U.S. patent application number 13/841768 was filed with the patent office on 2014-03-13 for ramped ordering for cloud services.
This patent application is currently assigned to Oracle International Corporation. The applicant listed for this patent is ORACLE INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Gopalan Arun, Ramkrishna Chatterjee, Pradeep Seetharam, Ramesh Vasudevan.
Application Number | 20140074659 13/841768 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 50234244 |
Filed Date | 2014-03-13 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140074659 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chatterjee; Ramkrishna ; et
al. |
March 13, 2014 |
RAMPED ORDERING FOR CLOUD SERVICES
Abstract
Provisioning, managing and tracking of services provided by a
cloud infrastructure system are described. A subscription request
from a customer for one or more services provided by the cloud
infrastructure system is received. The request includes a
specification of services with different service levels for
different time periods. A phased deployment of a customer's
subscription order based on the service levels and time periods
specified by the customer in the subscription order is then
determined.
Inventors: |
Chatterjee; Ramkrishna;
(Nashua, NH) ; Vasudevan; Ramesh; (Los Altos,
CA) ; Seetharam; Pradeep; (Fremont, CA) ;
Arun; Gopalan; (Saratoga, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
ORACLE INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION |
Redwood Shores |
CA |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Oracle International
Corporation
Redwood Shores
CA
|
Family ID: |
50234244 |
Appl. No.: |
13/841768 |
Filed: |
March 15, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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61698413 |
Sep 7, 2012 |
|
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|
61698459 |
Sep 7, 2012 |
|
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61785299 |
Mar 14, 2013 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/26.81 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 41/5054 20130101;
H04L 43/0876 20130101; G06F 17/30174 20130101; G06Q 10/06315
20130101; G06F 16/273 20190101; H04L 41/0686 20130101; H04L 41/50
20130101; G06F 16/2308 20190101; G06Q 10/0633 20130101; G06F
16/2282 20190101; H04L 41/5064 20130101; G06Q 30/0633 20130101;
G06F 16/284 20190101; G06F 16/2365 20190101; H04L 41/00 20130101;
G06F 16/122 20190101; H04L 63/20 20130101; G06F 16/27 20190101;
G06F 16/283 20190101; H04L 47/70 20130101; H04L 63/10 20130101;
H04L 67/10 20130101; G06Q 30/0635 20130101; H04L 41/5041
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/26.81 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/06 20060101
G06Q030/06 |
Claims
1. A system comprising: one or more computing devices configurable
to provide one or more services; a memory configurable to store
subscription order information identifying a service from the set
of services; and wherein a computing device from the one or more
computing devices is configurable to: receive a subscription order
requesting the service; identify, based upon the subscription
order, a request for a first service level to be provided for the
service for a first time period; cause a base order to be scheduled
for execution for the first time period, the base order
corresponding to the service at the first service level for the
first time period; identify based upon the subscription order, a
request for one or more additional service levels to be provided
for the service for one or more future time periods, wherein the
one or more future time periods is after the first time period; and
cause one or more additional orders to be scheduled for execution
for the one or more future time periods, the one or more additional
orders corresponding to the one or more additional service levels
of the service to be provided over the one or more future time
periods.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device is configured
to identify, based upon the subscription order, a request for one
or more additional services to be provided with the same service
level or with a different service level as compared to the first
service level at the one or more future time periods.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more additional orders
comprise one or more ramp-up orders, wherein the one or more
ramp-up orders specify a service level that is higher than the
first service level corresponding to the base order.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more additional orders
comprise one or more ramp-down orders, wherein the one or more
ramp-down orders specify a service level that is lower than the
first service level corresponding to the base order.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more additional orders
are determined based on a customer level related to the customer
specified in the subscription order.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more additional orders
are determined based on a current usage of computing resources
utilized by the customer in the base order.
7. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device is configured
to determine an initial physical configuration of the base order
based on the one or more additional orders.
8. A method comprising: receiving, by a computing device in a cloud
infrastructure system, a subscription order requesting a service
offered by the cloud infrastructure system; identifying, by the
computing device, based upon the subscription order, a request for
a first service level to be provided for the service for a first
time period; causing, by the computing device, a base order to be
scheduled for execution for the first time period, the base order
corresponding to the service at the first service level for the
first time period; identifying, by the computing device, based upon
the subscription order, a request for one or more additional
service levels to be provided for the service for one or more
future time periods, wherein the one or more future time periods is
after the first time period; causing, by the computing device, one
or more additional orders to be scheduled for execution for the one
or more future time periods, the one or more additional orders
corresponding to the one or more additional service levels of the
service to be provided over the one or more future time
periods.
9. The method of claim 8 comprising identifying, based upon the
subscription order, a request for one or more additional services
to be provided with the same service level or with a different
service level as compared to the first service level at the one or
more future time periods.
10. The method of claim 8 wherein the one or more additional orders
comprise one or more ramp-up orders, wherein the one or more
ramp-up orders specify a service level that is higher than the
first service level corresponding to the base order.
