COST EXPLORATION OF DATA SHARING IN THE CLOUD

• US 20140122374A1
• Filed: 05/03/2013
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Laboratories America Inc (NEC Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NEC Laboratories America Inc (NEC Corporation)
• Inventors: Hacigumus, Vahit Hakan, Sankaranarayanan, Jagan, Liu, Ziyang, Al-Kiswany, Samer
• Application Number:
  US13/887,194
• Publication Number:
  US 20140122374A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/400
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

A method to facilitate data sharing for cloud applications includes determining one or more cost levers for a cloud service provider to share data among applications; determining a costing function that considers a resource cost of creating and maintaining the sharing, potential penalties to be paid if a service level agreement (SLA) is breached by the cloud service provider, and overprovisioning of services from the provider; and interactively answering what-if questions on pricing of services to allow a consumer to explore the cost of data sharing from the provider.

Claims

1. A method to facilitate data sharing for cloud applications, comprising

determining one or more cost levers for a cloud service provider to share data among applications;

determining a costing function that considers a resource cost of creating and maintaining the sharing, potential penalties to be paid if a service level agreement (SLA) is breached by the cloud service provider, and overprovisioning of services from the provider; and

interactively answering what-if questions on pricing of services to allow a consumer to explore the cost of data sharing from the provider.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising solving a set of hypothetical questions that may be posed by the consumer or provider to explore sharings based on cost.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising applying a costing function that captures cost but a risk for the provider in entering into the SLA with the consumer.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising applying staleness and accuracy as cost levers.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising providing one or more solutions and progressively refining the solutions until the consumer and provider are satisfied with the cost and price.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising identifying savings for the provider from existing sharings already present in the provider'"'"'s cloud services.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising answering the cost of a sharing configuration or answering available sharing for a predetermined amount of money.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising selecting and presenting a small set of interesting and different configurations for decision.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising identifying an inexpensive configuration sharing by applying commonality from similar configurations.

10. The method of claim 1, comprising determining a dynamic cost of a sharing plan p with staleness s and accuracy a as

11. A data-sharing system, comprising:

one or more servers operated by a service provider for data sharing among one or more cloud applications; and

a processor coupled to the servers, the processor executing computer code for;

determining one or more cost levers for a cloud service provider to share data among applications;

determining a costing function that considers a resource cost of creating and maintaining the sharing, potential penalties to be paid if a service level agreement (SLA) is breached by the cloud service provider, and overprovisioning of services from the provider; and

interactively answering what-if questions on pricing of services to allow a consumer to explore the cost of data sharing from the provider.

12. The system of claim 11, comprising computer code for solving a set of hypothetical questions that may be posed by the consumer or provider to explore sharings based on cost.

13. The system of claim 11, comprising computer code for applying a costing function that captures cost but a risk for the provider in entering into the SLA with the consumer.

14. The system of claim 11, comprising computer code for applying staleness and accuracy as cost levers.

15. The system of claim 11, comprising computer code for providing one or more solutions and progressively refining the solutions until the consumer and provider are satisfied with the cost and price.

16. The system of claim 11, comprising computer code for identifying savings for the provider from existing sharings already present in the provider'"'"'s cloud services.

17. The system of claim 11, comprising computer code for answering the cost of a sharing configuration or answering available sharing for a predetermined amount of money.

18. The system of claim 11, comprising computer code for selecting and presenting a small set of interesting and different configurations for decision.

19. The system of claim 11, comprising computer code for identifying an inexpensive configuration sharing by applying commonality from similar configurations.

20. The system of claim 11, comprising computer code for determining a dynamic cost of a sharing plan p with staleness s and accuracy a as