MANAGING CROSS-CLOUD DISTRIBUTED APPLICATION

• US 20190123960A1
• Filed: 10/20/2017
• Published: 04/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: MAIYA BELUR, Gurudutt, SONI, Ankur, GADAGI, Prashant Basavaraj, MADHAVAN, Lakshmikumar
• Granted Patent: US 10,447,536 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0826 for reduction of network costs H04L41/0833 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/142 using statistical or mathematical methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5096 wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• 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 manager of a cross-cloud distributed application manages the application via a cloud-management service. The application is hosted collectively by plural clouds, at least one of which is a public cloud. The service is provided with log-in credentials for the public cloud so that the resources provided by the public cloud to the application can be discovered. The service collects data generate by the clouds, translates the collected data to conform to a unified data model used by the service. The translated data can be aggregated, e.g. over any group of application instances, e.g., to characterize the distributed application as a whole, any component of the distributed application, or any arbitrary collection of application instances. A cost analysis can determine the cost effectiveness of any potential reconfiguration of the distributed application. The distributed application is reconfigured based, at least in part, on the cost analysis.

Claims

1. A multi-cloud management process comprising:

using subscriber credentials to access a first cloud, discovering virtualized resources of the first cloud, the first cloud hosting at least a first distributed-application component of a distributed application, the distributed application having at least a second distributed application component hosted by a second cloud, the second cloud being separate from the first cloud;

using the subscriber credentials to access the first cloud, collecting data from the first and second clouds regarding the distributed application;

converting the collected data into unified cloud-model data at least in part by translating at least some of the data collected from the first cloud so that it conforms to a unified cloud model;

analyzing the unified cloud-model data to generate group statistics for a group of distributed application components, the group including at least a first component hosted by the first cloud and at least a second component hosted by the second cloud; and

modifying a configuration of the distributed application based at least in part on thee group statistics, the modifying including changing an allocation of cloud resources to components of the distributed application.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein the first cloud is a public cloud.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein the virtualized resources include virtual machines.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein the collecting data includes collecting network traffic data of data transfers by the distributed application into and out of the first cloud and the second cloud, the modifying including moving a component of the distributed application between the first and second clouds to reduce inter-cloud data transfers.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein costs are assigned to configurations of the distributed application based on a pricing plan for the first cloud and a cost model for the second cloud, the first cloud being a public cloud and the second cloud being a private cloud.

6. A system comprising non-transitory media encoded with code that, when executed by a processor, implements a process including:

using subscriber credentials to access a first cloud, discovering virtualized resources of the first cloud, the first cloud hosting at least a first distributed-application component of a distributed application, the distributed application having at least a second distributed application component hosted by a second cloud, the second cloud being separate from the first cloud;

using the subscriber credentials to access the first cloud, collecting data from the first and second clouds regarding the distributed application;

converting the collected data into unified cloud-model data at least in part by translating at least some of the data collected from the first cloud so that it conforms to a unified cloud model;

analyzing the unified cloud-model data to generate group statistics for a group of distributed application components, the group including at least a first component hosted by the first cloud and at least a second component hosted by the second cloud; and

modifying a configuration of the distributed application based at least in part on thee group statistics, the modifying including changing an allocation of cloud resources to components of the distributed application.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the first cloud is a public cloud.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the virtualized resources include virtual machines.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein the collecting data includes collecting network traffic data of data transfers by the distributed application into and out of the first cloud and the second cloud, the modifying including moving a component of the distributed application between the first and second clouds to reduce inter-cloud data transfers.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein costs are assigned to configurations of the distributed application based on a pricing plan for the first cloud and a cost model for the second cloud, the first cloud being a public cloud and the second cloud being a private cloud.