POLICY MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONALITY WITHIN A CLOUD SERVICE BROKERAGE PLATFORM

• US 20150156065A1
• Filed: 02/11/2015
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: HCL Technologies Limited
• Original Assignee: Gravitant, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Grandhe, Kishor, Sapuram, Raghunath, Modh, Manish Mahesh
• Application Number:
  US14/619,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20150156065A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• 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 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/562 Brokering proxy services

Abstract

A policy is created for governing a manner in which a cloud service account task is performed. The policy can include one or more policy rules and one or more different types of policy contexts. The one or more policy rules define one or more outcomes of the cloud service account task for different conditions when the policy is applied thereto. The one or more policy contexts specify one or more parameters that define a boundary within which the cloud service account task must be implemented to thereby cause the policy to be applied thereto.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having tangibly embodied thereon and accessible therefrom instructions interpretable by at least one data processing device, the instructions are configured for causing the at least one data processing device to perform a method enabling brokering of cloud services, the method comprising:

instantiating an instance of a policy used for governing a manner in which a cloud service account task is performed, wherein the policy includes a policy rule defining an outcome of the policy for the cloud service account task and a policy context defining a boundary within which the cloud service account task must be implemented to thereby cause the at least one policy rule to be applied to the cloud service account task; and

applying the policy to the cloud service platform task upon implementation thereof in accordance with the policy rule and the policy context.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the policy rule specifies an approval procedure for the cloud service platform task.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 wherein the order approval is performed in accordance with one of a system implemented approval procedure and an externally implemented approval workflow.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the policy rule includes:

a condition specifying a threshold parameter thereof; and

an action to be implemented in response to it being determined that the condition has been met.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein:

the cloud service platform task includes approval of a cloud service order;

the policy rule includes a cloud service order charge condition specifying a threshold charge amount thereof; and

an approval action to be implemented in response to it being determined that the cloud service order charge condition has been met.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5 wherein the approval action includes auto-approval for at least one of a plurality of required approval entities.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6 wherein the approval action includes auto-approval for all of the required approval entities

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein:

the policy context includes a base context defining a boundary of a cloud service solution within which the cloud service platform task is implemented and a user context designating a user responsible for causing the cloud service platform task to be implemented; and

applying the policy to the cloud service platform task upon implementation thereof is only performed when the base context and the user context are met.

9. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system configured to facilitate brokering of cloud services, a request for instantiating an instance of a policy used for governing a manner in which a cloud service platform task is performed,

receiving, by the system configured to facilitate brokering of cloud services, information defining the policy instantiation in response to receiving the request for instantiating the instance of the policy;

receiving, by the system configured to facilitate brokering of cloud services, information defining a policy rule to be after receiving the policy instantiation information, wherein the policy rule defines an outcome of the policy; and

receiving, by the system configured to facilitate brokering of cloud services, information defining a policy context after receiving the policy instantiation information, wherein the policy context defining a boundary within which the cloud service account task must be implemented to thereby cause the at least one policy rule to be applied to the cloud service account task; and

applying, by the system configured to facilitate brokering of cloud services, the policy to the cloud service platform task upon implementation thereof after receiving the information defining the policy instantiation, the information defining the policy rule, and the information defining the policy context.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the policy rule specifies an approval procedure for the cloud service platform task.

11. The non method of claim 9 wherein the policy rule includes:

a condition specifying a threshold parameter thereof; and

an action to be implemented in response to it being determined that the condition has been met.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein:

the cloud service platform task includes approval of a cloud service order;

the policy rule includes a cloud service order charge condition specifying a threshold charge amount thereof; and

an approval action to be implemented in response to it being determined that the cloud service order charge condition has been met.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein:

the policy context includes a base context defining a boundary of a cloud service solution within which the cloud service platform task is implemented and a user context designating a user responsible for causing the cloud service platform task to be implemented; and

applying the policy to the cloud service platform task upon implementation thereof is only performed when the base context and the user context are met.

14. A cloud services brokerage system, comprising:

a cloud service order module enabling a cloud service consumer to generate orders for cloud services offered by a cloud service provider; and

a policy manager coupled to the cloud service order module, wherein the policy manager enables instantiation of a policy used for governing order approval for at least one of said cloud service orders, wherein the policy includes at least one policy rule defining an outcome of the policy for the at least one of said cloud service orders and a policy context specifying one or more parameters that define a boundary within which the cloud service account task must be implemented to thereby causes the at least one policy rule to be executed for the cloud service account task.

16. The cloud services brokerage system of claim 14 wherein:

the policy rule includes a cloud service order charge condition specifying a threshold charge amount thereof; and

an approval action to be implemented in response to it being determined that the cloud service order charge condition has been met.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the approval action includes auto-approval for at least one of a plurality of required approval entities.

18. The cloud services brokerage system of claim 14 wherein:

the policy context includes a base context defining a boundary of a cloud service solution within which the order approval is implemented and a user context designating a user responsible for causing the order approval to be implemented; and

applying the policy to the order approval upon implementation thereof is only performed when the base context and the user context are met.

19. The cloud services brokerage system of claim 18 wherein:

the policy rule includes a cloud service order charge condition specifying a threshold charge amount thereof; and

an approval action to be implemented in response to it being determined that the cloud service order charge condition has been met.

20. The cloud services brokerage system of claim 19 wherein the order approval is performed in accordance with a system implemented approval procedure.

15. The cloud services brokerage system of claim 15 wherein the order approval is performed in accordance with one of a system implemented approval procedure and an externally implemented approval workflow.