EVALUATING SOFTWARE COMPLIANCE

• US 20160139915A1
• Filed: 06/12/2014
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: DIMITRAKOS, Theo, GEORGALAS, Nektarios, EL-MOUSSA, Fadi, PAWAR, Pramod, VAFIADIS, George
• Granted Patent: US 9,778,930 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals

Abstract

A software compliance assessment apparatus for determining a level of compliance of a software application in execution in a virtualised computing environment, the apparatus comprising: an identifier component operable to identify resources instantiated for execution of the application; a retriever component operable to retrieve a compliance characteristic for the application, the compliance characteristic being retrieved based on the identified resources, and the compliance characteristic having associated a compliance criterion based on a formal parameter; a selector component operable to select a software component for providing an actual parameter corresponding to the formal parameter, the actual parameter being based on data concerning at least one of the resources; an evaluator component operable to evaluate the compliance criterion using the actual parameter; and a detector component operable to detect a change to one or more of the resources, wherein the identifier component, selector component and evaluator component are operable in response to a determination by the detector component that one or more resources is changed, wherein the selector component selects the software component based on an identification of one or more data items that the software component is operable to provide.

Claims

1. A software compliance assessment apparatus for determining a level of compliance of a software application in execution in a virtualised computing environment, the apparatus comprising:

an identifier adapted to identify resources instantiated for execution of the application;

a retriever adapted to retrieve a compliance characteristic for the application, the compliance characteristic being retrieved based on the identified resources, and the compliance characteristic having associated a compliance criterion based on a formal parameter;

a selector adapted to select a software component for providing an actual parameter corresponding to the formal parameter, the actual parameter being based on data concerning at least one of the resources;

an evaluator adapted to evaluate the compliance criterion using the actual parameter; and

a detector adapted to detect a change to one or more of the resources,

wherein the identifier, selector and evaluator are operable in response to a determination by the detector that one or more resources is changed,

wherein the selector selects the software component based on an identification of one or more data items that the software component is operable to provide.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the software component is a first software component and the first software component is operable to select a second software component, the second software component providing at least some of the data concerning the at least one of the resources.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the data concerning the at least one of the resources includes at least one of:

a measurement of a characteristic of the resource;

an indicator of a state of the resource; and

indicator of an occurrence of an event associated with the resource.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the actual parameter is determined based on a transformation of the data concerning the at least one of the resources.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the compliance criterion is a first criterion in a set of multiple compliance criteria for the compliance characteristic, each of the multiple compliance criteria being based on a formal parameter,

wherein the selector is further adapted to select one or more additional software components for providing an actual parameter corresponding to a formal parameter for each other criterion in the set of multiple compliance criteria, and

wherein the evaluator is further adapted to evaluate each of the compliance criteria using a corresponding actual parameter to determine the level of compliance.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the software component provides an identification of one or more data items that the software component is operable to provide in response to a request for such identification.

7. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the second software component provides an identification of one or more data items that the second software component is operable to provide, and the selection of the second software component is based on the identification by the second software component.

8. A method of a compliance assessment component for determining a level of compliance of a software application in execution in a virtualised computing environment, the method comprising:

identifying resources instantiated for execution of the application;

retrieving a compliance characteristic for the application, the compliance characteristic being retrieved based on the identified resources, and the compliance characteristic having associated a compliance criterion based on a formal parameter;

selecting a software component for providing an actual parameter corresponding to the formal parameter, the actual parameter being based on data concerning at least one of the resources;

evaluating the compliance criterion using the actual parameter; and

in response to a determination that one or more resources is changed, repeating at least the identifying, selecting and evaluating steps,

wherein the selection of the software component is based on an identification of one or more data items that the software component is operable to provide.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the software component is a first software component and the first software component is operable to select a second software component, the second software component providing at least some of the data concerning the at least one of the resources.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the data concerning the at least one of the resources includes at least one of:

a measurement of a characteristic of the resource;

an indicator of a state of the resource; and

an indicator of an occurrence of an event associated with the resource.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the actual parameter is determined based on a transformation of the data concerning the at least one of the resources.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the compliance criterion is a first criterion in a set of multiple compliance criteria for the compliance characteristic, each of the multiple compliance criteria being based on a formal parameter,

wherein the selecting step further comprises selecting one or more additional software components for providing an actual parameter corresponding to a formal parameter for each other criterion in the set of multiple compliance criteria, and

wherein the evaluating step further comprises evaluating each of the compliance criteria using a corresponding actual parameter to determine the level of compliance.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the software component provides an identification of one or more data items that the software component is operable to provide in response to a request for such identification.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the second software component provides an identification of one or more data items that the second software component is operable to provide, and the selection of the second software component is based on the identification by the second software component.

15. A computer program element comprising computer program code to, when loaded into a computer system and executed thereon, cause the computer to perform the steps of a method as claimed in claim 8.