Data center scheduler

• US 7,984,156 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2010
• Issued: 07/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gauthier, David, Warncke, Heather E., Stewart, Tina, Hamilton, James R
• Primary Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US12/946,593
• Publication Number:
  US 20110066728A1
• Time in Patent Office: 246 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/217, 709/223, 709/227, 709/231, 709/232, 709/246, 709/203, 709/224, 709/225, 709/226, 709/221, 709/239, 709/241, 709/244
• 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. A method comprising:

streaming, via a network, information that advertises global computing resources that are accessible via the network, the streamed information comprising at least one of past, present or future value information for use by consumers that make requests for one or more of the global computing resources;

providing, by a consumer, a request for one or more of the global computing resources;

modifying the streamed information based at least in part on the request;

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

determining at least one optimal provider based on the ILC information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the consumers comprise computing devices of managers of web-based services or web-based applications accessible via the network and the streamed information includes an availability and a quantity of the global computing resources.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising estimating 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 method of claim 1, wherein the streamed information further comprises memory information and CPU information about the global computing resources.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the streamed information further comprises geographic information about the global computing resources.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the streamed information further comprises network bandwidth information about the global computing resources.

7. One or more computer-readable recordable storage media having instructions stored thereon, that when executed by a processor of a computing device, perform operations 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, the value information indicating a value of one or more of the computing resources;

streaming information, via a network, advertising 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; and

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 one or more computer-readable recordable storage media of claim 7, wherein the estimating comprises estimating relative pricing for consumption of the computing resources.

9. The one or more computer-readable recordable storage media of claim 7, further comprising receiving subscriptions from potential consumers of the computing resources.

10. The one or more computer-readable recordable storage media of claim 7, wherein the streaming streams the value information to potential consumers of the computing resources.

11. The one or more computer-readable recordable storage media of claim 10, wherein the potential consumers comprise subscribers to a data streaming service that performs the streaming.

12. The one or more computer-readable recordable storage media of claim 7, wherein the computing resources comprise memory and CPU resources.

13. The one or more computer-readable recordable storage media of claim 7, wherein the computing resources comprise bandwidth resources.