Data center scheduler

• US 7,860,973 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2008
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gauthier, David, Stewart, Tina, Hamilton, James R, Warncke, Heather E
• Primary Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US12/163,161
• Publication Number:
  US 20090327493A1
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/217, 709/223, 709/227, 709/231, 709/232, 709/234, 709/235, 709/236, 709/203, 709/224, 709/226, 709/220
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0273 using web services for network management, e.g. simple object access protocol [SOAP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5006 Creating or negotiating SLA contracts, guarantees or penalties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

An exemplary data stream includes value information for use by consumers of global computing resources in making requests for global computing resources. An exemplary method includes receiving information about data center resources from one or more data centers, based at least in part on the information estimating value information for consumption of computing resources of the one or more data centers and streaming the value information via a network. An exemplary medium or media includes instructions to instruct a computing device to receive, from a data stream, value information for computing resources of one or more data centers, to format the value information for display and to issue requests for consumption of at least some of the computing resources. Other methods, devices and systems are also disclosed.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable storage devices having instructions stored thereon, that when executed by a processor of a computing device, perform operations comprising:

streaming, via an Internet, streamed information advertizing global computing resources accessible via the Internet, the streamed information comprising past, present and/or future value information for use by consumers of global computing resources in making requests for global computing resources, the streamed information being modified based at least in part on at least one of the requests made for at least one of the global computing resources;

acquiring Internet Location Coordinate (ILC) information regarding a requestor of a request and at least one provider of global computing resources associated with the request;

determining a best provider from the at least one provider based on the ILC information; and

provisioning global computing resources associated with the request for the requestor from the best provider.

2. The one or more computer-readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the consumers comprise automatically or manually operated computing devices of managers of web-based services or web-based applications accessible via the Internet and the streamed information includes an availability and a quantity of the global computing resources.

3. The one or more computer-readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the computing device comprises an algorithm to estimate value information based at least in part on data acquired from at least one source of the global computing resources, the value information including pricing information.

4. The one or more computer-readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the streamed information further comprises memory information and CPU information about the global computing resources.

5. The one or more computer-readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the streamed information further comprises geographic information about the global computing resources.

6. The one or more computer-readable storage devices of claim 1 wherein the streamed information further comprises network bandwidth information about the global computing resources.

7. A method, implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving information about data center resources from one or more data centers;

estimating value information for consumption of computing resources of the one or more data centers;

streaming streamed information, via a network, advertizing the computing resources to consumers of computing resources, the streamed information including the value information, the streamed information being modified based at least in part on consumption of at least some of the computing resources;

acquiring Internet Location Coordinate (ILC) information regarding a consumer and the one or more data centers;

determining a best of the one or more data centers to provide a computing resource to the consumer based at least in part on the ILC information.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the estimating comprises estimating relative pricing for consumption of the computing resources.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising receiving subscriptions from potential consumers of the computing resources.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the streaming streams the value information to potential consumers of the computing resources.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the potential consumers comprise subscribers to a data streaming service that performs the streaming.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the computing resources comprise memory and CPU resources.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein the computing resources comprise bandwidth resources.

14. One or more computer-readable devices comprising computer-executable instructions to perform the method of claim 7.

15. One or more computer-readable devices comprising computer-executable instructions to instruct a computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving streaming data stream information comprising past, present and future value information advertizing computing resources of one or more data centers;

formatting the value information for display;

issuing requests for consumption of at least some of the computing resources, the data stream information being modified based at least in part on requests for consumption of computing resources of the one or more data centers;

benchmarking value of computing resources using the past value information;

provisioning computing resources in real time or near-real time using the present value information; and

provisioning computing resources to meet future resource needs using the future value information.

16. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 15 wherein the receiving comprises logging in to a data streaming service that provides the data stream information.

17. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 16 wherein the data streaming service provides the data stream information via the Internet.

18. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 15, the operations further comprising receiving confirmations for issued requests.

19. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 15, the operations further comprising accessing an information reservoir that comprises historical price information.

20. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 15 wherein the requests for consumption of the computing resources comprise resources for consumption by a web-based service or web-based application.