DYNAMIC WORKFLOW RESOURCE AUTHENTICATION AND DISCOVERY

• US 20080201191A1
• Filed: 02/21/2007
• Published: 08/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Carter, Stephen R.
• Application Number:
  US11/677,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201191A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis

Abstract

Techniques for dynamic workflow resource authentication and discovery are presented. A processing workflow is augmented with a dynamic resource that becomes available and is authenticated as the workflow is processed. A reference to the newly discovered resource is provided and permits tasks of the workflow to be handled by the newly discovered resource via the dynamically supplied reference.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a reference to a resource for use in an already processing workflow, wherein the resource is dynamically authenticated and discovered by an identity service;

enforcing policy associated with the resource; and

assigning a task of the workflow to the resource via the reference.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, removing the resource from a pool of available resources associated with the workflow in response to a termination event.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising, reassigning the task to a different resource when the task is not completed and the resource is removed from the pool of available resources.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, identifying the resource as one of a local resource associated with a local environment or a remote resource associated with an external and remote environment accessible over a wide-area network.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, assigning the resource to a role in response to applying role definitions, and wherein the task is assigned to the resource in response to the role assignment.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, identifying the task as one or more of the following:

a local task associated with a local environment, a virtual task associated with a virtual environment, and an external or remote task associated with a remote and external environment over a network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein enforcing policy further includes ensuring a trust specification for the workflow and the resource is satisfied when enforcing the policy.

8. A method, comprising:

managing the execution of a workflow from a first environment;

dynamically discovering a new resource within a second environment for use with the workflow, wherein the new resource is authenticated via an identity service and becomes discovered as the workflow processes within the first environment; and

permitting the new resource to access and to be associated with one or more unprocessed tasks of the workflow in response to policy.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising, removing access to the one or more of the unprocessed tasks when permission rights associated with the new resource are rescinded or cease to exist.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising, initiating a particular one of the one or more unprocessed tasks when requested to do so by the new resource, and wherein the particular unprocessed task is authenticated via the identity service and is also a remote and external virtual service.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising, permitting the new resource to reassign a number of the one or more unprocessed tasks in response to the policy to other different resources.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein dynamically discovering further includes recognizing the identity service as an external identity service associated with the authenticating the new resource, which is also an external resource, and wherein the external identity service cooperates with a local identity service to ensure the new resource is authorized to access the workflow.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising, permitting the new resource to interact with the workflow and the unprocessed tasks via at least one of:

a web services interface and a remote procedure call interface.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising, assigning the new resource to one or more roles recognized and used by the workflow in response to role calculations and definitions.

15. A system, comprising:

a workflow registry implemented in a machine-readable medium; and

a workflow manager implemented within the machine-readable medium and to process on a machine, wherein the workflow manager is to dynamically permit resources to be discovered and associated with and also removed from tasks of a workflow in response to notifications received from the workflow registry indicating that the resources are authenticated for access or rescinded from access.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising, one or more identity services to process on the machine or different machines, wherein the one or more identity services are to authenticate the resources for registration with the workflow registry.

17. The system of claim 15 further comprising, role definitions implemented in a machine-readable medium and accessible to the machine, wherein the workflow manager uses the role definitions to assign the resources to roles for access to the tasks of the workflow.

18. The system of claim 15 further comprising, an orchestration service to process on the machine, wherein the orchestration service is to dynamically initiate and configure a particular task on the machine for use with the workflow when the particular task is not already executing on the machine.

19. The system of claim 15 further comprising, a data center implemented in the machine and accessible to the workflow manager, wherein the virtualized data center includes a plurality of services, and wherein a number of the services are dynamically authenticated and registered for use in the workflow as the tasks via the workflow registry.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the data center is remote and external from an environment associated with the workflow manager, and wherein the services include some services that are virtual services.

21. A system, comprising:

a workflow embodied in a machine readable medium and to be accessed and processed on one or more machines; and

an identity service implemented and to process on one of the machines; and

a workflow manager implemented and to process on one of the machines, wherein the workflow is to include a plurality of tasks, each tasks capable of being handled by one or more resources, and at least some resources dynamically associated with at least some tasks after being dynamically detected and discovered on a network and dynamically authenticated with the identity service.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein at least some of the tasks are dynamically discovered and authenticated for use in the workflow via the identity service.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein a number of the resources are identified by static references within the workflow.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein at least some of the tasks are services executing within a local environment of the workflow manager and some other of the takes are services executing within an external environment over a wide area network and remote from the local environment.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the workflow manager is to assign roles to selective groupings of the resources, and wherein the roles are associated with policy and access rights for each of the tasks.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the workflow manager is to evaluate policy to determine whether a particular resource can reassign a particular task associated with the workflow.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the workflow manager is to reassign a particular task when an assigned resource to the particular task is detected as being unavailable or as being de-authorized for access to the workflow.

28. The system of claim 21, wherein the identity service is to cooperate with one or more external identity services to authenticate at least some of the resources for access to the workflow and the tasks of the workflow.