Service provisioning via attribute-based subscription

• US 7,464,163 B1
• Filed: 07/27/2000
• Issued: 12/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bantz, David F., Sreenivasan, Sunil K., Teitz, Yosef
• Primary Examiner(s): NEURAUTER, GEORGE C
• Application Number:
  US09/626,430
• Time in Patent Office: 3,057 Days
• Field of Search: 709/238, 709/226, 370/259
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Disclosed is a method, a system and a computer program that is embodied on at least one computer readable medium for service provisioning a customer with at least one software application from a service provider. In the case of the computer program embodiment there is provided first executable code for establishing a set of attributes of the service provision; second executable code, responsive to a user input, for selecting from the set of attributes for defining a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the service provider; third executable code for provisioning the customer, within the constraints imposed by the SLA, by allocating at least some required data processing resources to at least one of the service provider, the customer, to another service provider, or to a data processing site that offers data processing capacity for use; and fourth executable code for transparently re-provisioning the customer, within the constraints imposed by the SLA, by re-allocating at least some required data processing resources between at least one of the service provider, the customer, the another service provider, or the data processing site that offers data processing capacity for use.

Claims

1. A method for service provisioning a customer with at least one software application from a service provider, comprising steps of:

establishing a set of attributes of a service provision;

receiving selections from said set of attributes, the selections defining a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the service provider, wherein the SLA comprises a plurality of constraints;

provisioning a service for at least one client computer of the customer in accordance with constraints imposed by the SLA by allocating at least some required data processing resources for the service to at least one of the service provider, the customer, to another service provider, or to a data processing site that offers data processing capacity for use; and

re-provisioning the customer, within the constraints imposed by the SLA, by re-allocating at least some of the required data processing resources for the service to the resources of the customer.

2. A method as in claim 1, and wherein the step of re-provisioning the customer is accomplished in response to a change in the SLA.

3. A method as in claim 1, and wherein the step of re-provisioning the customer is accomplished in response to at least one customer service-related criterion.

4. A method as in claim 1, and wherein the step of re-provisioning the customer is accomplished in response to at least one service provider criterion.

5. A method as in claim 1, wherein said attributes comprise a cost attribute.

6. A method as in claim 1, wherein said attributes comprise an interactivity attribute.

7. A method as in claim 1, wherein said attributes comprise an availability attribute.

8. A method as in claim 1, wherein the service provider is a virtual service provider.

9. A method as in claim 1, wherein the service provider is a value-added services provider.

10. A method as in claim 1, and wherein the step of re-provisioning the customer is accomplished in response to a change in at least one of data processing resource utilization, a change in predicted or actual data processing resource availability, or a failure of a data processing resource.

11. A method as in claim 1, and further comprising a step of re-provisioning the customer, within the constraints imposed by the SLA, in response to a change in predicted or actual data processing resource availability.

12. A method as in claim 1, and further comprising a step of re-provisioning the customer, within the constraints imposed by the SLA, in response to a failure of a data processing resource.

13. A data processing system for service provisioning a customer with at least one software application from a service provider, said service provider and said customer being coupled together through a communication network, said system comprising:

a system management server for establishing a set of attributes of a service provision; and

a customer interface for selecting from said set of attributes for defining a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the service provider,

said system management server being responsive to said SLA for provisioning at least one client computer of the customer in accordance with constraints imposed by the SLA by allocating at least some required data processing resources for a service to at least one of the service provider, the customer, to another service provider, or to a data processing site that offers data processing capacity for use; and

re-provisioning the customer, within the constraints imposed by the SLA, by re-allocating at least some of the required data processing resources for the service to the resources of the customer.

14. A system as in claim 13, wherein said attributes comprise at least one of a cost attribute, an interactivity attribute, and an availability attribute.

15. A system as in claim 13, wherein the customer is re-provisioned in response to a change in at least one of data processing resource utilization, a change in predicted or actual data processing resource availability, or a failure of a data processing resource.

16. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for service provisioning a customer with at least one software application from a service provider, said program comprising:

first executable code for establishing a set of attributes of a service provision;

second executable code for providing the set of attributes to a customer through a graphical user interface and for receiving selections from said set of attributes entered using the graphical user interface, the selections defining a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the service provider, wherein the SLA comprises a plurality of constraints;

third executable code for provisioning the customer, within the constraints imposed by the SLA, by allocating at least some required data processing resources for a service to at least one of the service provider, the customer, to another service provider, or to a data processing site that offers data processing capacity for use; and

fourth executable code for re-provisioning the customer, within the constraints imposed by the SLA, by re-allocating at least some required data processing resources for the service to the resources of the customer.