11. The method of claim 8 wherein the one or more additional orders
comprise one or more ramp-down orders, wherein the one or more
ramp-down orders specify a service level that is lower than the
first service level corresponding to the base order.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein the one or more ramp-down orders
specify a removal of the service from the subscription order.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more additional orders
are determined based on a customer level related to the customer
specified in the subscription order.
14. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more additional orders
are determined based on a current usage of computing resources
utilized by the customer in the base order.
15. A computer-readable memory storing a plurality of instructions
executable by one or more processors, the plurality of instructions
comprising: instructions that cause at least one processor from the
one or more processors to store subscription order information to
identify a service from the set of services; instructions that
cause at least one processor from the one or more processors to
receive a subscription order requesting the service; instructions
that cause at least one processor from the one or more processors
to identify, based upon the subscription order, a request for a
first service level to be provided for the service for a first time
period; instructions that cause at least one processor from the one
or more processors to cause a base order to be scheduled for
execution for the first time period, the base order corresponding
to the service at the first service level for the first time
period; instructions that cause at least one processor from the one
or more processors to identify based upon the subscription order, a
request for one or more additional service levels to be provided
for the service for one or more future time periods, wherein the
one or more future time periods is after the first time period; and
instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more
processors to cause one or more additional orders to be scheduled
for execution for the one or more future time periods, the one or
more additional orders corresponding to the one or more additional
service levels of the service to be provided over the one or more
future time periods.
16. The computer-readable memory of claim 15 wherein the
instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more
processors to identify the request comprise instructions to
identify, based upon the subscription order, a request for one or
more additional services to be provided with the same service level
or with a different service level as compared to the first service
level at the one or more future time periods.
17. The computer-readable memory of claim 15 wherein the one or
more additional orders comprise one or more ramp-up orders, wherein
the one or more ramp-up orders specify a service level that is
higher than the first service level corresponding to the base
order.
18. The computer-readable memory of claim 15 wherein the one or
more additional orders comprise one or more ramp-down orders,
wherein the one or more ramp-down orders specify a service level
that is lower than the first service level corresponding to the
base order.
19. The computer-readable memory of claim 15 wherein the one or
more additional orders are determined based on at least a customer
level related to the customer specified in the subscription order
or based on a current usage of computing resources utilized by the
customer in the base order.
20. The computer-readable memory of claim 15 further comprising
instructions that cause at least one processor from the one or more
processors to receive updates to one or more of the service levels
and the time periods specified in the base order and the one or
more additional orders from the customer and modifying the one or
more service levels and the time periods based on the updates.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is a non-provisional of and claims
the benefit and priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of the following
applications, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein
by reference for all purposes: [0002] (1) U.S. Provisional
Application No. 61/698,413, filed Sep. 7, 2012, entitled TENANT
AUTOMATION SYSTEM; [0003] (2) U.S. Provisional Application No.
61/698,459, filed Sep. 7, 2012, entitled SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
INFRASTRUCTURE; and [0004] (3) U.S. Provisional Application No.
61/785,299, filed Mar. 14, 2013, entitled CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE.
BACKGROUND
[0005] The present disclosure relates to computer systems and
software, and more particularly to techniques for facilitating and
automating the provision of services in a cloud environment.
[0006] Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient,
on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing
resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and
services). The services provided or accessed through the cloud (or
network) are referred to as cloud services. There is a lot of
processing that needs to be performed by a cloud service provider
to make cloud services available to a subscribing customer. Due to
its complexity, much of this processing is still done manually. For
example, provisioning resources for providing such cloud services
can be a very labor intensive process.
SUMMARY
[0007] Certain embodiments of the present invention provide
techniques for automating the provisioning, managing and tracking
of services provided by a cloud infrastructure system. In one
embodiment, the cloud infrastructure system stores subscription
order information related to one or more services subscribed to by
a customer in the cloud infrastructure system.
[0008] In one embodiment, upon receiving a subscription request
from a customer for one or more services, cloud infrastructure
system includes techniques for providing the customer with the
ability to request for services in a subscription order with
different service levels for different time periods. In this
manner, a customer is provided with the ability to subscribe to a
multi-year (or other time period) plan, with changing service
levels (increasing/decreasing) from one year to the next. The
manner in which the service levels are defined may be
service-specific and may vary from one service to another. In one
embodiment, the service levels relate to the amount of resources
assigned to one or more services in the subscription order. In one
embodiment, techniques are provided for performing a phased
deployment of a customer's subscription order based on the service
levels and time periods specified by the customer in the
subscription order.
[0009] Some embodiments relate to a method for receiving a
subscription order requesting a service offered by the cloud
infrastructure system. The method includes identifying a request
for a first service level to be provided for the service for a
first time period, based on the subscription order. The method then
includes a base order to be scheduled for execution for the first
time period. The base order corresponds to the service at the first
service level for the first time period. Then, the method includes
identifying, based upon the subscription order, a request for
additional service levels to be provided for the service for future
time periods. In one embodiment, the future time periods occur
after the first time period. The additional orders are then to be
scheduled for execution for the future time periods. The additional
orders correspond to the additional service levels of the service
to be provided over the future time periods.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are
described in detail below with reference to the following drawing
figures:
[0011] FIG. 1A is a logical view of a cloud infrastructure system
according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0012] FIG. 1B is a simplified block diagram of a hardware/software
stack that may be used to implement a cloud infrastructure system
according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0013] FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a system environment
for implementing the cloud infrastructure system shown in FIG.
