Implementing comparison of cloud service provider package offerings

• US 9,818,127 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2014
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HCL Technologies Limited
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Iyoob, Ilyas, Modh, Manish Mahesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Chea, Philip
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khan, Hassan
• Application Number:
  US14/269,174
• Publication Number:
  US 20140278808A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,290 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors

Abstract

A computer-implemented method of implementing comparison of cloud service provider package offerings comprises a plurality of operations. An operation of creating a cloud services architecture specification defining a cloud infrastructure that supports deployment of an application thereto is performed. An operation of determining a cloud services offering price for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings to characterize implementation of the cloud infrastructure using cloud services thereof on a basis of pricing of such cloud services is performed. Determining the cloud services offering price for a particular one of the cloud service offerings includes mapping the cloud services architecture specification to cloud service pricing information for the particular one of the cloud service offerings.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of implementing comparison of cloud service offerings, comprising:

creating a cloud services architecture specification including provider independent architecture design information defining logical components of a virtual machine that supports deployment of an application, wherein creating the cloud services architecture specification includes causing an instance of a user interface to be instantiated and receiving the independent architecture design information from a cloud service consumer via the user interface;

instantiating a plurality of application programming interfaces (APIs) adapted for communicating with a respective one of a plurality of cloud service providers, wherein each of the cloud service providers has one of a plurality of cloud service offerings associated therewith and wherein said communicating includes receiving, from the respective one of the cloud service providers, cloud service pricing information defined by a pricing framework that is unique to the associated one of the cloud service offerings;

causing said cloud service pricing information to be stored as line items of a cloud service catalog;

determining a cloud services offering price for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings to characterize implementation of the virtual machine using cloud services thereof on a basis of pricing of such cloud services, wherein each one of the cloud service offerings is an offering of a respective one of a plurality of cloud service providers, wherein determining the cloud services offering price for each one of the cloud service offerings includes providing the provider independent architecture design information of the cloud services architecture specification to a set of pricing adapters whereby each one of the pricing adapters maps the provider independent architecture design information to the cloud service pricing information for a respective one of the cloud service offerings thereby generating the cloud services offering price for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings as a function of the respective one of the different pricing information adapters and the cloud services architecture specification, wherein the pricing information adapters cause said mapping to be performed directly between the provider independent architecture design information and respective ones of the line items of the cloud service catalog; and

in response to determining information that provides a comparison of the cloud services offering price for each one of the cloud service offerings with respect to each other one of the cloud services offerings, causing said price comparison information to be displayed in a manner enabling one of said cloud service offerings to be selected from among the plurality of cloud service offerings as a chosen cloud service offering for being provisioned to support deployment of the application, wherein being provisioned is implemented via a respective one of said APIs.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:

the pricing framework of a first one of the cloud service offerings specifies a plurality of different size system resource offerings such that the pricing information adapter for the first one of the cloud service offerings correlates the provider independent architecture design information to a closest size system resource offering; and

the pricing framework of a second one of the cloud service offerings specifies a reserved system resource capacity determined based upon the cloud service resource information such that the pricing information adapter for the second one of the cloud service offerings correlates the provider independent architecture design information to a particular amount of reserved system resource capacity.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the pricing information adapter associated with the particular one of the cloud service offerings defines rules by which each one of a plurality of specification elements of the cloud services architecture specification is mapped to one or more respective lines items within the cloud services catalog.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the pricing information adapter associated with the particular one of the cloud service offerings defines rules by which each one of a plurality of specification elements of the cloud services architecture specification is mapped to one or more respective lines items within the cloud services catalog.

5. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

providing cloud service resource information including provider independent architecture design information defining logical components of a virtual machine for supporting deployment of an application, wherein the cloud service resource information is generic with respect to a plurality of cloud service offerings that are each that of a different one of a plurality of cloud service providers and wherein providing cloud service resource information includes causing an instance of a user interface to be instantiated and receiving the independent architecture design information from a cloud service consumer via the user interface;

instantiating a plurality of application programming interfaces (APIs) adapted for communicating with a respective one of the plurality of cloud service providers, wherein each of the cloud service providers has one of the plurality of cloud service offerings associated therewith and wherein said communicating includes receiving, from the respective one of the cloud service providers, cloud service pricing information defined by a pricing framework that is unique to the associated one of the cloud service offerings;

causing said cloud service pricing information to be stored as line items of a cloud service catalog;

determining, using at least a portion of the cloud service resource information and using cloud service pricing information for each one of a plurality of cloud service offerings, a cloud services offering price for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings thereby characterizing implementation of the cloud infrastructure using cloud services thereof on a basis of pricing of such cloud services, wherein determining the cloud services offering price for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings includes providing the provider independent architecture design information of the cloud services architecture specification to a set of pricing adapters whereby each one of the pricing adapters maps the provider independent architecture design information to the cloud service pricing information for a respective one of the cloud service offerings thereby generating the cloud services offering price for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings as a function of the respective one of the different pricing information adapters and the cloud service resource information, wherein the pricing information adapters cause said mapping to be performed directly between the provider independent architecture design information and respective ones of the line items of the cloud service catalog;

