Method, system and program product for evaluating a computational processing capacity migration between computer platforms

• US 6,968,324 B1
• Filed: 08/30/1999
• Issued: 11/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ruffin, Michael, Temple, Joseph L. III, Merenda, Ann C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes, John W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): WOO, RICHARD SUKYOON
• Application Number:
  US09/386,057
• Time in Patent Office: 2,276 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/7, 705/11, 705/400, 705/30, 705/34, 705/52, 705/8, 705/10, 705/53, 705/59.4, 705/418, 709/220, 709/223, 709/226
• US Class Current: 705/400
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A method, system and program product for determining a cost differential resulting from a migration of computational workloads between computer platforms is disclosed herein. Information regarding current and planned hardware and software use on the computer platforms and the costs associated therewith is provided and supplemented with model data including historical data and industry averages. A cost and capacity measurement associated with the current and planned use and cost is derived. A required processing capacity migration between platforms is determined for a proposed computational workload migration therebetween and a resultant cost and capacity measurement is calculated for each platform to determine the resultant cost differential.

Claims

1. A program storage device readable by a digital processing apparatus and tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the digital processing apparatus to perform method steps for determining a cost differential resulting from migrating computational processing capacity from a first computer platform to a second computer platform, the method steps comprising:

providing information on usage for said first computer platform and for said second computer platform;

determining, based upon said provided information, a required processing capacity for said first computer platform and said second computer platform;

deriving a cost and capacity measurement for said first computer platform and for said second computer platform;

determining an amount of said required processing capacity to be migrated from said first computer platform and an associated amount of said required processing capacity to be migrated to said second computer platform;

deriving a cost and capacity measurement for said first computer platform after said migration and for said second computer platform after said migration; and

combining said usage information and said determined required processing capacity to produce a first value for the capacity and cost associated with the first computer platform, and a second value for the capacity and cost associated with said second computer platform, as well as a total value for capacity and total cost associated with the aggregate of said first and second computer platform.

2. A program storage device according to claim 1 wherein said provided usage information include current and planned usage for said first computer platform and for said second computer platform.

3. A program storage device according to claim 1 wherein said providing method step further includes the method steps of:

providing any available information on current and planned use of computers and computational workloads for said first computer platform and said second computer platform; and

providing any available information on current and planned cost for said first computer platform and for said second computer platform.

4. A program storage device according to claim 3 wherein said current and planned cost includes costs associated with hardware and software and support required for said first computer platform and for said second computer platform.

5. A program storage device according to claim 3 wherein an available portion of said information on said current and said planned use of computers, computational workloads and cost may be provided and wherein a remaining portion of said information is generated using a data model for said information.

6. A program storage device according to claim 5 wherein said method step of determining said required processing capacity further includes using a processing data model to relate said information on said use of computers and computational workloads on said first computer platform and said second computer platform to respective measures of required processing capacity therefor.

7. A program storage device according to claim 6 wherein said data model includes industry average information on use and cost and said processing data model includes the Transactions Per Minute metric.

8. A program storage device according to claim 6 further including the method steps of:

retaining the provided information and said cost and capacity measurements associated with successive iterations of said method; and

using said retained information and said retained measurements to successively refine the data model and the processing data model.

9. A program storage device according to claim 3 wherein said current and planned cost information further include the cost associated with the availability characteristics of said first computer platform and said second computer platform.

10. A program storage device according to claim 3 wherein said planned information on use of said computers as well as said computational workloads and said planned information on said costs is provided for a period of time to enable an analysis of the time variant cost of a migration of at least one of said computational workloads.

11. A program storage device according to claim 1 wherein said required processing capacity to be migrated from said first computer platform and said associated required processing capacity to be migrated to said second computer platform is associated with the migration of one or more computational workloads from said first computer platform to said second computer platform.

12. A program storage device according to claim 1 further including the method steps of:

calculating a post-migration first value for the processing capacity and cost associated with the first computer platform after said migration and a post-migration second value for the processing capacity and cost associated with said second computer platform after said migration as well as a post-migration total value for the total processing capacity and total cost associated with the aggregate of said first and second computer platforms after said migration.

13. A program storage device according to claim 12 wherein the method step of calculating the post migration values further includes determining a cost savings resulting from the migration of the capacity from the first computer platform and the additional cost resulting from the migration of the associated processing capacity to the second computer platform.

14. A system implemented in a data processing system for determining a cost differential resulting from migrating computational processing capacity from a first computer platform to a second computer platform, the system comprising:

a storage base for providing information on usage for said first computer platform and for said second computer platform;

means for determining, based upon said provided information, a required processing capacity for said first computer platform and said second computer platform;

means for deriving a cost and capacity measurement for said first computer platform and for said second computer platform;

means for determining an amount of said required processing capacity to be migrated from said first computer platform and an associated amount of said required processing capacity to be migrated to said second computer platform;

means for deriving a cost and capacity measurement for said first computer platform after said migration and for said second computer platform after said migration; and

means for combining said information on usage and said determined required processing capacity to produce a first value for the capacity and cost associated with the first computer platform, and a second value for the capacity and cost associated with said second computer platform, as well as a total value for capacity and total cost associated with the aggregate of said first and second computer platforms.