Information processing apparatus, information processing system, and computer-readable storage medium

• US 9,286,126 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2011
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Inoue, Eijiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Poltorak, Peter
• Application Number:
  US13/214,278
• Publication Number:
  US 20120060212A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,667 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/506 Constraint
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups

Abstract

An information processing apparatus is connectable via a network to service providing devices and a collecting apparatus. The information processing apparatus acquires a selection policy for selecting the devices that lay open to public types of providable services and service level information, and acquires service type information and the service level information from the collecting apparatus which detects the devices and collects the service type information including the types of providable services of the devices and the service level information. The devices capable of providing the accepted type of service are selected according to the selection policy.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus connected via a network to a plurality of service providing devices and a predetermined information processing apparatus, comprising:

a central processing unit that controls the information processing apparatus; and

a memory that stores instructions to be executed by the central processing unit of the information processing apparatus so as to perform a method including the steps of;

accepting a type of service;

acquiring a selection policy for selecting the service providing devices that lay open to public types of providable services and service level information;

acquiring service type information and the service level information from the predetermined information processing apparatus which detects the service providing devices and collects the service type information including the types of providable services of the service providing devices and the service level information;

selecting the service providing devices that provide the type of service accepted by the accepting step based on the service type information;

determining one or more service providing devices, from the service providing devices selected by the selecting step, according to the selection policy, and

performing the service by the selected one or more service providing devices, each of the selected one or more service providing devices providing at least one of an Optical Character Recognition process, and an electronic mail transmission process as services,

wherein the determining step selects the one or more service providing devices according to the service level information acquired from the predetermined information processing apparatus and the selection policy acquired from the policy acquiring step,

wherein the service providing devices include cloud service devices and server devices, and the services includes cloud services,

wherein the selecting step further extracts candidate combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices from combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices that achieve a process flow of a plurality of types of services, said each of the plurality of types of the services being accepted by the accepting step,

wherein the determining step further selects one or more candidates of the combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices based on a value calculated according to the selection policy, said selection policy including information indicating how item score and type score that are stored in a service level agreement database are applied to the selection of the one or more candidates of the combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices,

wherein each of the service providing devices lays open to public the service level information for each of a plurality of items of a service level judging index;

when the policy acquiring step acquires a selection policy to select an item and the service providing device having a highest score for the item, the determining step selects one or more service providing devices from the service providing devices selected by the selecting step in an order starting from the service providing device having a highest score for the item of the service level information selected by the selection policy,

wherein, when the accepting step accepts a plurality of service types to be processed time-sequentially, the selecting step specifies the service providing devices that provide the service types accepted by the accepting step for each process based on the service type information, and selects candidates of a combination of the service providing devices;

wherein the determining step selects one or more combinations of the service providing devices from the candidates selected by the selecting step, and

wherein, when the policy acquiring step acquires a selection policy to select at least one of the plurality of items and a lower limit service level value for each selected item, the determining step calculates a statistic value of the service level information only for the selected item by the selection policy for each of the candidates, and selects one or more combinations of the service providing devices having the statistic value greater than or equal to the lower limit service level value of the each selected item, said lower limit service level value for the each selected item being individually set by a user from a user device.

2. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

when the policy acquiring step accepts a selection policy to select the service providing device having a highest statistic value of the service level information of a plurality of items, the determining step calculates the statistic value of the service level information of the plurality of items for each of the candidates, and selects one or more combinations of the service providing devices in an order starting from the service providing device having a highest statistic value.

3. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

when the policy acquiring step acquires a selection policy to select the item and the service providing device having a highest score for the item, the determining step calculates the statistic value of the service level information only for the item selected by the selection policy for each of the candidates, and selects one or more combinations of the service providing devices in an order starting from the service providing device having a highest statistic value.

4. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of items of the service level information include at least two items selected from a group consisting of availability, reliability, performance, and extensibility.

5. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the service level information includes numerical values corresponding to the plurality of items prescribed by Service Level Agreement (SLA) according to service levels.

6. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

when the determining step is unable to select one or more combinations of the service providing devices based on the selection policy acquired by the policy acquiring step, the policy acquiring step again accepts the selection policy for the service providing devices.

7. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

a registration accepting step accepts input of the service type of a service providing device and the service level information,

wherein the registration accepting step sends identification information of the service providing device, the service type, and the service level information to the predetermined information processing apparatus.

8. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

when a part of the plurality of service providing devices is coupled to a public network on an outer side of a firewall when viewed from the information processing apparatus, and a remaining part of the plurality of service providing devices is coupled to a private network on an inner side of the firewall when viewed from the information processing apparatus, one of the plurality of service providing devices coupled to the public network and included in the combination of the service providing devices determined by the determining step includes a process executing step configured to request execution of processes of a plurality of services simultaneously.

9. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the process executing step, after acquiring a process result of a service of a service processing device coupled to the public network, requests a service providing device coupled to the private network to execute a process.

10. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the service includes a print function, a scanner function, a facsimile function, and a copy function.

11. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is a server apparatus, and the predetermined information processing apparatus is one of a personal computer and a multifunctional peripheral.

12. An information processing system comprising:

a plurality of service providing devices configured to lay open to public service types that are providable thereby and service level information, and

first and second information processing apparatuses coupled to the service providing devices via a network and configured to receive services from the service providing devices, wherein the first information processing apparatus including;

a first central processing unit that controls the information processing apparatus; and

a first memory that stores instructions to be executed by the first central processing unit so as to perform a method including the steps of;

detecting the service providing devices on the network; and

collecting service type information including the service type providable by the service providing devices and the service level information, and

said second information processing apparatus including;

a second central processing unit that controls the information processing apparatus; and

a second memory that stores instructions to be executed by the second central processing unit so as to perform a method including the steps of;

accepting the service type;

acquiring a selection policy for selecting the service providing devices;

acquiring the service type information and the service level information from the first information processing apparatus;

selecting the service providing devices that provide the type of service accepted by the accepting step based on the service type information;

determining one or more service providing devices, from the service providing devices selected by the selecting step, according to the selection policy, and

performing the service by the selected one or more service providing devices, each of the selected one or more service providing devices providing at least one of an Optical Character Recognition process, and an electronic mail transmission process as services,

wherein the determining step selects the one or more service providing devices according to the service level information acquired from the first information processing apparatus and the selection policy acquired from the policy acquiring step,

wherein the service providing devices include cloud service devices and server devices, and the services includes cloud services,

wherein the selecting step further extracts candidate combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices from combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices that achieve a process flow of a plurality of types of services, said each of the plurality of types of the services being accepted by the accepting step,

wherein the determining step further selects one or more candidates of the combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices based on a value calculated according to the selection policy, said selection policy including information indicating how item score and type score that are stored in a service level agreement database are applied to the selection of the one or more candidates of the combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices,

wherein each of the service providing devices lays open to public the service level information for each of a plurality of items of a service level judging index;

when the policy acquiring step acquires a selection policy to select an item and the service providing device having a highest score for the item, the determining step selects one or more service providing devices from the service providing devices selected by the selecting step in an order starting from the service providing device having a highest score for the item of the service level information selected by the selection policy,

wherein, when the accepting step accepts a plurality of service types to be processed time-sequentially, the selecting step specifies the service providing devices that provide the service types accepted by the accepting step for each process based on the service type information, and selects candidates of a combination of the service providing devices;

wherein the determining step selects one or more combinations of the service providing devices from the candidates selected by the selecting step, and

wherein, when the policy acquiring step acquires a selection policy to select at least one of the plurality of items and a lower limit service level value for each selected item, the determining step calculates a statistic value of the service level information only for the selected item by the selection policy for each of the candidates, and selects one or more combinations of the service providing devices having the statistic value greater than or equal to the lower limit service level value of the each selected item, said lower limit service level value for the each selected item being individually set by a user from a user device.

