OVERAGE FRAMEWORK FOR CLOUD SERVICES

• US 20140075016A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Chatterjee, Ramkrishna, Arun, Gopalan, Vasudevan, Ramesh, Singh, Ajay Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 9,203,866 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/122 using management policies backup systems G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2308 Concurrency control transaction processing G06F9/466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0686 Additional information in the notification, e.g. enhancement of specific meta-data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/50 Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5041 characterised by the time relationship between creation and deployment of a service
• 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 41/5064 Customer relationship management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 : Admission control; Resource allocation
• 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

Abstract

Provisioning, managing and tracking of services provided by a cloud infrastructure system are described. A subscription request from a customer for one or more services provided by the cloud infrastructure system is received. Resources for the requested services are then provisioned. Resource usage information for the resources is collected and an overuse of the resources provisioned to the services in the subscription request, by a customer is determined. The overage information is provided to the customer.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing, by a cloud infrastructure system, subscription order information related to one or more services subscribed to by a customer, the service selected from one or more services provided by the cloud infrastructure system, the cloud infrastructure system comprising one or more computing devices;

determining, by a computing device from the one or more computing devices, resource usage information for one or more resources associated with the one or more services;

computing, by the computing device, based upon the resource usage information and based upon the subscription order information, an overage for the one or more resources for an overage period; and

providing, by the computing device, the overage of the one or more resources to a customer utilizing the one or more services in the cloud infrastructure system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource usage information is determined based on collecting resource usage statistics related to the one or more resources associated with the one or more services.

3. The method of claim 2 comprising determining an aggregated resource usage for the overage period, wherein a resource specific aggregation operator is applied to the collected resource usage statistics to determine the aggregated resource usage for the overage period.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein computing the overage comprises determining a resource usage limit and an overage band of the one or more resources assigned to the one or more services for the overage period.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein computing the overage is based on the resource usage information, the resource usage limit and the overage band associated with the one or more resources assigned to the one or more services for the overage period.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein computing the overage comprises computing a number of overage units, a price per overage unit and a total overage cost for the one or more resources assigned to the one or more services, for the overage period.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein providing the overage of the one or more resources to a customer comprises notifying the customer of the number of overage units and the total overage cost of one or more resources assigned to each of the services.

8. A system comprising:

one or more computing devices configurable to provide one or more services;

a memory configurable to store subscription order information identifying a service from the set of services; and

wherein a computing device from the one or more computing devices is configurable to;

determine resource usage information for one or more resources associated with the service;

compute, based upon the resource usage information and based upon the subscription order information, an overage for the one or more resources for an overage period; and

provide, by the computing device, the overage of the one or more resources to a customer utilizing the service in the system.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the resource usage information is determined based on collecting resource usage statistics related to the one or more resources associated with the one or more services.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the computing device is configurable to determine an aggregated resource usage for the overage period, wherein a resource specific aggregation operator is applied to the collected resource usage statistics to determine the aggregated resource usage for the overage period.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the computing device is configurable to compute the overage by determining a resource usage limit and an overage band of the one or more resources assigned to the service.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the computing device is configurable to compute the overage by computing a number of overage units, a price per overage unit and a total overage cost for the one or more resources assigned to the service, for the overage period.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the number of overage units and the total overage cost is computed for a specific service level and a specific customer level associated with the one or more resources.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the total overage cost for the one or more resources is computed for different overage periods in a billing cycle and the total overage cost for the billing cycle is sum of the total overage costs for the different overage periods in the billing cycle.

15. A computer-readable memory storing a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors, the plurality of instructions comprising:

instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more processors to store subscription order information to identify a service from the set of services;

instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more processors to determine resource usage information for one or more resources associated with the service;

instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more processors to compute based upon the resource usage information and based upon the subscription order information, an overage for the one or more resources for an overage period; and

instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more processors to provide the overage of the one or more resources to a customer utilizing the service.

16. The computer-readable memory of claim 15 wherein the instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more processors to determine resource usage information comprise instructions to determine an aggregated resource usage for the one or more resources for the overage period.

17. The computer-readable memory of claim 15 wherein the instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more processors to compute the overage comprise instructions to determine a resource usage limit and an overage band of the one or more resources assigned to the service.

18. The computer-readable memory of claim 15 wherein the instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more processors to compute the overage comprise instructions to determine a resource usage limit and an overage band of the one or more resources assigned to the service.

19. The computer-readable memory of claim 18 wherein the instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more processors to compute the overage comprise instructions to compute a number of overage units, a price per overage unit and a total overage cost for the one or more resources assigned to the service, for the overage period.

20. The computer-readable memory of claim 19 wherein the instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more processors to compute the total overage cost for the one or more resources comprises computing the total overage cost for different overage periods in a billing cycle.