CONFIGURING CLOUD RESOURCES

• US 20110307523A1
• Filed: 06/09/2010
• Published: 12/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sukthankar, Vijay K., Balani, Naveen G., Kumar, Archana
• Granted Patent: US 8,676,848 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/802
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method, system, and program product for identifying cloud resources are provided, and further a method, system, and program product for configuring cloud resources are provided. The method for identifying cloud resources may include receiving a request with respect to at least one resource in a cloud and determining a set of resources among the at least one resource in the cloud in accordance with the received request. Determining the set of resources may include consulting an ontology including metadata associated with the at least one resource in the cloud and computing the set of resources based on the metadata and the received request. Additionally, the method may include computing a cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources. Furthermore, the method may include rendering, in response to the received request, the determined set of resources and the cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request with respect to at least one resource in a cloud;

determining a set of resources among the at least one resource in the cloud in accordance with the received request, wherein determining the set of resources comprises;

consulting an ontology including metadata associated with the at least one resource in the cloud; and

computing the set of resources based on the metadata and the received request;

computing a cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources; and

rendering the determined set of resources and the cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ontology is stored in a repository, and wherein the metadata includes definition information and instance information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the repository includes at least one of structured data and unstructured data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the set of resources comprises evaluating relationships among the at least one resource in the cloud.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the set of resources comprises determining a computing environment in which to service the received request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the set of resources comprises determining at least one of a hardware resource and a software resource with which to service the received request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources comprises at least one of computing a cost factor for each of the determined set of resources and computing a total cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one resource in the cloud comprises at least one of an application server, a database, a managing service, a messaging service, and a set of software extensions.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the received request is in the form of a service level agreement, and wherein consulting the ontology comprises comparing terms in the service level agreement with terms describing the at least one resource in the cloud.

10. A method comprising:

identifying at least one new resource to add to a cloud, the cloud comprising at least one preexisting resource;

creating an ontology extension for the at least one new resource including metadata associated with the at least one new resource;

creating a relationship between the at least one new resource and the at least one preexisting resource, and storing information regarding the relationship among the metadata included in the ontology extension; and

storing the ontology extension.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising propagating information with respect to the at least one new resource to the at least one preexisting resource.

12. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code instructions stored therein comprising:

a first set of instructions for receiving a request with respect to at least one resource in a cloud;

a second set of instructions for determining a set of resources among the at least one resource in the cloud in accordance with the received request, wherein the second set of instructions comprises;

a third set of instructions for consulting an ontology including metadata associated with the at least one resource in the cloud; and

a fourth set of instructions for computing the set of resources based on the metadata and the received request;

a fifth set of instructions for computing a cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources; and

a sixth set of instructions for rendering the determined set of resources and the cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the ontology is stored in a repository, and wherein the metadata includes definition information and instance information.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the repository includes at least one of structured data and unstructured data.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the fourth set of instructions comprises a seventh set of instructions for evaluating relationships among the at least one resource in the cloud.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the fourth set of instructions comprises an eighth set of instructions for determining a computing environment in which to service the received request.

17. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the fourth set of instructions comprises a ninth set of instructions for determining at least one of a hardware resource and a software resource with which to service the received request.

18. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the fifth set of instructions comprises at least one of a tenth set of instructions for computing a cost factor for each of the determined set of resources and an eleventh set of instructions for computing a total cost factor with respect to the determined set of resources.

19. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the at least one resource in the cloud comprises at least one of an application server, a database, a managing service, a messaging service, and a set of software extensions.

20. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the received request is in the form of a service level agreement (SLA), and wherein the third set of instructions comprises a twelfth set of instructions for comparing terms in the service level agreement with terms describing the at least one resource in the cloud.

21. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code instructions stored therein comprising:

a first set of instructions for identifying at least one new resource to add to a cloud, the cloud comprising at least one preexisting resource;

a second set of instructions for creating an ontology extension for the at least one new resource including metadata associated with the at least one new resource;

a third set of instructions for creating a relationship between the at least one new resource and the at least one preexisting resource and for storing information regarding the relationship among the metadata included in the ontology extension; and

a fourth set of instructions for storing the ontology extension.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, further comprising a fifth set of instructions for propagating information with respect to the at least one new resource to the at least one preexisting resource.