Apparatus, system, and method for managing quality-of-service-assured e-business service systems

• US 6,857,020 B1
• Filed: 11/20/2000
• Issued: 02/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chaar, Jarir Kamel, Chang, Rong Nickle
• Primary Examiner(s): EL HADY, NABIL M
• Application Number:
  US09/716,862
• Time in Patent Office: 1,548 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-310, 718/104
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

One or more SLA-specified service-level monitors and/or one or more provider-owned service-level management monitors are used by the invention to monitor one or more quality measures of one or more QoS-assured service systems and to generate one or more service-level monitoring events when the monitored system does not conform to the respective quality measures. The invention includes a cross-SLA event manager that receives the monitoring events and determines which one or more SLA contracts are affected by the events. Then one or more SLA management objects (SMOs) track the SLA-specific events generated by the event manager according to each of the respective SLA contracts. The SMOs also determine how to allocate/deallocate/configure SLA management resources and/or to determine the effect of these changes on the service system operation to assure the contracted quality of service. A cross-SLA resource manager handles the SMOs'"'"' resource allocation requests and optimizes the allocation of available resources per the service provider'"'"'s SLA management objectives. Finally, a SMO manager manages the execution of SMOs and facilitates the integration and management of service system testing-time and production-time activities.

Claims

1. An e-business service level agreement (SLA) contract management system for managing the operations of QoS-assured e-business service system comprising:

one or more service-level monitors that monitor a quality measure of one or more monitored systems and generate one or more events when the monitored system does not conform or might soon not conform to the respective quality measure;

a cross SLA event manager that receives the events and determines which of a plurality of service (SLA) contracts are affected by the events, the SLA contracts governing the use of one or more of the monitored systems; and

one or more SLA management object (SMO) for each SLA contract that tracks the events according to its respective SLA contracts, and

a cross-SLA resource manager that determines, based at least in part on a financial impact assessment, how to provide one or more service management resources to meet resource requests from more than one SMO.

2. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the SMO determines and executes service management actions for every service-level management event received for its respective SLA contract.

3. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 2, where the service management actions include any one or more of the following:

installation of a new server, installing computer software, reconfiguring one or more quality measures, notifying a service personnel, and remove a service from the monitored system.

4. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the SMO determines additional required resources for its respective SLA contract.

5. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 4, where the additional required resources are determined by the provider.

6. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 4, where the additional required resource are determined by the SLA contract.

7. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the SMO maps the events to actions for its respective SLA contract.

8. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the quality measures are changed according to data accessed by the SMO.

9. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the quality measures change according to one of a planned schedule and a demand.

10. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the events include a SLA specified event.

11. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 10, where the SLA specified events include any one or more of the following:

monitored system available, monitored system transaction response time, monitored system service time, monitored system problem resolution response time, network connection bandwidth, and capacity on demand latency.

12. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the events are a provider determined service level management monitoring events.

13. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the service level management monitoring events include any one or more of the following:

monitored system availability, monitored system transaction response time, monitored system service time, monitored system problem resolution response time, network connection bandwidth, capacity on demand latency, a monitored system trend of one or more of the quality measures.

14. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the quality measure includes any one or more of the following:

monitored system available, monitored system transaction response time, monitored system service time, monitored system problem resolution response time, network connection bandwidth, capacity on demand latency, a monitored system trend of one or more of the quality measures.

15. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the service management resources include any one or more of the following:

one or more service personnel, one or more computing resources, one or more computer programs, and one or more computer hardware components.

16. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, where the financial impact assessment comprises one of a business assessment value of each resource allocation request calculated by one or more SMOs, and a business assessment value of each resource allocation request calculated by the cross-SLA resource manager.

17. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 1, further comprising an SMO manager that manages the life cycle of one or more of the SMOs.

18. A SLA contract management system, as in claim 17, where the SMO management includes any one or more of the following:

initialization of SMO, linking SMOs to one or more other system components, deleting SMOs, creating SMOs, modifying SMOs, and integrating and managing service system acceptance-testing-time and the production-time activities of the SMOs.

19. A service level agreement SLA contract management method comprising the steps of:

monitoring a quality measure of one or more monitored systems and generating one or more events when the monitored system does not conform or might soon not conform to the respective quality measure;

receiving the events and determines which of a plurality of service (SLA) contracts are affected by the events, the SLA contracts governing the use of one or more of the monitored systems;

tracking the events according to each of the respective SLA contracts; and

basing an allocation of resources in response to a plurality of resource requests at least in part on a financial impact assessment of said allocation.

20. A computer program product having a computer-readable media and a program executable to perform the steps of:

monitoring a quality measure of one or more monitored systems and generating one or more events when the monitored system does not conform or might soon not conform to the respective quality measure;

receiving the events and determining which of a plurality of level agreement service (SLA) contracts are affected by the events, the SLA contracts governing the use of one or more of the monitored systems; and

tracking the events according to each of the respective SLA contracts; and

allocating resources in response to a plurality of resource requests based at least in part on a financial impact assessment of said allocating.

21. An e-business service level agreement (SLA) contract management system for managing the operations of QoS-assured e-business service systems comprising:

means for monitoring a quality measure of one or more monitored systems and generating one or more events when the monitored system does not conform or might soon not conform to the respective quality measure;

means for receiving the events and determining which of a plurality of service (SLA) contracts are affected by the events, the SLA contracts governing the use of one or more of the monitored systems; and

means for tracking the events according to each of the respective SLA contracts; and

means for allocating resources in response to multiple resource requests based on a financial assessment of the allocating.