Recovery segments for computer business applications

• US 8,341,014 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2007
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bobak, Mythili K., Chang, Chun-Shi, McConnell, Tim A., Swanson, Michael D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Nga B.
• Application Number:
  US11/965,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20090171707A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,824 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/7, 705/8, 705/9
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment

Abstract

Recovery Segments are defined and employed to facilitate management of a customer'"'"'s environment. A Recovery Segment is a runtime usable representation of resources and relationships between those resources associated with a business application. That representation is usable in managing the business application. Associated with the representation is one or more goals to be met by resources of the representation.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

creating a runtime usable representation of a business application, said representation including a logical grouping of one or more resources of the business application and one or more relationships associated with one or more resources of the business application, wherein the creating comprises storing information regarding the one or more resources in at least one externally accessible location, the information including at least one of properties of the one or more resources, values of the one or more resources, and operations to be performed that are associated with management of the business application;

associating with the runtime usable representation of the business application an explicit quantifiable goal used to manage the business application; and

managing, by a processor, at run-time, the representation of the business application to achieve the explicit quantifiable goal associated with the runtime usable representation of the business application.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information includes current runtime values for at least one of:

one or more of the properties or one or more of the operations.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein a relationship of the one or more relationships comprises one of a dependency relationship in which one resource is dependent on another, a co-location relationship, an ordering relationship, or an effect relationship.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the quantifiable goal comprises an availability goal indicating one or more availability requirements of one or more resources of the representation.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the availability goal comprises at least one of a recovery time objective that indicates a maximum amount of time the business application can be unavailable during an outage, a recovery point objective that indicates how much data loss can be endured for the business application during an outage, or a maximum accumulated downtime that indicates how much downtime the business application can incur over a period of time.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the creating comprises creating the representation based upon one or more customer provided seed resources.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein one or more resources are automatically recommended to be included in the representation based on one or more relationships associated with one or more other resources of the representation.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the representation further includes another set of information.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the another set of information is unrelated to the set of information.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one resource of the plurality of resources does not have an express relationship with the other resources of the plurality of resources.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the representation is a subset of another representation.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the representation is a superset of another representation.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one resource of the representation is shared with another representation.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one resource of the plurality of resources comprises a processor, storage, network, middleware, an application, or a programmatic representation of a staff action.

25. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the managing comprises:

selecting an operation of one or more operations to manage the runtime usable representation;

selecting an operation timing for the selected operation, wherein the operation timing for the selected operation is computed using runtime averages for the selected operation; and

using the selected operation and the selected operation timing in managing the runtime usable representation to meet the explicit quantifiable goal.

15. A computer system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor in communications with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method, said method comprising;

creating a runtime usable representation of a business application, said representation including a logical grouping of one or more resources of the business application and one or more relationships associated with one or more resources of the business application, wherein the creating comprises storing information regarding the one or more resources in at least one externally accessible location, the information including at least one of properties of the one or more resources, values of the one or more resources, and operations to be performed that are associated with management of the business application;

associating with the runtime usable representation of the business application an explicit quantifiable goal used to manage the business application; and

managing, by a processor, at run-time, the representation of the business application to achieve the explicit quantifiable goal associated with the runtime usable representation of the business application.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein a relationship of the one or more relationships comprises one of a dependency relationship in which one resource is dependent on another, a co-location relationship, an ordering relationship, or an effect relationship.

17. The computer system of claim 15, wherein one or more resources are automatically recommended to be included in the representation based on one or more relationships associated with one or more other resources of the representation.

18. The computer system of claim 15, wherein at least one resource of the plurality of resources does not have an express relationship with the other resources of the plurality of resources.

19. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the representation is at least one of a subset of another representation, a superset of another representation, or is shared with another representation.

20. A computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium readable by a processor and storing instructions for execution by the processor for performing a method comprising;

creating a runtime usable representation of a business application, said representation including a logical grouping of one or more resources of the business application and one or more relationships associated with one or more resources of the business application, wherein the creating comprises storing information regarding the one or more resources in at least one externally accessible location, the information including at least one of properties of the one or more resources, values of the one or more resources, and operations to be performed that are associated with management of the business application;

associating with the runtime usable representation of the business application an explicit quantifiable goal used to manage the business application; and

managing, by a processor, at run-time, the representation of the business application to achieve the explicit quantifiable goal associated with the runtime usable representation of the business application.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein a relationship of the one or more relationships comprises one of a dependency relationship in which one resource is dependent on another, a co-location relationship, an ordering relationship, or an effect relationship.

22. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the creating comprises creating the representation based upon one or more customer provided seed resources.

23. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein one or more resources are automatically recommended to be included in the representation based on one or more relationships associated with one or more other resources of the representation.

24. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein at least one resource of the plurality of resources does not have an express relationship with the other resources of the plurality of resources.