Adaptive business resiliency computer system for information technology environments

• US 8,447,859 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2007
• Issued: 05/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• 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): DOAN, DUYEN MY
• Application Number:
  US11/966,495
• Publication Number:
  US 20090172689A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,971 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-226, 705 7- 9, 705/400
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1479 Generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components

Abstract

Programmatically adapting an Information Technology (IT) environment to changes associated with business applications of the IT environment. The programmatically adapting is performed in the context of the business application. The changes can reflect changes in the IT environment, changes to the business application, changes to the business environment and/or failures within the environment, as examples.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of facilitating management of an Information Technology (IT) environment, said method comprising:

determining that a change associated with a business application executing in an IT environment has occurred, said business application comprising a plurality of resources and one or more relationships between resources which provide the function of the business application; and

programmatically adapting the IT environment, in response to the change, wherein the programmatically adapting is performed in the context of the business application, and wherein the programmatically adapting comprises using a processing entity to dynamically alter in real-time at least one of one or more resources or one or more management processes of the IT environment in which the business application is executing based on a quantifiable goal explicitly defined for the business application, and

wherein the programmatically adapting comprises;

applying learned historical information, updated in real-time, relating to the at least one of the one or more resources or the one or more management processes to determine how to alter in real-time the at least one of the one or more resources or the one or more management processes to facilitate meeting the quantifiable goal,

wherein the change is a change in at least one of the IT environment, the business application, or the business environment, and wherein the programmatically adapting comprises performing predictive forecasting for achieving the quantifiable goal associated with the business application, the quantifiable goal comprising a management business goal for the business application, the business application having a defined scope associated therewith.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the programmatically adapting comprises enforcing priorities among a plurality of business applications, wherein one or more constraints indicating the impact that the business application can have on another business application are considered.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the quantitative goal comprises an availability goal.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the change comprises at least one of:

a change in capability of one or more resources supporting the business application;

an addition of a resource to the business application;

an addition of a resource relationship to the business application;

discontinued support of a resource of the business application;

discontinued support of a resource relationship of the business application;

a change in one or more property values for one or more resources of the business application;

a change in state for one or more resources of the business application;

a change in resource sharing associated with the business application;

a change in preconditioning of a capability of a resource of the business application;

a change in redundancy of one or more resources of the business application;

an addition of a resource operation for the business application;

or

a change in resource operation for the business application.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the change comprises a change in service level goal for the business application.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the change comprises at least one of:

one or more changes in the IT environment;

or

one or more failures of the IT environment.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the change comprises a change of a business environment associated with the business application, wherein the change of the business environment comprises a change associated with a business cycle or business demand.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the change comprises at least one of:

a failure of expected completion of an operation of a resource supporting the business application;

a change in best practices associated with the business application;

an addition of a best practice associated with the business application;

or

a change in allowed impact to one or more business applications.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the programmatically adapting comprises performing at least one of:

conditional assessment of state of one or more resource of the business application;

determining applicability of relationship of resources of the business application;

invocation of one or more operations on one or more resources of the business application;

or timing of management activities associated with the business application.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the programmatically adapting provides at least one of:

continued reliable service, in response to an unbounded event or message delay;

or

continuous management services across one or more disruptions to individual management tasks associated with the business application.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the programmatically adapting comprises performing at least one of:

predictive forecasting of achieving a management goal associated with the business application;

programmatic application of best practices in configuring the IT environment to support the business application;

real-time management of the IT environment, in response to adapting to the change;

or

concurrent execution of multiple categories of processing within the IT environment, said multiple categories of processing having varying priority.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the programmatically adapting comprises at least one of:

forming a workflow to be used in management of the IT environment;

presenting a workflow to be used in management of the IT environment;

or

modifying a workflow to be used in management of the IT environment.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the programmatically adapting comprises altering a complex task executing within the IT environment based on completion status of an action of the complex task.

14. A computer system of facilitating management of an Information Technology (IT) environment, said 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;

determining that a change associated with a business application executing in an IT environment has occurred, said business application comprising a plurality of resources and one or more relationships between resources which provide the function of the business application; and

programmatically adapt-adapting the IT environment, in response to the change, wherein the programmatically adapting is performed in the context of the business application, and wherein the programmatically adapting comprises using a processing entity to dynamically alter in real-time at least one of one or more resources or one or more management processes of the IT environment in which the business application is executing based on a quantifiable goal explicitly defined for the business application, and wherein the programmatically adapting comprises;

applying learned historical information, updated in real-time, relating to the at least one of the one or more resources or the one or more management processes to determine how to alter in real-time the at least one of the one or more resources or the one or more management processes to facilitate meeting the quantifiable goal,

wherein the change is a change in at least one of the IT environment, the business application, or the business environment, and wherein the programmatically adapting comprises performing predictive forecasting for achieving the quantifiable goal associated with the business application, the quantifiable goal comprising a management business goal for the business application, the business application having a defined scope associated therewith.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the programmatically adapting comprises enforcing priorities among a plurality of business applications, wherein one or more constraints indicating the impact that the business application can have on another business application are considered.

16. A computer program product for facilitating management of an Information Technology (IT) environment, the 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;

determining that a change associated with a business application executing in an IT environment has occurred, said business application comprising a plurality of resources and one or more relationships between resources which provide the function of the business application; and

programmatically adapting the IT environment, in response to the change, wherein the programmatically adapting is performed in the context of the business application, and wherein the programmatically adapting comprises using a processing entity to dynamically alter in real-time at least one of one or more resources or one or more management processes of the IT environment in which the business application is executing based on a quantifiable goal explicitly defined for the business application, and wherein the programmatically adapting comprises;

applying learned historical information, updated in real-time, relating to the at least one of the one or more resources or the one or more management processes to determine how to alter in real-time the at least one of the one or more resources or the one or more management processes to facilitate meeting the quantifiable goal,

wherein the change is a change in at least one of the IT environment, the business application, or the business environment, and wherein the programmatically adapting comprises performing predictive forecasting for achieving the quantifiable goal associated with the business application, the quantifiable goal comprising a management business goal for the business application, the business application having a defined scope associated therewith.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the programmatically adapting comprises enforcing priorities among a plurality of business applications, wherein one or more constraints indicating the impact that the business application can have on another business application are considered.