Environment preserving cloud migration and management

• US 8,417,938 B1
• Filed: 10/15/2010
• Issued: 04/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Curtis, Paul M., Dixit, Sanjay G., Oliveira, Fernando, Whitney, Jonathan, Considine, John F., Rousseau, John R.
• Primary Examiner(s): HOFFMAN, BRANDON S
• Application Number:
  US12/905,505
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 713/151
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]

Abstract

A system and method of operation is disclosed describing migration, management, and operation of applications and servers from customer data centers to cloud computing platforms without modification to existing environments or user access procedures. A cloud isolation layer operates as a virtual layer on the cloud platform, enabling server operation in a virtual environment that appears the same as the prior local environment. A cloud software image and a local cloud gateway act to redirect existing addressing from the local environment to the cloud implementation through secure network and data paths. A local management application provides a control interface and maps and manages the local environment and utilized cloud resources.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

one or more devices to;

scan existing computing topology, within a data center local to the one or more devices, to determine configuration information relating to one or more servers within the data center, and

control migration of functions performed by the one or more servers, within the data center, to a remote cloud platform, based on the configuration information; and

a gateway device to map, based on the configuration information, network access, relating to the functions and directed to the data center, to the remote cloud platform.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes names of the one or more local servers and capabilities of the one or more local servers.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more devices are to scan the existing computing topology to determine additional configuration information relating to one or more storage devices or network equipment associated with the one or more servers.

4. A method, implemented by one or more devices, comprising:

scanning, by the one or more devices, a data center to automatically determine configuration information relating to one or more servers within the data center;

migrating, based on the configuration information and by the one or more devices, functions performed by the one or more servers and resources required by the functions, to a remote cloud platform; and

mapping, by the one or more devices and based on the configuration information, network access, associated with the data center, to the functions and resources migrated to the remote cloud platform.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein scanning the data center further includes:

inspecting specific devices within the data center, to determine device names and capacities.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein scanning the data center further includes:

determining configuration information of one or more storage devices or networking equipment associated with the data center.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising

redirecting the network access, from the one or more servers, to one or more migrated servers at the remote cloud platform, based on the mapping, without reconfiguring other devices or naming schemes within the data center.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

migrating the functions performed by the one or more servers from the remote cloud platform to a second cloud platform; and

redirecting the network access to the second cloud platform without reconfiguring the one or more servers or other devices or naming schemes within the data center.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

triggering the migrating, from the remote cloud platform to the second cloud platform, based on resource usage levels and pricing relating to the remote cloud platform.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

triggering the migrating, from the remote cloud platform to the second cloud platform, based on detection of network or infrastructure failure.

11. The method of claim 4, further comprising

responding to communications from hardware monitoring and control schemes, in the remote cloud platform, directed towards the one or more servers within the cloud platform.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the hardware monitoring and control schemes include at least one of integrated lights out management, an intelligent platform management interface, and a simple network platform management protocol daemon.

13. A system comprising:

a cloud platform including;

a cloud software control component to manage resources within the cloud platform, and

a cloud isolation layer to provide a virtualization platform for operating one or more servers within the cloud platform; and

a data center including;

one or more computing devices to automatically scan an existing computing topology, of the data center, to determine configuration information of one or more servers within the data center, and

one or more computing devices to implement, based on the configuration information, migration of functions performed by the one or more servers, within the data center, to the one or more servers within the cloud platform.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the cloud isolation layer provides the virtualization platform without modification to addressing schemes configured for network access within the data center.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the cloud isolation layer is further to:

remap communications between the cloud platform and the one or more servers within the cloud platform such that network and device access calls by the one or more servers, within the cloud platform, referencing naming schemes valid within the data center, are mapped to resources within the cloud platform.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the remapping further includes mapping storage access calls from the one or more servers, within the cloud platform, to storage technology available within the cloud platform without requiring the one or more servers, within the cloud platform, to specify a specific storage technology.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the cloud isolation layer operates as a virtual layer on top of a hypervisor or physical hardware exposed by the cloud platform.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the hypervisor includes a plurality of stacked hypervisors in which performance is optimized for the plurality of stacked hypervisors.