System and method for usage billing of hosted applications

• US 9,710,798 B1
• Filed: 02/04/2017
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Open Invention Network LLC
• Inventors: Havemose, Allan
• Primary Examiner(s): Goyea, Olusegun
• Application Number:
  US15/424,795
• Time in Patent Office: 164 Days
• Field of Search: 705 30, 705 34, 705 52, 703 21, 703 23, 709203, 709219, 709220, 709224-230
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1432 Metric aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/49 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/52 for operator independent billing system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/80 Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8022 Determining tariff or charge band

Abstract

A system, method, and computer readable medium for usage billing of one or more hosted applications serving one or more clients. The hosted applications are contained within one or more isolated environments or run without isolated environments. The system may include usage billing based on one or more of resources open, amount of data flowing through resources, number of open files, number of transactions, number of concurrent users, number of processes, CPU utilization and memory usage, The system may further include a management interface where administrators may add, remove and configure isolated environments, configure client policies and credentials, and force upgrades. If using isolated environments, the isolated environments may be isolated from other applications and the host operating system on the clients and applications within the isolated environments may run without performing an application-installation on the client.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more servers that host isolated environments, comprising application files on one or more hosts with host operating systems, and their hosted applications; and

one or more billing interceptors configured to;

intercept access to resources for said one or more host operating systems; and

load into one or more of address spaces of the hosted applications or address spaces of the host operating systems upon execution of each of the hosted applications.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the billing interceptors intercept at least one of:

a number of resources open, a number of open files, a number of transactions, a number of concurrent users, a number of processes, and an amount of data that flows through a resource.

3. The system according to claim 1, comprising a local billing manager for each hosted application within an isolated environment, wherein for each hosted application the local billing manager performs at least one of:

profiles the application, creates one or more billing events based on said profiled application, and aggregates billing information.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the local billing manager profiles at least one of:

CPU time, memory usage, and a number of times each application is launched.

5. The system according to claim 3, wherein the billing interceptors create billing events comprising at least one of:

a usage count and an amount of data processed.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein said billing events are forwarded to a billing manager.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the billing events are forwarded via at least one of:

sockets, named pipes, and an inter-process communication (IPC).

8. The system according to claim 3, wherein the local billing manager'"'"'s aggregated billing information is placed in a billing events memory storage location and forwarded to an aggregation subsystem of the local billing manager.

9. The system according to claim 3, further comprising a memory buffer configured to receive incoming billing events.

10. The system according to claim 3, wherein the local billing manager aggregates billing events based on usage of at least one application.

11. A system, comprising:

one or more servers that host isolated environments, comprising application files on one or more hosts with host operating systems, and their applications;

one or more billing interceptors configured to;

intercept access to resources for said one or more host operating systems; and

load into one or more of address spaces of the hosted applications or address spaces of the host operating systems upon execution of each of the hosted applications; and

at least one central computing device configured to operate a central billing manager.

12. The system according to claim 11, comprising at least one local billing manager for each application within one of the isolated environments, wherein for each application within an isolated environment the local billing manager performs at least one of:

aggregates all received billing events into one or more billing manager events and adds a client login to the billing manager events.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the local billing manager inserts a client login in all billing events prior to the billing manager events being sent to the central billing manager.

14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the central billing manager sorts billing manager events by client login and interception identifier (ID).

15. The system according to claim 11, wherein the central billing manager produces a billing summary in one of XML, Microsoft Excel and a custom export format.

16. The system according to claim 13, wherein said billing events are sent to the central billing manager via at least one of:

sockets, named pipes, and an inter-process communication (IPC).

17. The system according to claim 11, wherein the one or more billing interceptors are configured to intercept access to at least one or more of the following system resources:

application execution time used, application storage used, number of open files by application, number of records in a database, and number of times the application has been launched.

18. The system according to claim 11, wherein the central billing manager tracks billing manager events via the billing interceptors.

19. The system according to claim 11, wherein the billing interceptors intercept at least one of a number of resources open, a number of open files, a number of transactions, a number of concurrent users, a number of processes, and an amount of data that flows through a resource.

20. The system according to claim 12, wherein the local billing manager profiles the applications, creates one or more billing events based on said profiled applications, and aggregates billing information.