Remote provisioning of information technology

• US 8,402,110 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2006
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Meijer, Henricus Johannes Maria, Gates, William H. III, Ozzie, Raymond E., Flake, Gary W., Bergstraesser, Thomas F., Blinn, Arnold N., Brumme, Christopher W., Cheng, Lili, Dani, Nishant V., Glasser, Daniel S., Gounares, Alexander G., Hunt, Galen C., Larus, James R., MacLaurin, Matthew B., Mishra, Debi P., Mital, Amit, Snyder, Ira L. Jr., Thekkath, Chandramohan A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dustin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mesa, Joel
• Application Number:
  US11/613,917
• Publication Number:
  US 20080082546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,281 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/226
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

Remote provisioning of an IT network and/or associated services is provided. Hardware, software, service and/or expertise can be moved from on-premise to a remote location (e.g., central, distributed . . . ). Accordingly, at least a large degree computation can be moved to the center to exploit economies of scale, among other things. In such an architecture, computational resources (e.g., data storage, computation power, cache . . . ) can be pooled, and entities can subscribe to a particular level of resources related to a private entity IT network.

Claims

1. An information technology (IT) system, comprising:

a processor;

a service component executable by the processor to manage at least one third- party off-premise resource to remotely provide at least one private IT network to a respective entity according to a subscription;

an optimization component executable by the processor to optimize interaction between the at least one third-party off-premise computer resource and local on-premise devices of the respective entity;

a computation component executable by the processor to;

allocate processing power of the at least one third-party off-premise resource in real time and based at least in part on historical data regarding resource usage;

perform a portion of computations of the respective entity based at least in part on resource availability and a computational load of the local on- premise devices of the respective entity;

predict distribution of processing resources between the on-premise devices and the third-party off-premise resource based at least in part on processing resource usage; and

facilitate computational division amongst the on-premise devices and the third-party off-premise resource available under the subscription;

a monitor component executable by the processor to discriminate between work and personal use of resources, based at least in part on the combination of pattern recognition, user actions, and context information, wherein the monitor component provides information about user productivity to the entity; and

a cache component executable by the processor to implement;

an on-premise cache scheme to facilitate local execution when disconnected from the at least one off-premise resource; and

a predictive cache component caching off-premise data on one of the local on-premise devices based at least in part on a probability data being processed by one of the local on-premise devices, the probability calculated at least in part based on access by one of the local on-premise devices to other data.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a distribution component executable by the processor to identify a computation division between the on-premise devices and the off-premise resources as a function of computational power of an on-premise device and the available off-premise resources.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a component executable by the processor to determine computational power of an on-premise device.

4. The system of claim 2, further comprising a component executable by the processor to identify the available off-premise resources based at least in part on the subscription.

5. The system of claim 1, the computation component executable by the processor to divide computation between the on-premise devices and the off-premise resources during runtime as a function of at least one of workloads or communication latency.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a procurement component executable by the processor to facilitate acquisition of rights to resources of local clients for use by the service component.

7. The system of claim 6, the procurement component operates an auction wherein users offer resources for sale.

8. A method of provisioning information technology (IT) services, comprising the following computer-implemented acts:

provisioning, by a server of a cloud network executing an IT service component, at least one third-party off-premise computer resource remotely to provide at least one IT network to a plurality of entities according to a respective subscription associated with each of the plurality of entities;

optimizing, by the server, interaction between third-party off-premise resources and on-premise devices of the plurality of entities based at least in part on historical data regarding resource usage;

allocating, by the server, processing power of the at least one third-party off- premise computer resource in real-time to perform a portion of computations of a respective entity based at least in part on resource availability and a computational load of the local on premise devices of the respective entity;

implementing, by the server, an on-premise cache scheme to facilitate local execution when the respective entity is disconnected from the at least one third-party off-premise computer resource;

implementing, by the server, a predictive cache scheme caching off-premise data on the local on-premise devices of the respective entity based at least in part on a probability of data being processed by the local on-premise devices, the probability calculated at least in part based on access by the local on-premise devices to other data;

monitoring, by the server, network interactions; and

discriminating, by the server, between work and personal use of network resources based at least in part on the combination of pattern recognition, user actions, and context information, wherein the pattern recognition, the user actions, and the context information are provided by the monitored network interactions; and

providing information about productivity of users derived from the discriminating to one or more of the plurality of entities.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising dividing computation amongst a particular local on-premise device of the respective entity and the third-party off-premise resources.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising identifying computational ability of the particular local on-premise device.

11. The method of claims 10, further comprising identifying available resources afforded by the respective subscription of the respective entity.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising distributing computation between the local on-premise device and the third-party off-premise resource during runtime based at least in part on at least one of workloads or communication latency.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising predicting optimal distribution of processing resources based at least in part on at least one of likely processing resource usage or allocation.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising subscribing to additional resources to optimize distribution.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the predictive cache scheme is applied across the plurality of entities such that performance of the at least one third-party off-premise computer resource is optimized with respect to the plurality of entities as a whole.

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising procuring, by the server, rights to utilize one or more on-premise devices of one of the plurality of entities by operating an auction wherein at least the respective one of the plurality of entities offer usages of on-premise devices for sale.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the usages of on-premise devices includes the usage of a graphics card.

18. A computer-readable storage device configured with instructions that, when executed, instruct a processor to perform acts comprising:

provisioning off-premise computer resources to form an organizational IT network of an entity;

optimizing interaction between on-premise devices and the off premise computer resources as a function of computational ability of the on-premise devices, the off- premise computer resources afforded by a subscription, a computational load, communication latency, and historical data regarding processing resource usage dividing computation between the on-premise devices and the off-premise computer resources available under the subscription;

allocating processing power of the off-premise computer resources in real-time to perform a portion of computations of the entity;

implementing an on-premise cache scheme to facilitate local execution when disconnected from at least one off-premise computer resource;

implementing a predictive cache scheme caching off-premise data on an on- premise device based at least in part on a probability of data being processed by the on-premise device, the probability calculated at least in part based on access by the on- premise device to other data;

discriminating between work and personal use of network resources based at least in part on a combination of pattern recognition, user actions, and context information;

providing information about productivity of users derived from the discriminating to the entity and procuring a deal between the on-premise devices and the off-premise computer by operating an auction through which the off-premise computer purchases the rights to utilize the on-premise devices, wherein the off-premise computer purchases the combination of processing power, disk space, and ,graphics card usage.

19. The computer readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the predictive cache scheme caches data frequently accessed by users of the organizational IT network of the entity on the on-premise device.

20. The computer readable storage device of claim 18, further configured to perform acts comprising predicting distribution of processing resources between the on-premise devices and the off-premise computer based at least in part on processing resource usage.