Cloud resource marketplace for third-party capacity

• US 9,760,928 B1
• Filed: 03/26/2012
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ward, Jr., David John, Helfrich, Brian, Nunnerley, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Misiaszek, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Seibert, Christopher
• Application Number:
  US13/429,985
• Time in Patent Office: 1,996 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2644
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0619 Neutral agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for a cloud resource marketplace for third-party capacity are disclosed. A system includes a plurality of resources of a primary network, and a resource manager. The resource manager implements a reservation interface allowing a client to select and reserve resources of the primary network. In response to a resell request from a third-party resource provider, requesting advertisement of the availability of a third-party resource via the reservation interface, the resource manager may determine whether to resell the third-party resource based on one or more acceptance criteria. In response to determining to resell the third-party resource, the resource manager may indicate, via the reservation interface, a pricing policy associated with the third-party resource, an interruptibility setting of the third-party resource, and a level of compatibility of the third-party resource with a control interface implemented to allow clients to perform operations on resources of the primary network.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a plurality of computing devices configured to implement a plurality of resources of a primary network; and

one or more computing devices configured to implement a resource manager;

wherein the resource manager is configured to;

implement a reservation interface allowing a client to select and reserve a resource of the plurality of resources of the primary network;

in response to receiving, from a third-party resource provider, a request to provide a third-party resource via the reservation interface;

determine whether the request satisfies one or more preliminary criteria, wherein the request includes information indicating a system specification of the third-party resource, and wherein the one or more preliminary criteria comprise determining whether the indicated system specification is in accordance with a set of supported platforms;

in response to a determination that the request satisfies the one or more preliminary criteria, initiate execution of one or more computer-executable tests of the third-party resource, wherein the one or more computer-executable tests are executed at a computing resource of the third-party resource;

determine whether test results from the one or more computer-executable tests at the computing resource of the third-party resource satisfy one or more acceptance criteria, wherein the one or more acceptance criteria include whether a tested system specification of the third-party resource conforms to the indicated system specification, and wherein the test results include information corresponding to the tested system specification;

based at least in part on the test results satisfying the one or more acceptance criteria, indicate, via the reservation interface, a pricing policy associated with the third-party resource, an interruptibility setting of the third-party resource, and a level of compatibility of the third-party resource with a control interface implemented to allow clients to perform operations on resources of the primary network; and

based at least in part on the test results not satisfying the one or more preliminary criteria or the one or more acceptance criteria, reject the request.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the provided system specification comprises one or more of:

specifications for hardware and software configurations, or performance specifications, and wherein to determine whether the tested system specification of the third-party resource conforms to a provided system specification, the resource manager is further configured to compare the provided system specification to the tested specification included in the test results.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the interruptibility setting comprises one or more of:

a price-based-interrupts setting indicating that an ongoing reservation is interruptible based at least in part on a pricing level associated with the ongoing reservation, a fulfillment-based-interrupts setting indicating that an ongoing reservation is interruptible in response to a fulfillment request for a pre-existing resource commitment of the third-party resource provider, or a do-not-interrupt setting indicating that an ongoing reservation is not interruptible.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more preliminary criteria further comprises determining whether the third-party resource provider has a valid business agreement or contract, determining whether the third-party resource provider is included in an accepted list of resource providers, or both.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the level of compatibility comprises one of:

a loosely-compatible level, in which at least one operation available to control resources of the primary network is not supported by the third-party resource;

or a tightly-compatible level, in which each operation of a specified set of operations to control resources in the primary network is supported by the third-party resource.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the request comprises an indication of a desired optimization policy for scheduling operations on a plurality of third-party resources of the third-party resource provider, wherein the desired optimization policy comprises at least one of:

a maximize-revenue policy, or a maximize-long-term-utilization policy.

7. A method, comprising:

implementing a programmatic reservation interface allowing a client of a primary provider network to reserve a resource of the primary provider network;

in response to receiving a request from a third-party resource provider to indicate an availability of a third-party resource via the reservation interface;

determining whether the request satisfies one or more preliminary criteria, wherein the request includes information indicating a system specification of the third-party resource, and wherein the one or more preliminary criteria comprise determining whether the indicated system specification is in accordance with a set of supported platforms;

in response to a determination that the request satisfies the one or more preliminary criteria, initiating execution of one or more computer-executable tests of the third-party resource, wherein the one or more computer-executable tests are executed at a computing resource of the third-party resource;

determining whether test results from the one or more computer-executable tests at the computing resource of the third-party resource satisfy one or more acceptance criteria, wherein the one or more acceptance criteria include whether a tested system specification of the third-party resource conforms to the indicated system specification, and wherein the test results include information corresponding to the tested system specification; and

based at least in part on the test results satisfying the one or more acceptance criteria, indicating, via the reservation interface, a level of compatibility of the third-party resource with a control interface implemented to allow clients to perform operations on resources of the primary network.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the test results comprise one or more performance scores resulting from execution of the one or more computer-executable tests, wherein the one or more performance scores are indicated via the reservation interface.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

based at least in part on the test results satisfying the one or more acceptance criteria, indicating, via the reservation interface, an interruptibility setting associated with an allocation of the third-party resource, wherein the interruptibility setting comprises one or more of;

a price-based-interrupts setting indicating that the allocation is interruptible based at least in part on a pricing level associated with the ongoing reservation, a fulfillment-based-interrupts setting indicating that the allocation is interruptible in response to a fulfillment request for a pre-existing resource commitment of the third-party resource provider, or a do-not-interrupt setting indicating that the allocation is not interruptible.

10. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

based at least in part on the test results satisfying the one or more acceptance criteria, indicating, via the reservation interface, a pricing policy associated with the third-party resource, wherein the pricing policy comprises one or more of;

a dynamic-spot-pricing model, an auction model, an immediate-pricing model, a long-term reservation pricing model, or an on-demand pricing model.

11. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the level of compatibility comprises one of:

a loosely-compatible level, in which at least one operation available to control resources of the primary network is not supported by the third-party resource;

or a tightly-compatible level, in which each operation of a specified set of operations to control resources in the primary network is supported by the third-party resource.

12. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the request comprises an indication of a desired optimization policy for scheduling operations on a plurality of third-party resources of the third-party resource provider, wherein the desired optimization policy comprises at least one of:

a maximize-revenue policy, or a maximize-long-term-utilization policy.

13. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a first control request, formatted in accordance with the control interface, for a client operation to be performed at the third-party resource;

generating a second control request derived at least in part from the first control request, wherein the second control request is formatted in accordance with a third-party control interface available to perform operations on the third-party resource; and

forwarding the second control request to the third-party resource.

14. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a reservation request from a client for the third-party resource via the reservation interface;

determining a reservation price to be paid by the client for reserving the third-party resource;

reserving the third-party resource in accordance with the reservation request; and

sending a notification comprising the reservation price to the third-party resource provider.

15. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

obtaining a customer satisfaction indication associated with the third-party resource provider; and

providing the customer satisfaction indication via the reservation interface.

16. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

implementing a programmatic third-party interface, wherein the request is formatted in accordance with the programmatic third-party interface.

17. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

obtaining an indication of a monitoring interface supported by the third-party resource provider; and

collecting a metric of the third-party resource using the monitoring interface.

18. A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium storing program instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

implement a programmatic reservation interface allowing a client of a primary provider network to reserve a resource of the primary provider network;

in response to receiving a request from a third-party resource provider to indicate an availability of a third-party resource via the reservation interface;

determine whether the request satisfies one or more preliminary criteria, wherein the request includes information indicating a system specification of the third-party resource, and wherein the one or more preliminary criteria comprise determining whether the indicated system specification is in accordance with a set of supported platforms;

in response to a determination that the request satisfies the one or more preliminary criteria, initiate execution of one or more computer-executable tests of the third-party resource, wherein the one or more computer-executable tests are executed at a computing resource of the third-party resource;

determine whether test results from the one or more tests at the computing resource of the third-party resource satisfy one or more acceptance criteria, wherein the one or more acceptance criteria include whether a tested system specification of the third-party resource conforms to the indicated system specification, and wherein the test results include information corresponding to the tested system specification; and

based at least in part on the test results satisfying the one or more acceptance criteria, indicate, via the reservation interface, an interruptibility setting of the third-party resource.

19. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the one or more acceptance criteria comprise one or more of:

specifications for hardware and software configurations, or performance specifications.

20. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the interruptibility setting comprises one or more of:

a price-based-interrupts setting indicating that an allocation of the third-party resource is interruptible based at least in part on a pricing level associated with the ongoing reservation, a fulfillment-based-interrupts setting indicating that an allocation of the third-party resource is interruptible in response to a fulfillment request for a pre-existing resource commitment of the third-party resource provider, or a do-not-interrupt setting indicating that an allocation is not interruptible.

21. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to:

based at least in part on the test results satisfying the one or more acceptance criteria, indicate, via the reservation interface, a pricing policy of the third-party resource, wherein the pricing policy comprises one or more of;

a dynamic-spot-pricing model, an auction model, an immediate pricing model, a long-term reservation pricing model, or an on-demand pricing model.

22. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to:

based at least in part on the test results satisfying the one or more acceptance criteria, indicate, via the reservation interface, a level of compatibility of the third-party resource with a control interface implemented to allow clients to perform operations on resources of the primary network, wherein the level of compatibility comprises one of;

a loosely-compatible level, in which at least one operation available to control resources of the primary network is not supported by the third-party resource;

or a tightly-compatible level, in which each operation of a specified set of operations to control resources in the primary network is supported by the third-party resource.

23. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the request comprises an indication of a desired optimization policy for scheduling operations on a plurality of third-party resources of the third-party resource provider, wherein the desired optimization policy comprises at least one of:

a maximize-revenue policy, or a maximize-long-term-utilization policy.

24. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the third-party resource comprises at least one of:

a compute resource, a storage resource, or network bandwidth.

25. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to:

schedule an execution of one or more quality tests of the third-party resource after determining that the test results satisfy the one or more acceptance criteria, in accordance with one or more service quality maintenance criteria; and

based on the one or more quality tests indicating that the third-party resource does not satisfy the one or more service quality maintenance criteria;

removing the indication of the third-party resource from the reservation interface; and

sending an advisory message to the third-party resource provider indicating that the third-party resource has failed at least one of the one or more quality tests.

26. The storage medium as recited in claim 25, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to:

assign a ranking to the third-party resource within a ranked listing of a plurality of resources accessible by a client, based at least in part on a result of the execution of the one or more quality tests.

27. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to:

perform one or more billing operations associated with the third-party resource on behalf of the third-party provider.