Hardware/software management, purchasing and optimization system

• US 6,938,027 B1
• Filed: 08/31/2000
• Issued: 08/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Isogon Corp. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Kassan, Peter, Barritz, Robert, Hellberg, Per
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatri, Anil
• Assistant Examiner(s): Holmes, Michael B.
• Application Number:
  US09/652,466
• Time in Patent Office: 1,825 Days
• Field of Search: 706/50, 709/223
• US Class Current: 706/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

The invention provides for tracking and day-to-day management of computer data centers. A knowledge base comprises technical and financial specifications of various storage devices and other computer hardware as provided. A modeling tool allows for the creation of various “What-If” scenarios of possible data center configurations for long term projections of the technical and financial requirements. The management and day-to-day tracking system receives information from an auditing tool that inventories the software products that are stored on the data center.

Claims

1. A method for assessing the financial cost of ownership of a configuration of at least one computer data center defined by a plurality of elements, through the use of systematic, computer assisted procedures, the method comprising the steps of:

a) modeling elements of a data center configuration on a computer by identifying to the computer the elements of a given configuration, said step being carried out at least in part by an auditing tool which identifies at least a portion of the elements of the configuration in a substantially automatic manner;

b) providing in a knowledge base financial information which reflects financial ownership costs of a plurality of the elements;

c) correlating information stored in the knowledge base with elements of the configuration;

d) outputting at least a portion of the configuration and at least a portion of the associated information to a user; and

e) including performing the modeling step and the correlating step by means of a substantially automatic software controlled process and said correlating step including calculating the financial ownership costs over selected time periods.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the configuration includes information defining at least one data center location, at least one system within the location, at least one device group within the system, and at least one device within the device group.

3. The method of claim 1, further including altering at least one of a plurality of hardware elements of configuration and substantially automatically recorrelating the altered configuration with information stored in the knowledge base and generating a revised output reflecting the changes to the configuration.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the modeling step includes modeling one or more software products associated with at least some of hardware elements and the knowledge base includes financial information reflecting the ownership costs of the software products and the outputting step includes displaying of financial information reflecting the cost of using the software products in conjunction with a selected hardware configuration.

5. The method of claim 1, including storing in the knowledge base, for at least a plurality of software products, financial information which reflects ownership costs of the software products related to hardware elements with which the software products are used.

6. The method of claim 1, including the step of providing in the knowledge base pre-stored lists of hardware elements and enabling a user to select hardware elements for inclusion in the modeling of said data center configuration.

7. The method of claim 1, including the step of providing in the knowledge base pre-stored lists of software products and enabling the user to select software products for inclusion in the modeling of said data center configuration.

8. The method of claim 1, including calculating the present value of the financial ownership costs modeled over selected time periods and time intervals contained therein.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said financial ownership costs includes the costs of electrical usage by hardware elements of said at least one computer data center.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said financial ownership costs includes space costs used by hardware components of said at least one computer data center.

11. The method of claim 5, including calculating ownership costs of the software products based on CPU model groups on which the software products are intended to be used.

12. The method of claim 5, including calculating ownership costs of the software products based on MIPS ratings of CPU hardware elements with which the software products are intended to be used.

13. The method of claim 2, including preparing a respective configuration for a plurality of devices within the location and including moving at least one device from one data center configuration to another.

14. The method of claim 2, including enabling the disposition of the device in a manner such that historical records of the device remain stored in the system.

15. The method of claim 2, including enabling calculating the replacement of at least one device within the device group with one or more other devices to show financial and technical ramifications of such replacement without losing original information stored for a given configuration prior to the replacement step.

16. The method of claim 1, in which the elements of the configuration identified by the auditing tool are software products.

17. The method of claim 16, in which the auditing tool performs an inventory of the software products of the data center configuration.

18. The method of claim 16, in which the auditing tool includes a monitoring tool which monitors the execution of software modules and includes a correlating tool which correlates the software modules with software product names.

19. The method of claim 16, in which the auditing tool includes a knowledge base which associates software product module names with software product names.

20. The method of claim 1, in which the auditing tool performs both inventorying and auditing of execution of software products at the data center configuration.

21. The method of claim 16, including providing lists of software products identified by the auditing tool to a user and permitting the user to select from among the identified software products selected software products to be included in the modeled elements of the data center configuration.

22. The method of claim 16, including operating the auditing tool on a periodic basis and dynamically updating the data center configuration on the basis of the periodic operation of the auditing tool.

23. The method of claim 1, including calculating the ownership costs over time intervals contained within said selected time periods.

39. The method of claim 8, including calculating the present value of the financial ownership costs modeled over time intervals contained within said selected time periods.

24. An apparatus for managing at least one of hardware and software elements of at least one computer data center, said apparatus comprising:

a knowledge base that stores information concerning a plurality of the elements;

a configuration storage that stores at least one configuration that defines at least one location, at least one system within the location, at least one device group within the system, and at least one device within the device group;

an auditing tool which identifies at least a portion of the elements of the configuration in a substantially automatic manner by gathering data about the data center;

a correlator that correlates information stored in said knowledge base that is associated with essentially each element of said configuration and stores said associated information in said configuration storage;

a display generator that generates a display comprising at least a portion of said configuration and at least a portion of said associated information; and

further comprising a table generator which generates table information of at least a portion of said associated information for selected ones of said location, system, device group and device of said configuration over a selected time interval;

said table information being delivered to said display generator.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein said associated information stored in said configuration storage includes financial information concerning at least one of the location, system, device group and device of said configuration.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein said associated information stored in said configuration storage includes technical information concerning at least one of the location, system, device group and device of said configuration.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein said associated information stored in said configuration storage includes a summary of financial and technical information of at least one of said location, system, device group and device of said configuration.

28. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein said associated information stored in said configuration storage includes software product information associated with the device of said configuration.

29. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein said associated information stored in said configuration storage includes history information of the device of said configuration.

30. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising a chart generator that generates a chart representing the table information for delivery to said display generator.

31. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising a report generator that generates a report of at least a portion of said configuration and of said associated information over a selected time interval.

32. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising an editor for editing said configuration and said associated information stored in said configuration storage and for editing the information stored in said knowledge base.

33. The apparatus of claim 24, in which the auditing tool includes a monitoring tool which monitors the execution of software modules and includes a correlating tool which correlates the software modules with software product names.

34. The apparatus of claim 24, in which the auditing tool includes a knowledge base which associates software product module names with software product names.

35. The apparatus of claim 24, in which the auditing tool performs both inventorying and auditing of execution of software products at the data center configuration.

36. The apparatus of claim 24, including providing lists of software products identified by the auditing tool to a user and permitting the user to select from among the identified software products selected software products to be included in the modeled elements of the data center configuration.

37. The apparatus of claim 24, including operating the auditing tool on a periodic basis and dynamically updating the data center configuration on the basis of the periodic operation of the auditing tool.

38. The apparatus of claim 31, in which the report generator generates a report for time intervals contained within said selected time periods.

40. The apparatus of claim 30, in which the report generator generates a report of at least a portion of said configuration and of said associated information over time intervals contained within said selected time interval.