Managing content delivery network service providers by a content broker

• US 8,122,098 B1
• Filed: 11/17/2008
• Issued: 02/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Richardson, David R., Marshall, Bradley E., Sivasubramanian, Swaminathan, Saraf, Tal, Patel, Imran S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Salad, Abdullahi
• Application Number:
  US12/272,715
• Time in Patent Office: 1,191 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709/226, 709223-224
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/301 Name conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs

Abstract

A system, method, and computer readable medium for managing network storage provider and CDN service providers are provided. A content broker component obtains client computing device requests for content provided by a content provider. The content broker processes the client computing device requests and determines whether a subsequent request for the resource should be directed to a network storage provider or a CDN service provider as a function of the updated or processed by the content broker.

Claims

1. A system for managing content requests comprising:

a data store operative to maintain request processing criteria corresponding to requested resources, the request processing criteria including at least one of financial cost information, quality of service information, volume of request information and content provider specified specific criteria; and

a storage management component operative to;

obtain a client computing device domain name system (DNS) query corresponding to one or more requested resources;

identify a network storage service provider and one or more content delivery network (CDN) service providers for providing a requested resource to a client computing device, wherein the network storage service provider and one or more content delivery network service providers are independent of the storage management component;

as a function of the request processing criteria, determine whether a subsequent request for the requested resource corresponding to the DNS query should be received by the identified network storage service provider or by the identified one or more CDN service providers, wherein the storage management component makes the determination by;

associating a financial cost with each of the identified network storage service provider and the identified one or more CDN service providers, wherein the financial cost corresponds to a financial cost attributed to a content provider for providing the requested resource corresponding to the DNS query by the identified network storage service provider and by the identified one or more CDN service providers respectively; and

selecting at least one alternative resource identifier associated with at least one of the identified network storage service provider and the identified one or more CDN service providers based on a financial cost for providing the requested resource below a cost threshold; and

in response to the DNS query, cause the return of the at least one alternative resource identifier.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the client computing device DNS query is associated with an embedded resource.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the volume of request information includes at least one of a total number of requests obtained from client computing devices for a resource over a defined period of time, trends regarding an increase in requests from client computing devices for the resource, and trends regarding a decrease in requests from client computing devices for the resource.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the storage management component is further operative to cause the registration of at least one of a network storage provider and a CDN service provider such that the at least one of a network storage provider and a CDN service provider will begin providing the requested resource.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the registration of the at least one of a network storage provider and a CDN service provider is completed automatically without requiring additional interaction from a content provider.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the alternative resource identifier corresponding to the selected one of a network storage service provider or CDN service provider corresponds to at least one of a network storage provider and a CDN service provider associated with a lowest financial cost for providing the requested resource.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein selecting at least one alternative resource identifier associated with at least one of the identified network storage service provider and the identified one or more CDN service includes selecting at least one alternative resource identifier based on at least one of a characteristic of the content provider and a characteristic of the client computing device.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the storage management component is further operative to alternatively return an IP address associated with at least one of the identified network storage service provider and the identified one or more CDN service providers.

9. A method for managing resource requests comprising:

obtaining, by a storage management component, a domain name system (DNS) query from a client computing device, the DNS query corresponding to a resource maintained by a network storage provider on behalf of a content provider;

identifying, by the storage management component, a network storage service provider and one or more content delivery network (CDN) service providers for providing a requested resource to a client computing device, wherein the network storage service provider and one or more CDN service providers are independent of the storage management component;

associating, by the storage management component, a financial cost with each of the identified network storage service provider and the identified one or more CDN service providers, wherein the financial cost corresponds to a financial cost attributed to the content provider for providing the resource corresponding to the DNS query by the identified network storage service provider and by the identified one or more CDN service providers respectively;

selecting, by the storage management component, at least one of an IP address associated with the identified network storage service provider and an alternative resource identifier associated with one of the identified one or more CDN service providers based on a financial cost for providing the requested resource below a cost threshold and at least one other request routing criterion; and

transmitting, by the storage management component, the selected one of the alternative resource identifiers associated with one of the identified one or more CDN service providers or the IP address associated with the identified network storage service provider.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the at least one other request routing criterion includes at least one of a total number of requests obtained from client computing devices for a resource over a defined period of time, trends regarding an increase in requests from client computing devices for the resource, and trends regarding a decrease in requests from client computing devices for the resource.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the request routing criterion includes cost information.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the cost information includes financial cost information attributable to the content provider.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the at least one other request routing criterion includes a lowest financial cost for providing the requested resource.

14. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein transmitting the alternative resource identifier associated with one of the identified one or more CDN service providers or the IP address associated with the identified network storage service provider includes:

identifying one or more service providers associated with a quality of service for providing the requested resource; and

selecting a service provider from the one or more service providers associated with a quality of service threshold.

15. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein transmitting the alternative resource identifier associated with one of the identified one or more CDN service provider providers or the IP address associated with the identified network storage service provider includes:

identifying one or more service providers associated with a content provider metric for providing the requested resource; and

selecting a service provider from the one or more service providers associated with a content provider metric threshold.

16. The method as recited in claim 9 further comprising causing the registration of the selected service provider such that the selected service provider will begin providing the requested resource.

17. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the alternative resource identifier corresponds to a canonical name (CNAME).

18. A system for managing content requests comprising:

a data store operative to maintain request processing criteria corresponding to requested resources; and

a storage management component operative to;

obtain information indicative of client computing device requests for a resource;

update the request processing criteria maintained in the data store corresponding to the request for the resource;

identify a network storage service provider and one or more content delivery network (CDN) service providers for providing the requested resource to a client computing device, wherein the network storage service provider and one or more content delivery network service providers are independent of the storage management component;

associate a financial cost with each of the identified network storage service provider and the identified one or more CDN service providers, wherein the financial cost corresponds to a financial cost attributed to a content provider for providing the requested resource by the identified network storage service provider and by the identified one or more CDN service providers respectively;

select at least one service provider from at least one of the of the identified network storage service provider and the identified one or more CDN service providers based on a financial cost for providing the requested resource below a cost threshold and at least one other request processing criterion; and

generate a recommendation regarding the selected at least one service provider.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the client computing device request for the resource corresponds to a domain name system (DNS) query corresponding to an embedded resource.

20. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein a universal resource locator (URL) corresponding to the DNS query includes at least one field identifying the requested resource that can be identified during the processing of the DNS query.

21. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the request processing criteria include at least one of a total number of requests obtained from client computing devices for a resource over a defined period of time, trends regarding an increase in requests from client computing devices for the resource, trends regarding a decrease in requests from client computing devices for the resource and a current financial cost associated with the delivery of the resource by a storage component.

22. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the storage management component is further operative to cause the registration of a selected storage provider such that the selected service provider will begin providing the requested resource.

23. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the registration of the selected service provider is completed automatically without requiring additional interaction from a content provider.

24. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the storage management component is further operative to:

obtain information indicative of subsequent client computing device requests for a resource;

update the request processing criteria maintained in the data corresponding to the subsequent request for the resource;

select a second service provider based at least on a financial cost for providing the requested resource below a cost threshold; and

generate an alternative recommendation regarding the selected second service provider.