On-boarding services to a cloud environment

• US 8,856,382 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2012
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Akolkar, Rahul P., Austel, Paula K., Mikalsen, Thomas A., Rouvellou, Isabelle M., Segal, Alla, Shaikh, Hidayatullah H., Silva-Lepe, Ignacio, Subramanian, Revathi
• Primary Examiner(s): JEAN GILLES, JUDE
• Application Number:
  US13/561,432
• Publication Number:
  US 20140032764A1
• Time in Patent Office: 799 Days
• Field of Search: 709224-227, 709/239, 709/203, 709/204
• US Class Current: 709/239
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

A system in a cloud services environment comprises one or more service offerings, one or more service instances and one or more service support utilities. Each of the one or more service offerings is described by at least one service descriptor. Each of the one or more service instances is obtained from at least one of the one or more service offerings. Each of the one or more service support utilities is customized by at least one service descriptor. A service comprises at least one component and a service descriptor comprises one or more models.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a given cloud services environment comprising one or more clouds; and

a cloud services framework configured to;

register one or more service offerings from a plurality of independent software vendors for delivery of one or more service instances via said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment, each of the one or more service offerings being described by at least one service descriptor;

manage lifecycles of one or more service instances instantiated on said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment, each of the one or more service instances being obtained from at least one of the one or more registered service offerings;

provide one or more service support utilities for the one or more service instances instantiated on said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment, each of the one or more service support utilities being customized by at least one service descriptor; and

unregister one or more service offerings accessible via said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment;

wherein a service comprises at least one component and a service descriptor comprises one or more models.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more models of the service descriptor comprises at least one of:

an information model that provides identifying information for at least one described service;

a structural model that describes one or more components of at least one described service;

an operational model that describes a procedure for obtaining at least one service instance of at least one described service;

a data model that conveys data items between at least one service offering and at least one service instance of at least one described service;

an interaction model that describes a front end user experience at one or more stages in a lifecycle of at least one service instance;

a service-level agreement model that allows specification of at least one service quality guarantee agreed to by at least one service offering;

a licensing model;

a security model;

a billing model; and

a cloud concerns model.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the one or more components described by the structural model is managed internally to a given one of said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the one or more components described by the structural model is managed externally to a given one of said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the procedure given by the operational model comprises one of:

creating a service instance of the described service, becoming an additional tenant on an existing multi-tenant service instance, and connecting to a singleton service instance.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the interaction model comprises at least one of:

a generation model which generates at least one end-user interface from available details in at least one service descriptor;

a redirection model which redirects at least one end-user interaction to an off-cloud user interface; and

an extension model which defines at least on end-user interaction model in terms of one or more extension points for a given user interface.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the service-level agreement model includes at least one of a custom defined service quality level and a well-known service quality level.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein a given service descriptor applies to a single cloud.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein a given service descriptor applies to multiple clouds.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein a given service is one of a cloud service, infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a service.

11. A method, comprising:

registering, using a cloud services framework associated with a given cloud services environment comprising one or more clouds, one or more service offerings from a plurality of independent software vendors for delivery of one or more service instances via said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment, each of the one or more service offerings being described by at least one service descriptor;

displaying a catalog of available registered service offerings;

managing lifecycles of one or more service instances instantiated on said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment, each of the one or more service instances being obtained from at least one of the one or more registered service offerings;

providing one or more service support utilities for the one or more service instances instantiated on said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment, each of the one or more service support utilities being customized by at least one service descriptor;

unregistering one or more of the available registered service offerings accessible via said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment;

wherein a service comprises at least one component and a service descriptor comprises one or more models.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein managing lifecycles of one or more services instances instantiated on said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment comprises:

obtaining one or more service instances;

reading state information from at least one of the one or more service instances;

discarding a given one of the one or more service instances.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein obtaining one or more service instances comprises one of creating a new service instance, adding a new tenant to an existing multi-tenant service instance, and connecting to a singleton service instance.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein discarding the given service instance comprises one of destroying the given service instance, removing a tenant from the given service instance, and disconnecting from the given service instance.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein a given service is one of a cloud service, infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a service.

16. A computer-readable storage medium comprising executable program code for implementing the method of claim 11.

17. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor device operatively coupled to the memory and configured to;

register, using a cloud services framework associated with a given cloud services environment comprising one or more clouds, one or more service offerings from a plurality of independent software vendors for delivery of one or more service instances via said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment, each of the one or more service offerings being described by at least one service descriptor;

display a catalog of available registered service offerings;

manage lifecycles of one or more services instances instantiated on said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment, each of the one or more service instances being obtained from at least one of the one or more registered service offerings;

provide one or more service support utilities for the one or more service instances instantiated on said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment, each of the one or more service support utilities being customized by at least one service descriptor;

unregister one or more of the available registered service offerings accessible via said one or more clouds of the given cloud services environment;

wherein a service comprises at least one component and a service descriptor comprises one or more models.