1A.
[0014] FIG. 3A depicts a simplified flowchart depicting processing
that may be performed by the TAS module in the cloud infrastructure
system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present
invention.
[0015] FIG. 3B depicts a simplified high level diagram of one or
more sub-modules in the TAS module in the cloud infrastructure
system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present
invention.
[0016] FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary distributed deployment of the
TAS component, according to an embodiment of the present
invention.
[0017] FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram illustrating the
interactions of the SDI module with one or more modules in the
cloud infrastructure system, in accordance with an embodiment of
the present invention.
[0018] FIG. 6 depicts a simplified high level diagram of
sub-modules of the SDI module according to an embodiment of the
present invention.
[0019] FIG. 7A depicts a simplified flowchart depicting processing
that may be performed by the SDI component in the cloud
infrastructure system, in accordance with an embodiment of the
present invention.
[0020] FIG. 7B depicts a simplified block diagram showing the
high-level architecture of a Nuviaq system 710 and its
relationships with other cloud infrastructure components according
to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0021] FIG. 7C depicts an example sequence diagram illustrating
steps of a provisioning process using a Nuviaq system according to
an embodiment of the present invention.
[0022] FIG. 7D depicts an example sequence diagram illustrating
steps of a deployment process using a Nuviaq system according to an
embodiment of the present invention.
[0023] FIG. 7E depicts an example of database instances provisioned
for a database service according to an embodiment of the present
invention.
[0024] FIG. 8 is a high level block diagram illustrating modules in
the cloud infrastructure system for performing a phased deployment
of a customer's subscription order, in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention.
[0025] FIG. 9 depicts a simplified flowchart depicting processing
that may be performed by the order processing module in the cloud
infrastructure system, in accordance with an embodiment of the
present invention.
[0026] FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of a computing system
1000 that may be used in accordance with embodiments of the present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0027] In the following description, for the purposes of
explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide a
thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. However, it
will be apparent that various embodiments may be practiced without
these specific details. The figures and description are not
intended to be restrictive.
[0028] Certain embodiments of the present invention provide
techniques for automating the provisioning, managing and tracking
of services provided by a cloud infrastructure system.
[0029] In certain embodiments, a cloud infrastructure system may
include a suite of applications, middleware and database service
offerings that are delivered to a customer in a self-service,
subscription-based, elastically scalable, reliable, highly
available, and secure manner. An example of such a cloud
infrastructure system is the Oracle Public Cloud provided by the
present assignee.
[0030] A cloud infrastructure system may provide many capabilities
including, but not limited to, provisioning, managing and tracking
a customer's subscription for services and resources in the cloud
infrastructure system, providing predictable operating expenses to
customers utilizing the services in the cloud infrastructure
system, providing robust identity domain separation and protection
of a customer's data in the cloud infrastructure system, providing
customers with a transparent architecture and control of the design
of the cloud infrastructure system, providing customers assured
data protection and compliance with data privacy standards and
regulations, providing customers with an integrated development
experience for building and deploying services in the cloud
infrastructure system and providing customers with a seamless
integration between business software, middleware, database and
infrastructure services in the cloud infrastructure system.
[0031] In certain embodiments, services provided by the cloud
infrastructure system may include a host of services that are made
available to users of the cloud infrastructure system on demand
such as online data storage and backup solutions, Web-based e-mail
services, hosted office suites and document collaboration services,
database processing, managed technical support services and the
like. Services provided by the cloud infrastructure system can
dynamically scale to meet the needs of its users. A specific
instantiation of a service provided by cloud infrastructure system
is referred to herein as a service instance. In general, any
service made available to a user via a communication network such
as the Internet from a cloud service provider's system is referred
to as a cloud service. Typically, in a public cloud environment,
servers and systems that make up the cloud service provider's
system are different from the customer's own on-premises servers
and systems. For example, a cloud service provider's system may
host an application and a user may, via a communication network
such as the Internet, on demand, order and use the application.
[0032] A service in a computer network cloud infrastructure
includes protected computer network access to storage, a hosted
database, a hosted web server, a software application, or other
service provided by a cloud vendor to a user, or as otherwise known
in the art. For example, a service can include password-protected
access to remote storage on the cloud through the Internet. As
another example, a service can include a web service-based hosted
relational database and script-language middleware engine for
private use by a networked developer. As another example, a service
can include access to an email software application hosted on a
cloud vendor's web site.
[0033] FIG. 1A is a logical view of a cloud infrastructure system
according to one embodiment of the present invention. Cloud
infrastructure system 100 may provide a variety of services via a
cloud or networked environment. These services may include one or
more services provided under Software as a Service (SaaS) category,
Platform as a Service (PaaS) category, Infrastructure as a Service
(IaaS) category, or other categories of services including hybrid
services. A customer, via a subscription order, may order one or
more services provided by cloud infrastructure system 100. Cloud
infrastructure system 100 then performs processing to provide the
services in the customer's subscription order.
