PROVIDING CLOUD-BASED COMPUTING SERVICES

• US 20120110462A1
• Filed: 04/27/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Eswaran, Anand, Devaki, Vamsi Krishna, Guntupalli, Srinivas, Pai, Vishwas Venkatesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,621,058 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1439 time-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5041 characterised by the time relationship between creation and deployment of a service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

In a method for providing a cloud-based computing service to a user, a request for the computing service to be performed for the user is received, in which, the request includes a selection of at least one flow-slice, the at least one flow-slice comprising a network abstraction of a network pay-per-use unit. In addition, workloads to be performed by a plurality of infrastructure components to satisfy the at least one flow-slice are estimated and a provisioning scheme for the plurality of infrastructure components to implement the estimated workloads on the plurality of infrastructure components is determined.

Claims

1. A method for providing a cloud-based computing service to a user, said method comprising:

receiving a request for the computing service to be performed for the user, wherein the request includes a selection of at least one flow-slice, said at least one flow-slice comprising a network abstraction of a network pay-per-use unit;

estimating workloads to be performed by a plurality of infrastructure components to satisfy the at least one flow-slice; and

determining, using a processor, a provisioning scheme for the plurality of infrastructure components to implement the estimated workloads on the plurality of infrastructure components.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one flow-slice further comprises a definable unit of network use that includes at least one parameter associated with the network use for which the user is willing to pay, wherein the at least one parameter comprises at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of bandwidth, encryption, firewalls, and load-balancing.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one flow-slice comprises a first type of flow-slice and a second type of flow-slice, wherein the first type of flow-slice connects a pair of end-point networking components to each other, wherein the second type of flow-slice connects groups of end-point infrastructure components together, and wherein receiving the request for the service further comprises receiving a request that includes a selection of at least one of the first type of flow-slice and at least one of the second type of flow-slice.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining the provisioning scheme for the plurality of networking components further comprises mapping the at least one first type of flow-slice and the at least one of the second type of flow-slice to at least one of a respective virtual local area network (VLAN) and a respective virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instance to the plurality of infrastructure components.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein mapping further comprises:

for the at least one first type of flow-slice, finding a path in a network topology of the plurality of infrastructure components that connects two end-point infrastructure components of the plurality of infrastructure components that meets a network bandwidth constraint of the plurality of infrastructure components while minimizing total capacity utilization of the plurality of infrastructure components; and

for the at least one second type of flow-slice, finding a tree in the network topology that connects at least two groups of end-point infrastructure components.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of infrastructure components comprise network switches, said method further comprising:

dedicating each of the at least one of the VLANs and the VRF instances to the mapped at least one of the first type of flow-slice and the at least one of the second type of flow-slice; and

tagging ports of a plurality of the network switches corresponding to the path and tree onto the dedicated at least one of the VLANs and the VRF instances to configure the plurality of infrastructure components to perform the requested service.

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

supplying the user with an interface through which the user is configured to select various features for the service; and

wherein receiving the request for the service further comprises receiving the request for the service through the interface.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the interface is to provision the at least one flow-slice subject to at least one provision contained in a service level agreement.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the interface is to provide the user with customizable quality of service options associated with different flows between the plurality of networking components, and wherein receiving the request for the service further comprises receiving a selected quality of service option.

10. An apparatus for provisioning infrastructure components for providing a cloud-based computing service to a user, said apparatus comprising:

at least one module to receive a request for the computing service to be performed for the user, wherein the request includes a selection of at least one flow-slice, said at least one flow-slice comprising a network abstraction of a network pay-per-use unit, to estimate workloads to be performed by the infrastructure components to satisfy the at least one flow-slice, and to determine a provisioning scheme for the networking components to implement the estimated workloads; and

a processor to implement the at least one module.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one flow-slice further comprises a definable unit of network use that includes one or more parameters associated with the network use for which the user is willing to pay, wherein the at least one parameter comprises at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of bandwidth, encryption, firewalls, and load-balancing.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one flow-slice comprises a first type of flow-slice and a second type of flow-slice, wherein the first type of flow-slice connects a pair of end-point networking components to each other, wherein the second type of flow-slice connects groups of end-point infrastructure components together, and wherein receiving the request for the service further comprises receiving a request that includes a selection of at least one of the first type of flow-slice and at least one of the second type of flow-slice.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the at least one module is further to determine the provisioning scheme for the plurality of networking components further comprises mapping the at least one first type of flow-slice and the at least one of the second type of flow-slice to at least one of a respective virtual local area network (VLAN) and a respective virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instance to the plurality of infrastructure components in the plurality of infrastructure components.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein for the at least one first type of flow-slice, the at least one module is further to find a path in a network topology of the plurality of infrastructure components that connects two end-point infrastructure components of the plurality of infrastructure components that meets a network bandwidth constraint of the plurality of infrastructure components while minimizing total capacity utilization of the plurality of infrastructure components and for the at least one second type of flow-slice, the at least one module is further to find a tree in the network topology that connects at least two groups of end-point infrastructure components.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the plurality of infrastructure components comprise network switches, said at least one module is further to dedicate each of the at least one of the VLANs and the VRF instances to the mapped at least one of the first type of flow-slice and the at least one of the second type of flow-slice and to tag ports of a plurality of the network switches corresponding to the path and tree onto the dedicated at least one of the VLANs and the VRF instances to configure the plurality of infrastructure components to perform the requested service.

16. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one module is further to supply the user with an interface through which the user is configured to select various features for the service, and to receive the request for the service through the interface.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the interface is to provide the user with customizable quality of service options associated with different flows between the plurality of networking components, and wherein receiving the request for the service further comprises receiving a selected quality of service option, to provision the at least one flow-slice subject to at least one provision contained in a service level agreement, and to provide the user with a determined monetary cost associated with the determined provisioning scheme.

18. A computer readable storage medium on which is embedded at least one computer program, said at least one computer program implementing a method for providing a cloud-based computing service to a user, said at least one computer program comprising a set of instructions to:

receive a request for the computing service to be performed for the user, wherein the request includes a selection of at least one flow-slice, said at least one flow-slice comprising a definable unit of network use that includes at least one parameter associated with the network use for which the user is willing to pay, wherein the at least one parameter comprises at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of bandwidth, encryption, firewalls, and load-balancing;

estimate workloads to be performed by a plurality of infrastructure components to satisfy the at least one flow-slice; and

determine a provisioning scheme for the plurality of infrastructure components to implement the estimated workloads on the plurality of infrastructure components.

19. A computer readable storage medium on which is embedded at least one computer program, said at least one computer program implementing a service entry interface tool, said at least one computer program comprising a set of instructions to:

supply a plurality of parameter options pertaining to a request for computing service;

identify which of the plurality of parameter options have been selected, wherein the plurality of parameter options comprises at least one flow-slice, said at least one flow-slice comprising a network abstraction of a network pay-per-use unit;

estimate a monetary cost associated with the selected plurality of parameter options; and

receive instruction pertaining to whether the request for computing service having the identified parameter options and monetary cost is accepted.

20. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 19, wherein the at least one flow-slice further comprises a definable unit of network use that includes at least one parameter associated with the network use for which the user is willing to pay, wherein the at least one parameter comprises at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of bandwidth, encryption, firewalls, and load-balancing.

21. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 19, wherein the plurality of parameter options comprises infrastructure components, said at least one computer program comprising a set of instructions to:

identify a plurality of flow-slices, wherein each of the plurality of flow-slices defines different types of connections between selected ones of the infrastructure components.