Enhanced storage quota management for cloud computing systems

• US 10,067,940 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2012
• Issued: 09/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chhaunker, Gaurav, Gaikwad, Umesh P., Patil, Sandeep R., Sivakumar, Gandhi
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Taelor
• Assistant Examiner(s): Frumkin, Jesse P
• Application Number:
  US13/410,840
• Publication Number:
  US 20130232179A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,377 Days
• Field of Search: 707E17032
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/11 File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots file system backup G06F11/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/122 using management policies backup systems G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention provides a method for storage management in a cloud computing system. More specifically, locations of storage components in the cloud computing system and storage properties of the storage components are identified. The storage properties include the amount of available storage space and/or the cost of storage space. A storage quota for a user of the cloud computing system is generated with a cloud quota management module based on the locations of the storage components and/or the storage properties of the storage components. In at least one embodiment, the storage quota includes the maximum amount of storage allocated to the user in at least one of the storage components.

Claims

1. A method for storage management in a global cloud computing system, said method comprising:

identifying locations of storage components in the cloud computing system, the storage components located in different countries;

identifying storage properties of the storage components, the storage properties including an amount of available storage space, a cost of storage space, and the location of the storage components;

creating storage configuration information from properties of the user, which is one or more processors connected to the storage components;

monitoring storage components of the global cloud computing system with theone or more processors , the monitoring determining a maximum amount of storage to allocate to the user in the storage components and being calculated based on the storage and properties of the user, wherein the properties of the user include a geographic location of the user and at least one location of storage components requested by the user, and the storage properties include storage types and a proximity of the storage components with respect to the user location; and

allocating storage based on the monitoring.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the properties of the user include an amount of storage space requested by the user.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the storage properties further include the size of the storage components, wherein the storage types include one of harddisk drives, solid state disk, flash, phase change memory, and racetrack memory.

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

displaying a storage quota, the storage quota including a total amount of storage space allocated to the user at each storage component location, an amount of storage space utilized by the user at each storage component location, and an amount of storage space available to the user at each storage component location.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

sending a notification to the user, the notification including;

an updated cost of storage space; and

an updated storage quota for the user, the updated storage quota for the user being based on the updated cost of storage space.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving preferences of the user as an input to the one or more processors.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the cost of storage space depends on cost of management per GB of data, costs of human skills for storage management, electricity costs, costs for carbon credits, currency difference, data center floor costs, government subsidies, security factors, or export factors.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the user choosing a percentage of storage desired per location.

9. A cloud computing system comprising:

a plurality of storage components located in different countries;

one or more processors connected to said storage components located in different countries, said one or more processors monitoring the storage components of the global cloud computing system for a user to determine a maximum amount of storage to allocate, the allocation being calculated based on storage properties of the storage components, and properties of the user including the location of the user and at least one location of storage components requested by the user, the storage properties including storage types, an amount of available storage space, a cost of storage space, a proximity of the storage components with respect to the user location, and a time zone of the location of the storage components,

wherein the one or more processors allocate storage based on the monitoring.

10. The cloud computing system according to claim 9, wherein the properties of the user further include an amount of storage space requested by the user, and the user'"'"'s initial storage quota.

11. The cloud computing system according to claim 9, wherein the storage properties further include storage type and size of the storage components.

12. The cloud computing system according to claim 9, further comprising a communications module connected to said cloud quota management module, said communications module sends a notification to the user, the notification including:

an updated cost of storage space; and

an updated storage quota for the user, the updated storage quota for the user being based on the updated cost of storage space.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions stores thereon which when executed by a computer cause the computer to preform a method for storage management in a global cloud computing system, the method comprising:

identifying locations of storage components in the cloud computing system, the storage components located in different countries;

identifying storage properties of the storage components, the storage properties including at least one of an amount of available storage space and a cost of storage space;

creating storage configuration information from the properties of the user, which is input to one or more processors connected to the storage components;

monitoring, via the one or more processors, storage components of the cloud computing system, the monitoring determining a maximum amount of storage to allocate to the user in the storage components and being calculated based on the storage properties of the storage components and properties of the user, wherein the properties of the user include a geographic location of the user and at least one location of storage space requested by the user, and the storage properties include storage types and a proximity of the storage components with respect to the user location; and

allocating storage based on the monitoring.