[0034] Cloud infrastructure system 100 may provide the cloud
services via different deployment models. For example, services may
be provided under a public cloud model where cloud infrastructure
system 100 is owned by an organization selling cloud services
(e.g., owned by Oracle) and the services are made available to the
general public or different industry enterprises. As another
example, services may be provided under a private cloud model where
cloud infrastructure system 100 is operated solely for a single
organization and may provide services for one or more entities
within the organization. The cloud services may also be provided
under a community cloud model where cloud infrastructure system 100
and the services provided by system 100 are shared by several
organizations in a related community. The cloud services may also
be provided under a hybrid cloud model, which is a combination of
two or more different models.
[0035] As shown in FIG. 1A, cloud infrastructure system 100 may
comprise multiple components, which working in conjunction, enable
provision of services provided by cloud infrastructure system 100.
In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1A, cloud infrastructure
system 100 includes a SaaS platform 102, a PaaS platform 104, an
IaaS platform 110, infrastructure resources 106, and cloud
management functionality 108. These components may be implemented
in hardware, or software, or combinations thereof.
[0036] SaaS platform 102 is configured to provide cloud services
that fall under the SaaS category. For example, SaaS platform 102
may provide capabilities to build and deliver a suite of on-demand
applications on an integrated development and deployment platform.
SaaS platform 102 may manage and control the underlying software
and infrastructure for providing the SaaS services. By utilizing
the services provided by SaaS platform 102, customers can utilize
applications executing on cloud infrastructure system 100.
Customers can acquire the application services without the need for
customers to purchase separate licenses and support.
[0037] Various different SaaS services may be provided. Examples
include without limitation services that provide solutions for
sales performance management, enterprise integration and business
flexibility for large organizations, and the like. In one
embodiment, the SaaS services may include Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) services 110 (e.g., Fusion CRM services provided
by the Oracle cloud), Human Capital Management (HCM)/Talent
Management services 112, and the like. CRM services 110 may include
services directed to reporting and management of a sales activity
cycle to a customer, and others. HCM/Talent services 112 may
include services directed to providing global workforce lifecycle
management and talent management services to a customer.
[0038] Various different PaaS services may be provided by PaaS
platform 104 in a standardized, shared and elastically scalable
application development and deployment platform. Examples of PaaS
services may include without limitation services that enable
organizations (such as Oracle) to consolidate existing applications
on a shared, common architecture, as well as the ability to build
new applications that leverage the shared services provided by the
platform. PaaS platform 104 may manage and control the underlying
software and infrastructure for providing the PaaS services.
Customers can acquire the PaaS services provided by cloud
infrastructure system 100 without the need for customers to
purchase separate licenses and support. Examples of PaaS services
include without limitation Oracle Java Cloud Service (JCS), Oracle
Database Cloud Service (DBCS), and others.
[0039] By utilizing the services provided by PaaS platform 104,
customers can utilize programming languages and tools supported by
cloud infrastructure system 100 and also control the deployed
services. In some embodiments, PaaS services provided by the cloud
infrastructure system 100 may include database cloud services 114,
middleware cloud services (e.g., Oracle Fusion Middleware services)
116 and Java cloud services 117. In one embodiment, database cloud
services 114 may support shared service deployment models that
enable organizations to pool database resources and offer customers
a database-as-a-service in the form of a database cloud, middleware
cloud services 116 provides a platform for customers to develop and
deploy various business applications and Java cloud services 117
provides a platform for customers to deploy Java applications, in
the cloud infrastructure system 100. The components in SaaS
platform 102 and PaaS platform 104 illustrated in FIG. 1A are meant
for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the
scope of embodiments of the present invention. In alternate
embodiments, SaaS platform 102 and PaaS platform 104 may include
additional components for providing additional services to the
customers of cloud infrastructure system 100.
[0040] Various different IaaS services may be provided by IaaS
platform 110. The IaaS services facilitate the management and
control of the underlying computing resources such as storage,
networks, and other fundamental computing resources for customers
utilizing services provided by the SaaS platform and the PaaS
platform.
[0041] In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 100
includes infrastructure resources 106 for providing the resources
used to provide various services to customers of the cloud
infrastructure system 100. In one embodiment, infrastructure
resources 106 includes pre-integrated and optimized combinations of
hardware such as servers, storage and networking resources to
execute the services provided by the PaaS platform and the SaaS
platform.
[0042] In certain embodiments, cloud management functionality 108
provides comprehensive management of cloud services (e.g., SaaS,
PaaS, IaaS services) in the cloud infrastructure system 100. In one
embodiment, cloud management functionality 108 includes
capabilities for provisioning, managing and tracking a customer's
subscription received by the cloud infrastructure system 100, and
the like.
