Prescriptive architecture recommendations

• US 7,979,520 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2005
• Issued: 07/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hardwick, Jonathan C., Oslake, John M, Papaefstathiou, Efstathios, Guimbellot, David E, Dournov, Pavel A
• Primary Examiner(s): Vy; Hung T
• Application Number:
  US11/107,657
• Publication Number:
  US 20060235859A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,279 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/102, 709/223, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/228, 713/300, 702/187
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A prescribed system architecture is recommended to an entity that desires to implement a system supporting distributed applications. A performance scenario is created based on anticipated usage, devices employed by servers running the distributed applications, and topology of locations using the servers. An optimized scenario may be provided by determining device optimization, different use load, and if possible consolidation of distributed applications on servers.

Claims

1. A method implemented on a computing device by a processor configured to execute instructions comprising:

generating a user profile directed to anticipated system use exclusive to an entity of a distributed application system of applications that are supported on various hardware, wherein the entity further provides at least one of usage data, organizational data, topology data, and architectural preferences;

determining hardware from the various hardware, that supports the generated user profile in the distributed application system, wherein the hardware includes servers and networked devices that are available only to the entity;

recommending a network architecture that implements the hardware options, wherein the network architecture is based at least on one of the usage data provided by the entity and specific to a particular industry, the organizational data describing specific information of offices and users associated with the offices, the topology data describing physical locations of offices that the entity desires to implement, and the architectural preferences of the entity, wherein the network architecture is available exclusively to the entity;

creating a performance scenario describing architectural topology of the distributed application system as a topology of a plurality of networked devices of the determined hardware, based on the user profile, the hardware, and the architecture; and

optimizing the performance scenario by;

factoring device options that are used in servers employed in the distributed application system;

scaling devices used in the servers based on a load applicable to the devices; and

consolidating the applications on the determined hardware.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating the user profile includes industry or business specific usage data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining hardware includes hardware options that are selected from a library or collection of the servers and hardware devices implementing the hardware devices.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the hardware options selected are based on specific services or applications.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommending includes applications and servers that are needed at a particular data center.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommending considers the topological data, wherein the topological data creates an internal model of locations or the offices, that are matched against a number of architectural templates to generate a final topology.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating the performance scenario includes computing an expected utilization based on user load from dependent offices for each of the hardware devices in every server in every data center.

8. One or more computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed perform the method as recited in claim 1.

9. A computing device comprising:

a processing unit;

a usage profile generator component generating a user profile, wherein the user profile is directed to system use exclusive to an entity of a distributed application system that includes applications supported by hardware of the system, wherein the system use includes data or profiles specific to particular industries or businesses;

a hardware instantiator component generating a hardware profile, wherein the hardware profile identifies the hardware of the system that includes servers and networked devices that support the generated user profile;

an architecture instantiator component recommending a network architecture, wherein the network architecture implements the hardware of the system, and the architecture is based at least on one of usage data, organizational data, topology data, and architectural preferences of the entity, wherein the network architecture is exclusive to the entity; and

an engine component creating a performance scenario, wherein the performance scenario describes architectural topology of the distributed application system as a topology of a plurality of networked devices of the determined hardware, based on the user profile, the hardware, and the architecture; and

optimizing the performance scenario by consolidating the applications on particular hardware of the system by factoring device options that are used in servers employed in the distributed application system and scaling devices used in the servers based on a load applicable to the devices.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the usage profile generator component combines assumptions provided in the usage data with the data or the profiles specific to the particular industries or businesses.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the hardware instantiator component includes hardware options that are selected from a library or collection of servers and networked devices implementing the hardware devices.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the hardware options selected are based on specific services or applications.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the architecture instantiator component further determines a particular data center where servers and applications are placed.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the architecture instantiator component further determines which architectural template is preferred based on best-practice recommendations applicable to particular applications.

15. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the engine component creates the performance scenario describing applications in one or more data centers, expected load in one or more offices, and types of servers for each application in the data centers.

16. A distributed application system comprising:

two or more data centers that provide particular software applications to support one or more offices; and

a network that connects the data centers to one another, wherein each data center performs the following;

generates a user profile directed to anticipated system use exclusive to an entity of the distributed application system, wherein the entity further provides at least one of usage data, organizational data, topology data, and architectural preferences;

determines a hardware profile, wherein the hardware profile includes a hardware that supports the generated user profile;

recommends an architecture that implements the hardware that supports the user profile, wherein the architecture is based at least on one of the usage data provided by the entity and specific to a particular industry, the organizational data describing specific information of offices and users associated with the offices, the topology data describing physical locations of offices that the entity desires to implement, and the architectural preferences of the entity, wherein the architecture is exclusively available to the entity;

creates a performance scenario describing architectural topology of the distributed application system as a topology of a plurality of hardware devices of the determined hardware, based on the user profile, the hardware, and the architecture; and

optimizes the performance scenario by consolidating the particular software applications on hardware provided by the hardware profile by factoring device options that are used in servers employed in the distributed application system and scaling devices used in the servers based on a load applicable to the devices.

17. The distributed application system of claim 16, wherein each data center determines the hardware profile that includes hardware options available to the entity.

18. The distributed application system of claim 16, wherein each data center recommends the architecture that includes applications and servers that are needed at a particular data center.

19. The distributed application system of claim 16, wherein each data center creates the performance scenario that is a singleton performance scenario describing applications in the data center, expected load in one or more offices, and types of servers for each application in the data center.

20. The distributed application system of claim 16, wherein each data center comprises an active directory component, wherein the active directory component identifies resources in each data center, and makes the resources accessible to one or more users.