13. The information processing system as claimed in claim 12, wherein the method further includes:

converting the service level information to service level values according to service levels; and

converting the service level information into the service level values based on the conversion rule table,

wherein the determining step selects the service providing device having the service level value converted from the service level information by the converting step greater than or equal to a value accepted as the selection policy by the policy accepting step.

14. The information processing system as claimed in claim 12, wherein:

a part of the plurality of service providing devices is coupled to a public network on an outer side of a firewall when viewed from the second information processing apparatus;

a remaining part of the plurality of service providing devices is coupled to a private network on an inner side of the firewall when viewed from the second information processing apparatus; and

the collecting step collects the service type information indicating the types of services providable by the service providing devices and the service level information, without distinguishing the public network and the private network.

15. The information processing system as claimed in claim 12, wherein:

the method further includes a registration accepting step that accepts input of the service type of a service providing device and the service level information; and

the collecting step collects identification information of the service providing device, the service type, and the service level information accepted by the registration accepting step.

16. An information processing apparatus connected to a predetermined information processing apparatus via a network,

the predetermined information processing apparatus including a first central processing unit that controls the information processing apparatus;

and a first memory that stores instructions to be executed by the first central processing unit so as to perform a method including the steps of;

acquiring a selection policy for selecting the service providing devices that lay open to public types of providable services and service level information,

acquiring service type information and the service level information from the predetermined information processing apparatus which detects the service providing devices and collects the service type information including the types of providable services of the service providing devices and the service level information,

selecting the service providing devices that provide the type of service accepted by the accepting step based on the service type information, and

determining one or more service providing devices, from the service providing devices selected by the selecting step, according to the selection policy, and

performing the service by the selected one or more service providing devices, each of the selected one or more service providing devices providing at least one of an Optical Character Recognition process and an electronic mail transmission process as services,

wherein the information processing apparatus comprises;

a second central processing unit that controls the information processing apparatus; and

a second memory that stores instructions to be executed by the second central processing unit so as to perform a method including the steps of;

detecting the service providing devices;

collecting the service type information including the types of services providable by the service providing devices and the service level information; and

sending the service type information and the service level information to the predetermined information processing apparatus,

wherein the determining step selects the one or more service providing devices according to the service level information acquired from the predetermined information processing apparatus and the selection policy acquired from the policy acquiring step,

wherein the service providing devices include cloud service devices and server devices, and the services includes cloud services,

wherein the selecting step further extracts candidate combinations of the cloud service device and the server device from combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices that achieve a process flow of a plurality of types of services, said each of the plurality of types of the services being accepted by the accepting step,

wherein the determining step further selects one or more candidates of the combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices based on a value calculated according to the selection policy, said selection policy including information indicating how item score and type score that are stored in a service level agreement database are applied to the selection of the one or more candidates of the combinations of the cloud service devices and the server devices,

wherein each of the service providing devices lays open to public the service level information for each of a plurality of items of a service level judging index;

when the policy acquiring step acquires a selection policy to select an item and the service providing device having a highest score for the item, the determining step selects one or more service providing devices from the service providing devices selected by the selecting step in an order starting from the service providing device having a highest score for the item of the service level information selected by the selection policy,

wherein, when the accepting step accepts a plurality of service types to be processed time-sequentially, the selecting step specifies the service providing devices that provide the service types accepted by the accepting step for each process based on the service type information, and selects candidates of a combination of the service providing devices;

wherein the determining step selects one or more combinations of the service providing devices from the candidates selected by the selecting step, and

wherein, when the policy acquiring step acquires a selection policy to select at least one of the plurality of items and a lower limit service level value for each selected item, the determining step calculates a statistic value of the service level information only for the selected item by the selection policy for each of the candidates, and selects one or more combinations of the service providing devices having the statistic value greater than or equal to the lower limit service level value of the each selected item, said lower limit service level value for the each selected item being individually set by a user from a user device.