[0043] FIG. 1B is a simplified block diagram of a hardware/software
stack that may be used to implement cloud infrastructure system 100
according to an embodiment of the present invention. It should be
appreciated that implementation depicted in FIG. 1B may have other
components than those depicted in FIG. 1B. Further, the embodiment
shown in FIG. 1B is only one example of a cloud infrastructure
system that may incorporate an embodiment of the invention. In some
other embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 100 may have more or
fewer components than shown in FIG. 1B, may combine two or more
components, or may have a different configuration or arrangement of
components. In certain embodiments, the hardware and software
components are stacked so as to provide vertical integration that
provides optimal performance.
[0044] Various types of users may interact with cloud
infrastructure system 100. These users may include, for example,
end users 150 that can interact with cloud infrastructure system
100 using various client devices such as desktops, mobile devices,
tablets, and the like. The users may also include
developers/programmers 152 who may interact with cloud
infrastructure system 100 using command line interfaces (CLIs),
application programming interfaces (APIs), through various
integrated development environments (IDEs), and via other
applications. User may also include operations personnel 154. These
may include personnel of the cloud service provider or personnel of
other users.
[0045] Application services layer 156 identifies various cloud
services that may be offered by cloud infrastructure system 100.
These services may be mapped to or associated with respective
software components 160 (e.g., Oracle WebLogic server for providing
Java services, oracle database for providing database services, and
the like) via a service integration and linkages layer 158.
[0046] In certain embodiments, a number of internal services 162
may be provided that are shared by different components or modules
of cloud infrastructure system 100 and by the services provided by
cloud infrastructure system 100. These internal shared services may
include, without limitation, a security and identity service, an
integration service, an enterprise repository service, an
enterprise manager service, a virus scanning and white list
service, a high availability, backup and recovery service, service
for enabling cloud support in IDEs, an email service, a
notification service, a file transfer service, and the like.
[0047] Runtime infrastructure layer 164 represents the hardware
layer on which the various other layers and components are built.
In certain embodiments, runtime infrastructure layer 164 may
comprise one Oracle's Exadata machines for providing storage,
processing, and networking resources. An Exadata machine may be
composed of various database servers, storage Servers, networking
resources, and other components for hosting cloud-services related
software layers. In certain embodiments, the Exadata machines may
be designed to work with Oracle Exalogic, which is an engineered
system providing an assemblage of storage, compute, network, and
software resources. The combination of Exadata and Exalogic
provides a complete hardware and software engineered solution that
delivers high-performance, highly available, scalable, secure, and
a managed platform for providing cloud services.
[0048] FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a system environment
for implementing the cloud infrastructure system shown in FIG. 1A
according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the
illustrated embodiment, system environment 230 includes one or more
client computing devices 224, 226 and 228 that may be used by users
to interact with cloud infrastructure system 100. A client device
may be configured to operate a client application such as a web
browser, a proprietary client application (e.g., Oracle Forms), or
some other application, which may be used by a user of the client
device to interact with cloud infrastructure system 100 to utilize
services provided by cloud infrastructure system 100.
[0049] It should be appreciated that cloud infrastructure system
100 depicted in FIG. 2 may have other components than those
depicted in FIG. 2. Further, the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is only
one example of a cloud infrastructure system that may incorporate
an embodiment of the invention. In some other embodiments, cloud
infrastructure system 100 may have more or fewer components than
shown in FIG. 2, may combine two or more components, or may have a
different configuration or arrangement of components.
[0050] Client computing devices 224, 226 and 228 may be general
purpose personal computers (including, by way of example, personal
computers and/or laptop computers running various versions of
Microsoft Windows and/or Apple Macintosh operating systems), cell
phones or PDAs (running software such as Microsoft Windows Mobile
and being Internet, e-mail, SMS, Blackberry, or other communication
protocol enabled), workstation computers running any of a variety
of commercially-available UNIX or UNIX-like operating systems
(including without limitation the variety of GNU/Linux operating
systems), or any other computing device. For example, client
computing devices 224, 226 and 228 may be any other electronic
device, such as a thin-client computer, Internet-enabled gaming
system, and/or personal messaging device, capable of communicating
over a network (e.g., network 232 described below). Although
exemplary system environment 230 is shown with three client
computing devices, any number of client computing devices may be
supported. Other devices such as devices with sensors, etc. may
interact with cloud infrastructure system 100.
[0051] A network 232 may facilitate communications and exchange of
data between clients 224, 226 and 228 and cloud infrastructure
system 100. Network 232 may be any type of network familiar to
those skilled in the art that can support data communications using
any of a variety of commercially-available protocols, including
without limitation TCP/IP, SNA, IPX, AppleTalk, and the like.
Merely by way of example, network 232 can be a local area network
(LAN) such as an Ethernet network, a Token-Ring network and/or the
like, a wide-area network, a virtual network, including without
limitation a virtual private network (VPN), the Internet, an
intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network (PSTN),
an infra-red network, a wireless network (e.g., a network operating
under any of the IEEE 802.1X suite of protocols, the Bluetooth
protocol known in the art, and/or any other wireless protocol),
and/or any combination of these and/or other networks.
