Aggregation of marginal subscription offsets in set of multiple host clouds

• US 8,949,426 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2010
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Morgan, Christopher Edwin
• Primary Examiner(s): Joo, Joshua
• Assistant Examiner(s): Naji, Younes
• Application Number:
  US12/954,400
• Publication Number:
  US 20120131195A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,532 Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/508 Monitor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for aggregating marginal subscription offsets in a set of multiple host clouds. A set of aggregate usage history data can record consumption of processor, memory, operating system, or other resources subscribed to by a user across multiple host clouds. An entitlement engine can analyze the aggregate usage history data to identify a short-term subscription margin for one or more subscribed resources, such as processor throughput, operating system instances, or other resources reflecting the under or over-consumption of a cloud resource against subscription limits on an hourly or other basis across multiple clouds. The entitlement engine can track the short-term subscription margin for one or multiple resources each hour of a day, and/or over other intervals, and determine the positive or negative subscription offset cost for each interval. The offsets can be combined to generate a net or aggregate subscription offset cost, or to provide other subscription adjustments.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

accessing a set of aggregate usage history data for a user operating a set of machines consuming a set of resources in a set of host clouds;

determining consumption of at least one resource for at least one time period, wherein the consumption is determined for the at least one resource in each of at least two host clouds of the set of host clouds;

generating, by a processing device, a set of subscription margins for the at least one resource for each of the at least two host clouds in view of a comparison of the consumption of the at least one resource in a corresponding host cloud to a resource subscription limit associated with the corresponding host cloud;

generating a set of short-term cloud-aggregated margins, wherein each of the set of short-term cloud-aggregated margins represents an offset consumption value for the corresponding resource across the at least two host clouds;

generating a plurality of offset subscription costs for the at least one resource for the at least one time period across the at least two of the set of host clouds in view of the set of short-term cloud-aggregated margins; and

generating an aggregate offset subscription cost for the at least one resource for the at least one time period in view of the plurality of offset subscription costs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of subscription margins comprises at least one of an over-limit consumption value for the at least one resource or an under-limit consumption value for the at least one resource.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one time period comprises at least one of a fifteen minute time period, a one hour time period, a one day time period, a one week time period, or a one month time period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of subscription margins specifies amounts of deviation of the consumption of the at least one resource in the corresponding host cloud from the associated resource subscription limit.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one time period aggregates to at least one of a 24 hour period, a one week period, or a one month period.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one resource comprises a plurality of resources.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

aggregating the offset subscription cost for each of the plurality of resources for the at least one time period to generate the aggregate offset subscription cost for the at least one time period.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a billing record in view of the plurality of offset subscription costs for the at least one resource for the at least one time period.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of aggregate usage history data comprises a set of usage history captured from a user premise installation independent of the set of host clouds.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of aggregate usage history data comprises at least one of processor usage data, memory usage data, storage usage data, communications bandwidth usage data, operating system usage data, application usage data, service usage data, virtual machine instance data, or appliance usage data.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource subscription limit comprises at least one of an instance limit for a set of virtual machines, an instance limit for a set of appliances, an instance limit for an operating system, an instance limit for at least one application, a communications bandwidth throughput limit, or a storage amount limit.

12. A system, comprising:

an interface to a data store, wherein the data store is to store a set of aggregate usage history data for a user operating a set of machines consuming a set of resources in a set of host clouds; and

a processing device, to communicate with the data store via the interface, the processing device to;

access the set of aggregate usage history data for the user;

determine consumption of at least one resource for at least one time period, wherein the consumption is determined for the at least one resource in each of at least two host clouds of the set of host clouds;

generate a set of subscription margins for the at least one resource for each of the at least two host clouds in view of a comparison of the consumption of the at least one resource in a corresponding host cloud to a resource subscription limit associated with the corresponding host cloud;

generate a set of short-term cloud-aggregated margins, wherein each of the set of short-term cloud-aggregated margins represents an offset consumption value for the corresponding resource across the at least two host clouds;

generate a plurality of offset subscription costs for the at least one resource for the at least one time period across the at least two of the set of host clouds in view of the set of short-term cloud-aggregated margins; and

generate an aggregate offset subscription cost for the at least one resource for the at least one time period in view of the plurality of offset subscription costs.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the set of subscription margins comprises at least one of an over-limit consumption value for the at least one resource or an under-limit consumption value for the at least one resource.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one time period comprises at least one of a fifteen minute time period, a one hour time period, a one day time period, a one week time period, or a one month time period.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the set of subscription margins specifies amounts of deviation of the consumption of the at least one resource in the corresponding host cloud from the associated resource subscription limit.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one time period aggregates to at least one of a 24 hour period, a one week period, or a one month period.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one resource comprises a plurality of resources.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing device is further to aggregate the offset subscription cost for each of the plurality of resources for the at least one time period to generate the aggregate offset subscription cost for the at least one time period.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the set of aggregate usage history data comprises at least one of processor usage data, memory usage data, storage usage data, communications bandwidth usage data, operating system usage data, application usage data, service usage data, virtual machine instance data, or appliance usage data.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the resource subscription limit comprises at least one of an instance limit for a set of virtual machines, an instance limit for a set of appliances, an instance limit for an operating system, an instance limit for at least one application, a communications bandwidth throughput limit, or a storage amount limit.