully configured and operational private cloud that is connected to the plurality of servers;

at least one network switch mounted on the rack; and

a power supply circuit capable of distributing power to the plurality of servers, the interface device and the at least one network switch.

2. The transportable private cloud computing platform in accordance with claim 1, wherein the transportable private cloud computing platform includes a removably attached transit case housing the power supply circuit, the plurality of servers, the interface device and the at least one network switch.

3. The transportable private cloud computing platform in accordance with claim 1, wherein the transportable private cloud computing platform is a stand-alone unit.

4. The transportable private cloud computing platform in accordance with claim 1, wherein the transportable private cloud computing platform has a removably attached mobility mechanism.

5. The transportable private cloud computing platform in accordance with claim 2, wherein the removably attached transit case is a hardened transit case.

6. The transportable private cloud computing platform in accordance with claim 4, wherein the transportable private cloud computing platform is ruggedized.

7. The transportable private cloud computing platform in accordance with claim 2, wherein the removably attached transit case is a resizable container capable of scaling to larger or smaller form factors.

8. The transportable private cloud computing platform in accordance with claim 1, wherein the transportable private cloud computing platform creates and maintains a wireless network.

9. The transportable private cloud computing platform in accordance with claim 1, wherein the transportable private cloud computing platform is connected to a public cloud.

10. The transportable private cloud computing platform in accordance with claim 1, wherein the transportable private cloud computing platform is connected to a community cloud.

11. The transportable private cloud computing platform in accordance with claim 1, wherein the interface device includes at least one of a keyboard, a video display, a mouse (KVM) switch, and a graphical user interface (GUI).

12. A method of initializing a transportable private cloud computing platform, the method comprising:

applying power to a power supply circuit of a transportable private cloud computing platform, which also includes a rack, an interface device, a plurality of servers, at least one cloud computing operating system, and at least one network switch;

activating a graphical user interface on the interface device;

utilizing the interface device to provide queries to the system administrator so that a particular cloud computing operating system may be selected from the at least one cloud computing operating systems;

starting the selected cloud computing operating system that operates as a private cloud;

utilizing the interface device to request required keys from a system administrator;

initiating a cloud operating system virtualizer;

utilizing the interface device to allow a system administrator to enter the IP range of addresses, each of the IP addresses representing one of the plurality of servers, to be integrated into the private cloud;

locating and initializing, if not already initialized, each system administrator-selected server with the selected cloud computing operating system;

incorporating the physical resources of each server of the plurality of servers into the private cloud;

utilizing the interface device to provide queries to the system administrator so that virtual server information is entered; and

creating the virtual servers.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the system administrator authenticates with the transportable private cloud computing platform.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the system administrator is presented with a list of IP addresses, each of the IP addresses representing one of the plurality of servers, to be integrated into the private cloud.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the interface device allows the system administrator to add or remove available transportable private cloud computing platform resources.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the software application migration system is fully automated and does not require human interaction with the interface device.

16. A method of migrating software applications to a transportable private cloud computing platform, the method comprising:

utilizing the interface device to allow a system administrator to invoke a software application migration system;

searching for software applications that are available to be migrated to a private cloud computing platform;

presenting a list of software applications that are available to be migrated to the private cloud computing platform;

selecting an software application from the list of software applications that are available to be migrated to the private cloud computing platform, the selected software application becoming the migrating software application;

resourcing the correct virtual server configuration on the private cloud computing platform to accommodate the migrating software application;

migrating the migrating software application to the private cloud computing platform; and

migrating any software application data of the migrating software application to the private cloud computing platform, wherein the private cloud computing platform is transportable.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the migrating software application, any migrating software application data, and network connectivity are tested before migration is complete.