[0052] Cloud infrastructure system 100 may comprise one or more
computers and/or servers which may be general purpose computers,
specialized server computers (including, by way of example, PC
servers, UNIX servers, mid-range servers, mainframe computers,
rack-mounted servers, etc.), server farms, server clusters, or any
other appropriate arrangement and/or combination. The computing
devices that make up cloud infrastructure system 100 may run any of
operating systems or a variety of additional server applications
and/or mid-tier applications, including HTTP servers, FTP servers,
CGI servers, Java servers, database servers, and the like.
Exemplary database servers include without limitation those
commercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, IBM and the
like.
[0053] In various embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 100 may
be adapted to automatically provision, manage and track a
customer's subscription to services offered by cloud infrastructure
system 100. In one embodiment, as depicted in FIG. 2, the
components in cloud infrastructure system 100 include an Identity
Management (IDM) module 200, a services module 202, a Tenant
Automation System (TAS) module 204, a Service Deployment
Infrastructure (SDI) module 206, an Enterprise Manager (EM) module
208, one or more front-end web interfaces such as a store user
interface (UI) 210, a cloud user interface (UI) 212, and a support
user interface (UI) 216, an order management module 214, sales
personnel 218, operator personnel 220 and an order database 224.
These modules may include or be provided using one or more
computers and/or servers which may be general purpose computers,
specialized server computers, server farms, server clusters, or any
other appropriate arrangement and/or combination. In one
embodiment, one or more of these modules can be provided by cloud
management functionality 108 or IaaS platform 110 in cloud
infrastructure system 100. The various modules of the cloud
infrastructure system 100 depicted in FIG. 2 are meant for
illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope
of embodiments of the present invention. Alternative embodiments
may include more or fewer modules than those shown in FIG. 2.
[0054] In an exemplary operation, at (1) a customer using a client
device such as client device 224 or 226 may interact with cloud
infrastructure system 100 by browsing the various services provided
by cloud infrastructure system 100 and placing an order for a
subscription for one or more services offered by cloud
infrastructure system 100. In certain embodiments, the customer may
access store UI 210 or cloud UI 212 and place a subscription order
via these user interfaces.
[0055] The order information received by cloud infrastructure
system 100 in response to the customer placing an order may include
information identifying the customer and one or more services
offered by the cloud infrastructure system 100 that the customer
intends to subscribe to. A single order may include orders for
multiple services. For instance, a customer may login to cloud UI
212 and request a subscription for a CRM service and a Java cloud
service in the same order.
[0056] Additionally, the order may also include one or more service
levels for the ordered services. As used herein, and as will be
discussed in greater detail below, a service level for a service
determines the amount of resources to be allocated for providing
the requested service in the context of the subscription, such as
the amount of storage, amount of computing resources, data transfer
facilities, and the like. For example, a basic service level may
provide a minimum level of storage, data transmission, or number of
users, and higher service levels may include additional
resources.
[0057] In addition, in some instances, the order information
received by cloud infrastructure system 100 may include information
indicative of a customer level, and the time period during which
the service is desired. The customer level specifies the priority
of the customer making the subscription request. In one example,
the priority may be determined based on the quality of service that
the cloud infrastructure system 100 guarantees or promises the
customer as specified by a Service Level Agreement (SLA) agreed to
between the customer and the provider of the cloud services. In one
example, the different customer levels include a basic level, a
silver level and a gold level. The time period for a service may
specify the start date and time for the service and the time period
for which the service is desired (e.g., a service end date and time
may be specified).
[0058] In one embodiment, a customer may request a new subscription
via store UI 210 or request for a trial subscription via cloud UI
212. In certain embodiments, store UI 210 may represent the service
provider's eCommerce store front (e.g., www.oracle.com/store for
Oracle Cloud services). Cloud UI 212 may represent a business
interface for the service provider. Consumer can explore available
services and sign up for interested services through cloud UI 212.
Cloud UI 212 captures user input necessary for ordering trial
subscriptions provided by cloud infrastructure system 100. Cloud UI
212 may also be used to view account features and configure the
runtime environment located within cloud infrastructure system 100.
In addition to placing an order for a new subscription, store UI
210 may also enable the customer to perform other
subscription-related tasks such as changing the service level of a
subscription, extending the term of the subscription, increasing
the service level of a subscription, terminating an existing
subscription, and the like.
[0059] After an order has been placed per (1), at (2), the order
information that is received via either store UI 210 or cloud UI
212 is stored in order database 224, which can be one of several
databases operated by cloud infrastructure system 100 and utilized
in conjunction with other system elements. While order database 224
is shown logically as a single database in FIG. 2, in actual
implementation, this may comprise one or more databases.
[0060] At (3), the order is forwarded to order management module
214. Order management module 214 is configured to perform billing
and accounting functions related to the order such as verifying the
order and upon verification, booking the order. In certain
embodiments, order management module 214 may include a contract
management module and an install base module. The contract
management module may store contract information associated with
the customer's subscription order such as the customer's service
level agreement (SLA) with cloud infrastructure system 100. The
install base module may include detailed descriptions of the
services in the customer's subscription order. In addition to order
information, the install base module may track installation details
related to the services, product status and support service history
related to the services. As a customer orders new services or
upgrades existing ones, the install base module may automatically
add new order information.
