CALCULATION OF A SOFTWARE USAGE METRIC

• US 20190324878A1
• Filed: 04/20/2018
• Published: 10/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tkaczyk-Walczak, Agnieszka, Fabjanski, Krzysztof, Peszt, Marek
• Granted Patent: US 10,740,205 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A method for calculation of at least one software usage metric is disclosed, the software usage metric describing a plurality of software products installed in a computing infrastructure including a plurality of computing machines organized into a plurality of computing groups. The method includes installing a first set of software products in each computing machine in a first computing group of a plurality of computing groups, scanning one computing machine in the first computing group to discover that the first set of software products are installed thereon; and calculating an overall usage metric for the first computing group based on a number of computing machines belonging to the first computing group and the discovered first set of software products.

Claims

1. A method for calculation of at least one software usage metric, the software usage metric describing a plurality of software products installed in a computing infrastructure comprising a plurality of computing machines organized into a plurality of computing groups, the method comprising:

installing a first set of software products in each computing machine in a first computing group of a plurality of computing groups;

scanning one computing machine in the first computing group to discover that the first set of software products are installed thereon; and

calculating an overall usage metric for the first computing group based on a number of computing machines belonging to the first computing group and the discovered first set of software products.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each computing machine in the first computing group shares a property selected from the group comprising:

a physical location, a logical location, a business unit, a business organization, a processor type, and a hardware characteristic.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a new computing machine to the first computing group, the new computing machine comprising a new set of software products;

scanning the new computing machine to discover that the new set of software products are installed thereon;

comparing the new set of software products and the first set of software products to determine a delta set of software products;

adding the delta set of software products to the one computing machine;

rescanning the one computing machine in the first computing group to discover that the first set of software products and the delta set of software products are installed thereon; and

recalculating an overall usage metric for the first computing group based on a number of computing machines belonging to the first computing group and the discovered first set of software products and delta set of software products.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the scanning the new computing machine, comparing, adding, rescanning and recalculating is performed iteratively for each additional new computing machine that successively joins the first computing group of the computing infrastructure.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the scanning the new computing machine, comparing, adding, rescanning and recalculating is performed iteratively according to a schedule.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the overall usage metric comprises multiplying a license value metric associated with the one scanned computing machine with the number of computing machines belonging to the first computing group, the license value metric being calculated based on the first set of software products.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein before calculating the overall usage metric, the method further comprises:

scanning another computing machine of the first computing group other than the one computing machine for an additional set of software products;

comparing the additional set of software products and the first set of software products to determine a delta set of software products; and

adding at least some of the delta set of software products to the one computing machine.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

adding the at least some of the delta set of software products to each computing machine in the first computing group.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the installing a first set of software products in each computing machine is performed by a prime machine that hosts one or more virtual machine templates and is configured for using one of the hosted virtual machine templates for creating at least some of the computing machines as virtual machines in the computing infrastructure and installing the first set of software products thereon.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each computing machine in the first computing group is created using the same virtual machine template.

11. A computer program product for calculating software usage, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer program instructions embodied therewith, the computer program instructions configured, when executed by at least one computing machine, to cause the at least one computing machine to perform a method comprising:

installing a first set of software products in each computing machine in a first computing group of a plurality of computing groups in a computing infrastructure;

scanning one computing machine in the first computing group to discover that the first set of software products are installed thereon; and

calculating an overall usage metric for the first computing group based on a number of computing machines belonging to the first computing group and the discovered first set of software products.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein each computing machine in the first computing group shares a property selected from the group comprising:

a physical location, a logical location, a business unit, a business organization, a processor type, and a hardware characteristic.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

adding a new computing machine to the first computing group, the new computing machine comprising a new set of software products;

scanning the new computing machine to discover that the new set of software products are installed thereon;

comparing the new set of software products and the first set of software products to determine a delta set of software products;

adding the delta set of software products to the one computing machine;

rescanning the one computing machine in the first computing group to discover that the first set of software products and the delta set of software products are installed thereon; and

recalculating an overall usage metric for the first computing group based on a number of computing machines belonging to the first computing group and the discovered first set of software products and delta set of software products.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the scanning the new computing machine, comparing, adding, rescanning and recalculating is performed iteratively for each additional new computing machine that successively joins the first computing group of the computing infrastructure.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the scanning the new computing machine, comparing, adding, rescanning and recalculating is performed iteratively according to a schedule.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein calculating the overall usage metric comprises multiplying a license value metric associated with the one scanned computing machine with the number of computing machines belonging to the first computing group, the license value metric being calculated based on the first set of software products.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the installing a first set of software products in each computing machine is performed by a prime machine that hosts one or more virtual machine templates and is configured for using one of the hosted virtual machine templates for creating at least some of the computing machines as virtual machines in the computing infrastructure and installing the first set of software products thereon.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein each computing machine in the first computing group is created using the same virtual machine template.

19. A computing infrastructure comprising:

a prime machine including a first virtual machine template with a first set of software products and a second virtual machine template with a second set of software products;

a first computing group comprising a first plurality of virtual machines each including the first set of software products; and

a second computing group comprising a second plurality of virtual machines each including the second set of software products;

wherein the prime machine is configured to calculate a software usage metric for the first computing group based on a number of virtual machines belonging to the first plurality of virtual machines and the first set of software products.

20. The computing infrastructure of claim 19, wherein the prime machine further comprises:

a white list of permitted software products; and

a black list of prohibited software products;

wherein the first set of software products and the second set of software products are included in the white list.