determining, using at least a portion of the cloud service resource information and using cloud service feature information for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings, a cloud services feature comparison value for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings characterizing implementation of the cloud infrastructure using cloud services thereof on a basis of features provided by such cloud services; and

in response to determining information that provides a comparison of the cloud services offering price for each one of the cloud service offerings with respect to each other one of the cloud services offerings, causing said price comparison information to be displayed in a manner enabling one of said cloud service offerings to be selected from among the plurality of cloud service offerings as a chosen cloud service offering for being provisioned to support deployment of the application, wherein being provisioned is implemented via a respective one of said APIs.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein:

the pricing framework of a first one of the cloud service offerings specifies a plurality of different size system resource offerings such that the pricing information adapter for the first one of the cloud service offerings correlates the cloud service resource information to a closest size system resource offering; and

the pricing framework of a second one of the cloud service offerings specifies a reserved system resource capacity determined based upon the cloud service resource information such that the pricing information adapter for the second one of the cloud service offerings correlates the cloud service resource information to a particular amount of reserved system resource capacity.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein:

the cloud service resource information defines a set of cloud infrastructure features;

determining the cloud services feature comparison value for each one of the cloud service offerings includes comparing the set of cloud infrastructure features with available features of a particular one of the cloud service offerings to determine a feature match factor that characterizes a degree of match therebetween; and

assessing the feature match factor of two or more of the cloud service offerings to determine a ranking therebetween based on the feature match factor.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

displaying, for each one of the two or more of the cloud service offerings, the cloud services offering price and the feature match factor in combination with a cloud services offering identifier;

identifying a currently selected one of the two or more of the cloud service offerings;

displaying a plurality of filter parameters each corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of cloud infrastructure features defined within the cloud service resource information, wherein filter parameters used in determining the cloud services feature comparison value for the two or more of the cloud service offerings;

enabling each one of the filter parameters to be selectively selected and deselected; and

re-determining the cloud services feature comparison value for each one of the two or more cloud service offerings dependent upon currently selected ones of the filter parameters.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having tangibly embodied thereon and accessible therefrom instructions interpretable by at least one data processing device, the instructions are configured for causing the at least one data processing device to perform a method comprising:

creating a cloud services architecture specification including provider independent architecture design information defining logical components of a virtual machine that supports deployment of an application, wherein creating the cloud services architecture specification includes causing an instance of a user interface to be instantiated and receiving the independent architecture design information from a cloud service consumer via the user interface;

instantiating a plurality of application programming interfaces (APIs) adapted for communicating with a respective one of a plurality of cloud service providers, wherein each of the cloud service providers has one of a plurality of cloud service offerings associated therewith and wherein said communicating includes receiving, from the respective one of the cloud service providers, cloud service pricing information defined by a pricing framework that is unique to the associated one of the cloud service offerings;

causing said cloud service pricing information to be stored as line items of a cloud service catalog

determining a cloud services offering price for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings to characterize implementation of the virtual machine using cloud services thereof on a basis of pricing of such cloud services, wherein each one of the cloud service offerings is an offering of a respective one of a plurality of cloud service providers, wherein determining the cloud services offering price for each one of the cloud service offerings includes providing the provider independent architecture design information of the cloud services architecture specification to a set of pricing adapters whereby each one of the pricing adapters maps the provider independent architecture design information to the cloud service pricing information for a respective one of the cloud service offerings thereby generating the cloud services offering price for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings as a function of the respective one of the different pricing information adapters and the cloud services architecture specification, wherein the pricing information adapters cause said mapping to be performed directly between the provider independent architecture design information and respective ones of the line items of the cloud service catalog; and

in response to determining information that provides a comparison of the cloud services offering price for each one of the cloud service offerings with respect to each other one of the cloud services offerings, causing said price comparison information to be displayed in a manner enabling one of said cloud service offerings to be selected from among the plurality of cloud service offerings as a chosen cloud service offering for being provisioned to support deployment of the application, wherein being provisioned is implemented via a respective one of said APIs.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 wherein the pricing information adapter associated with the particular one of the cloud service offerings defines rules by which each one of a plurality of specification elements of the cloud services architecture specification is mapped to one or more respective lines items within the cloud services catalog.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 wherein:

the pricing framework of a first one of the cloud service offerings specifies a plurality of different size system resource offerings such that the pricing information adapter for the first one of the cloud service offerings correlates the provider independent architecture design information to a closest size system resource offering; and

the pricing framework of a second one of the cloud service offerings specifies a reserved system resource capacity determined based upon the cloud service resource information such that the pricing information adapter for the second one of the cloud service offerings correlates the provider independent architecture design information to a particular amount of reserved system resource capacity.