[0061] At (4), information regarding the order is communicated to
TAS module 204. In one embodiment, TAS module 204 utilizes the
order information to orchestrate the provisioning of services and
resources for the order placed by the customer. At (5), TAS
component 204 orchestrates the provisioning of resources to support
the subscribed services using the services of SDI module 206. At
(6) TAS module 204 provides information related to the provisioned
order received from SDI module 206 to services module 202. In some
embodiments, at (7), SDI module 206 may also use services provided
by services module 202 to allocate and configure the resources
needed to fulfill the customer's subscription order.
[0062] At (8), services module 202 sends a notification to the
customers on client devices 224, 226 and 228 regarding the status
of the order.
[0063] In certain embodiments, TAS module 204 functions as an
orchestration component that manages business processes associated
with each order and applies business logic to determine whether an
order should proceed to provisioning. In one embodiment, upon
receiving an order for a new subscription, TAS module 204 sends a
request to SDI module 206 to allocate resources and configure those
resources needed to fulfill the subscription order. SDI module 206
enables the allocation of resources for the services ordered by the
customer. SDI module 206 provides a level of abstraction between
the cloud services provided by cloud infrastructure system 100 and
the physical implementation layer that is used to provision the
resources for providing the requested services. TAS module 204 may
thus be isolated from implementation details such as whether or not
services and resources are actually provisioned on the fly or
pre-provisioned and only allocated/assigned upon request.
[0064] In certain embodiments, a user may use store UI 210 to
directly interact with order management module 214 to perform
billing and accounting related functions such as verifying the
order and upon verification, booking the order. In some
embodiments, instead of a customer placing an order, at (9), the
order may instead be placed by sales personnel 218 on behalf of the
customer such as a customer's service representative or sales
representative. Sales personnel 218 may directly interact with
order management module 214 via a user interface (not shown in FIG.
2) provided by order management module 214 for placing orders or
for providing quotes for the customer. This, for example, may be
done for large customers where the order may be placed by the
customer's sales representative through order management module
214. The sales representative may set up the subscription on behalf
of the customer.
[0065] EM module 208 is configured to monitor activities related to
managing and tracking a customer's subscription in cloud
infrastructure system 100. EM module 208 collects usage statistics
for the services in the subscription order such as the amount of
storage used, the amount data transferred, the number of users, and
the amount of system up time and system down time. At (10), a host
operator personnel 220, who may be an employee of a provider of
cloud infrastructure system 100, may interact with EM module 208
via an enterprise manager user interface (not shown in FIG. 2) to
manage systems and resources on which services are provisioned
within cloud infrastructure system 100.
[0066] Identity management (IDM) module 200 is configured to
provide identity services such as access management and
authorization services in cloud infrastructure system 100. In one
embodiment, IDM module 200 controls information about customers who
wish to utilize the services provided by cloud infrastructure
system 100. Such information can include information that
authenticates the identities of such customers and information that
describes which actions those customers are authorized to perform
relative to various system resources (e.g., files, directories,
applications, communication ports, memory segments, etc.) IDM
module 200 can also include the management of descriptive
information about each customer and about how and by whom that
descriptive information can be accessed and modified.
[0067] In one embodiment, information managed by the identity
management module 200 can be partitioned to create separate
identity domains. Information belonging to a particular identity
domain can be isolated from all other identity domains. Also, an
identity domain can be shared by multiple separate tenants. Each
such tenant can be a customer subscribing to services in the cloud
infrastructure system 100. In some embodiments, a customer can have
one or many identity domains, and each identity domain may be
associated with one or more subscriptions, each subscription having
one or many services. For example, a single customer can represent
a large entity and identity domains may be created for
divisions/departments within this large entity. EM module 208 and
IDM module 200 may in turn interact with order management module
214 at (11) and (12) respectively to manage and track the
customer's subscriptions in cloud infrastructure system 100.
[0068] In one embodiment, at (13), support services may also be
provided to the customer via a support UI 216. In one embodiment,
support UI 216 enables support personnel to interact with order
management module 214 via a support backend system to perform
support services at (14). Support personnel in the cloud
infrastructure system 100 as well as customers can submit bug
reports and check the status of these reports via support UI
216.
[0069] Other interfaces, not shown in FIG. 2 may also be provided
by cloud infrastructure system 100. For example, an identity domain
administrator may use a user interface to IDM module 200 to
configure domain and user identities. In addition, customers may
log into a separate interface for each service they wish to
utilize. In certain embodiments, a customer who wishes to subscribe
to one or more services offered by cloud infrastructure system 100
may also be assigned various roles and responsibilities. In one
embodiment, the different roles and responsibilities that may be
assigned for a customer may include that of a buyer, an account
administrator, a service administrator, an identity domain
administrator or a user who utilizes the services and resources
offered by cloud infrastructure system 100. The different roles and
responsibilities are described more fully in FIG. 4 below.
