Method, system and apparatus for providing pay-per-use distributed computing resources

• US 9,559,938 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2013
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Clouding Corporation (Marathon Patent Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Clouding Corporation (Marathon Patent Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Abrams, Peter C., Bharadhwaj, Rajeev, Nathan, Swarni, Rodriguez, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Kendall, Chuck
• Application Number:
  US13/959,807
• Publication Number:
  US 20130317981A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,274 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5096 wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/126 minimising geographical or physical path length

Abstract

Method, system, apparatus, and computer program and computer program product provide on-demand, scalable computational resources to application providers over a distributed network and system. Resources are made available based on demand for applications. Application providers are charged fees based on the amount of resources utilized to satisfy the needs of the application. In providing compute resources, method and apparatus is capable of rapidly activating a plurality of instances of the applications as demand increases and to halt instances as demand drops. Application providers are charged based on metered amount of computational resources utilized in processing their applications. Application providers access the network to distribute applications onto network to utilize distributed compute resources for processing of the applications. Application providers are further capable of monitoring, updating and replacing distributed applications. Apparatus and system includes plurality of computing resources distributed across a network capable of restoring and snapshotting provisioned applications based on demand.

Claims

1. A method for providing distributed application processing on a network for an end user, wherein the network includes geographically distributed compute resources, the method comprising:

receiving, at a first computer system and from an application provider, a request for execution of a first application, the first application configured to be used by the end user;

identifying, by the first computer system, a first set of compute resources on one or more servers of the network that are geographically proximate to said end user;

determining, by the first computer system, whether the first set of compute resources are available to execute the first application;

if the first set of compute resources are not available to execute the first application, determining if the first set of compute resources can be made available by snapshotting a second application executing on the first set of compute resources;

snapshotting the second application so as to free up a portion of the first set of compute resources that were associated with the second application; and

if the first set of compute resources are available to execute the first application, executing at least a portion of said first application using the first set of compute resources.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

metering and monitoring an amount of the compute resources utilized in the execution of the portion of the first application.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

charging the application provider associated with the first application for execution of the first application based on the amount of compute resources utilized in the execution of the portion of the first application.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after freeing up the portion of the first set of compute resources that were associated with the second application, executing at least a portion of said first application using the first set of compute resources.

5. A system for providing distributed application processing on a network for an end user, wherein the network includes geographically distributed compute resources, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive from an application provider a request for execution of a first application, the first application configured to be used by the end user;

identify a first set of compute resources on one or more servers of the network that are geographically proximate to said end user;

determine whether the first set of compute resources are available to execute the first application;

if the first set of compute resources are not available to execute the first application, determining if the first set of compute resources can be made available by snapshotting a second application executing on the first set of compute resources;

snapshotting the second application so as to free up a portion of the first set of compute resources that were associated with the second application; and

if the first set of compute resources are available to execute the first application, forward the request to the first set of compute resources.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium for providing distributed application processing on a network for an end user, wherein the network includes geographically distributed compute resources, the non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive from an application provider a request for execution of a first application, the first application configured to be used by the end user;

identify a first set of compute resources on one or more servers of the network that are geographically proximate to said end user;

determine whether the first set of compute resources are available to execute the first application;

if the first set of compute resources are not available to execute the first application, determining if the first set of compute resources can be made available by snapshotting a second application executing on the first set of compute resources;

snapshotting the second application so as to free up a portion of the first set of compute resources that were associated with the second application; and

if the first set of compute resources are available to execute the first application, forward the request to the first set of compute resources.