Billing usage in a virtual computing infrastructure

• US 9,202,239 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2011
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Van Biljon, Willem Robert, Pinkham, Christopher Conway, Cloran, Russell Andrew, Gorven, Michael Carl, Hardy, Alexandre, Divey, Brynmor K. B., Hoole, Quinton Robin, Kalele, Girish
• Primary Examiner(s): Goyea, Olusegun
• Application Number:
  US13/299,339
• Publication Number:
  US 20120116937A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,475 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-226, 709/227, 705/26.25, 705/14.55, 705/26.1, 705/35, 705/40, 705/14.69, 705/14.73, 705/34, 714/4.11
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2145 Inheriting rights or properties, e.g., propagation of permissions or restrictions within a hierarchy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/10 Tax strategies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/66 Policy and charging system

Abstract

Billing usage of a cloud computing environment is described. Usage is metered of one or more resources within the cloud computing environment by one or more users. The one or more users may be associated with at least one entity. The metered usage of one or more cloud resources is converted to a revenue-generating value. The revenue-generating value is billed to the at least one entity associated with the one or more users. Revenue is collected from the at least one entity for the metered usage of one or more cloud resources. The collected revenue is shared with a plurality of parties.

Claims

1. A method of billing usage of a cloud computing environment, the method comprising:

executing, on a cluster of computer systems in the cloud computing environment, a distributed control plane, wherein the cluster of computer systems comprises a plurality of virtual machine nodes, wherein the distributed control plane comprises an infrastructure controller and a metering and billing module, wherein the distributed control plane is replicated on each of the plurality of virtual machine nodes in the cluster of computer systems, and wherein one of the plurality of virtual machine nodes comprises a master node;

metering, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, usage of one or more cloud resources within the cloud computing environment by one or more users based on one or more rules, wherein the one or more cloud resources are hosted on the cluster of computer systems in the cloud computing environment or on one or more remote cloud sites accessible to the cluster of computer systems, wherein the one or more users is associated with at least one entity, and wherein each of the one or more rules comprises one or more predicate defined when a rule is applied and one or more associated actions taken when the rule is applied;

converting, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, the metered usage of the one or more cloud resources to a revenue-generating value, wherein converting the metered usage of the one or more cloud resources to the revenue-generating value comprises applying the one or more rules to usage files for the one or more users; and

billing, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, the revenue-generating value to the at least one entity associated with the one or more users, wherein billing the revenue-generating value to the at least one entity associated with the one or more users comprises generating one or more settlement files.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein revenue collected based on billing the revenue-generating value is shared by at least one service provider of the cloud computing environment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein revenue collected based on billing the revenue-generating value is shared by at least one service provider of the cloud computing environment and at least one service vendor.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one service vendor is a software vendor.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one service vendor adds one or more functionality to infrastructure of the cloud computing environment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein metering the usage of the one or more cloud resources includes at least one from a group consisting of:

one or more compute resources used on a per time basis, one or more read and write I/O operations, and network bandwidth usage.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein metering the usage is conducted at one or more of an applications programming interface (API).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein metering the usage is conducted at a storage backend.

9. A computer-readable memory device comprising a set of instructions stored therein which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to bill usage of a cloud computing environment by:

executing, on a cluster of computer systems in the cloud computing environment, a distributed control plane, wherein the cluster of computer systems comprises a plurality of virtual machine nodes, wherein the distributed control plane comprises an infrastructure controller and a metering and billing module, wherein the distributed control plane is replicated on each of the plurality of virtual machine nodes in the cluster of computer systems, and wherein one of the plurality of virtual machine nodes comprises a master node;

metering, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, usage of one or more cloud resources within the cloud computing environment by one or more users based on one or more rules, wherein the one or more cloud resources are hosted on the cluster of computer systems in the cloud computing environment or on one or more remote cloud sites accessible to the cluster of computer systems, wherein the one or more users is associated with at least one entity and wherein each of the one or more rules comprises one or more predicates defined when a rule is applied and one or more associated actions taken when the rule is applied;

converting, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, the metered usage of the one or more cloud resources to a revenue-generating value, wherein converting the metered usage of the one or more cloud resources to the revenue-generating value comprises applying the one or more rules to usage files for the one or more users; and

billing, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, the revenue-generating value to the at least one entity associated with the one or more users, wherein billing the revenue-generating value to the at least one entity associated with the one or more users comprises generating one or more settlement files.

10. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, wherein revenue collected based on billing the revenue-generating value is shared by at least one service provider of the cloud computing environment.

11. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, wherein revenue collected based on billing the revenue-generating value is shared by at least one service provider of the cloud computing environment and at least one service vendor.

12. The computer-readable memory device of claim 11, wherein the at least one service vendor is a software vendor.

13. The computer-readable memory device of claim 11, wherein the at least one service vendor adds one or more functionality to infrastructure of the cloud computing environment.

14. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, wherein metering the usage of one or more cloud resources includes at least one from a group consisting of:

one or more compute resources used on a per time basis, one or more read and write I/O operations, and network bandwidth usage.

15. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, wherein metering the usage is conducted at one or more of an applications programming interface (API).

16. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, wherein metering the usage is conducted at a storage backend.

17. A system comprising:

a plurality of processors; and

a memory coupled with and readable by each of the plurality of processors and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the plurality of processors, causes the plurality of processors to bill usage of a cloud computing environment by;

executing, on a cluster of computer systems in the cloud computing environment, a distributed control plane, wherein the cluster of computer systems comprises a plurality of virtual machine nodes, wherein the distributed control plane comprises an infrastructure controller and a metering and billing module, wherein the distributed control plane is replicated on each of the plurality of virtual machine nodes in the cluster of computer systems, and wherein one of the plurality of virtual machine nodes comprises a master node;

metering, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, usage of one or more cloud resources within the cloud computing environment by one or more users based on one or more rules, wherein the one or more cloud resources are hosted on the cluster of computer systems in the cloud computing environment or on one or more remote cloud sites accessible to the cluster of computer systems, wherein the one or more users is associated with at least one entity, and wherein each of the one or more rules comprises one or more predicates defined when a rule is applied and one or more associated actions taken when the rule is applied;

converting, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, the metered usage of the one or more cloud resources to a revenue-generating value, wherein converting the metered usage of the one or more cloud resources to the revenue-generating comprises applying the one or more rules to usage files for the one or more users; and

billing, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, the revenue-generating value to the at least one entity associated with the one or more users, wherein billing the revenue-generating value to the at least one entity associated with the one or more users comprises generating one or more settlement files.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein revenue collected based on billing the revenue-generated value is shared by at least one service provider of the cloud computing environment.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein revenue collected based on billing the revenue-generating value is shared by at least one service provider of the cloud computing environment and at least one service vendor.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the at least one service vendor is a software vendor.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the at least one service vendor adds one or more functionality to infrastructure of the cloud computing environment.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein metering the usage of the one or more cloud resources includes at least one from a group consisting of:

one or more compute resources used on a per time basis, one or more read and write I/O operations, and network bandwidth usage.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein metering the usage is conducted at one or more of an applications programming interface (API).

24. The system of claim 17, wherein metering the usage is conducted at a storage backend.