[0070] FIG. 3A depicts a simplified flowchart 300 depicting
processing that may be performed by the TAS module in the cloud
infrastructure system, in accordance with an embodiment of the
present invention. The processing depicted in FIG. 3A may be
implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, program)
executed by one or more processors, hardware, or combinations
thereof. The software may be stored in memory (e.g., on a memory
device, on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium). The
particular series of processing steps depicted in FIG. 3A is not
intended to be limiting. Other sequences of steps may also be
performed according to alternative embodiments. For example,
alternative embodiments of the present invention may perform the
steps outlined above in a different order. Moreover, the individual
steps illustrated in FIG. 3A may include multiple sub-steps that
may be performed in various sequences as appropriate to the
individual step. Furthermore, additional steps may be added or
removed depending on the particular applications. One of ordinary
skill in the art would recognize many variations, modifications,
and alternatives. In one embodiment, the processing depicted in
FIG. 3A may be performed by one or more components in TAS component
204 as will be described in detail in FIG. 3B.
[0071] At 302, a customer's subscription order is processed. The
processing may include validating the order, in one example.
Validating the order includes ensuring that the customer has paid
for the subscription and ensuring that the customer does not
already have subscriptions with the same name or that the customer
is not attempting to create multiple subscriptions of the same type
in the same identity domain for subscription types for which this
is disallowed (such as, in the case of a CRM service). Processing
may also include tracking the status of an order for each order
that is being processed by cloud infrastructure system 100.
[0072] At 304, a business process associated with the order is
identified. In some instances, multiple business processes may be
identified for an order. Each business process identifies a series
of steps for processing various aspects of the order. As an
example, a first business process may identify one or more steps
related to provisioning physical resources for the order, a second
business process may identify one or more steps related to creating
an identity domain along with customer identities for the order, a
third business process may identify one or more steps for related
to performing back office functions such as creating a customer
record for the user, performing accounting functions related to the
order, and the like. In certain embodiments, different business
processes may also be identified for processing different services
in an order. For example, different business process may be
identified to process a CRM service and a database service.
[0073] At 306, the business process identified for the order in 304
is executed. Executing the business process associated with the
order may include orchestrating the series of steps associated with
the business process identified in step 304. For example, executing
a business process related to provisioning physical resources for
the order may include sending a request to SDI module 206 to
allocate resources and configure those resources needed to fulfill
the subscription order.
[0074] At 308, a notification is sent to the customer regarding the
status of the provisioned order. Additional description related to
performing steps 302, 304, 306 and 308 is provided in detail in
FIG. 3B.
[0075] FIG. 3B depicts a simplified high level diagram of one or
more sub-modules in the TAS module in the cloud infrastructure
system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
In one embodiment, the modules depicted in FIG. 3B perform the
processing described in steps 302-308 discussed in FIG. 3A. In the
illustrated embodiment, TAS module 204 comprises an order
processing module 310, a business process identifier 312, a
business process executor 316, an overage framework 322, a workflow
identification module 324, and a bundled subscription generator
module 326. These modules may be implemented in hardware, or
software, or combinations thereof. The various modules of the TAS
module depicted in FIG. 3B are meant for illustrative purposes only
and are not intended to limit the scope of embodiments of the
present invention. Alternative embodiments may include more or
fewer modules than those shown in FIG. 3B.
[0076] In one embodiment, order processing module 310 receives an
order from a customer from one or more input sources 321. For
example, order processing module 310 may directly receive an order
via cloud UI 212 or store UI 210, in one embodiment. Alternatively,
order processing module 310 may receive an order from order
management module 214 or order database 224. Order processing
module 310 then processes the order. In certain embodiments,
processing the order includes generating a customer record which
includes information about the order such as a service type, a
service level, a customer level, the type of resources, the amount
of the resources to be allocated to the service instance and a time
period during which the service is desired. As part of the
processing, order processing module 310 also determines whether the
order is a valid order. This includes ensuring that the customer
does not already have subscriptions with the same name or that the
customer is not attempting to create multiple subscriptions of the
same type in the same identity domain for subscription types where
this is disallowed (such as, in the case of a fusion CRM
service).
[0077] Order processing module 310 may also perform additional
processing on the order. Processing may include tracking the status
of an order for each order that is being processed by cloud
infrastructure system 100. In one embodiment, order processing
module 310 may process each order to identify a number of states
pertaining to the order. In one example, the different states of an
order may be an initialized state, a provisioned state, an active
state, an administration required state, an error state, and the
like. An initialized state refers to the state of a new order; a
provisioned state refers to the state of an order once the services
and resources for the order have been provisioned. An order is in
an active state when the order has been processed by TAS module 204
and a notification to that effect has been delivered to the
customer. An order is in an administration required state when
intervention by an administrator is needed to resolve the issue.
The order is in an error state when the order cannot be processed.
In addition to maintaining the order progress status, order
processing module 310 also maintains detailed information about any
failures encountered during process execution. In other
embodiments, and as will be discussed in detail below, the
additional processing performed by order processing module 310 may
also include changing the service level for a service in the
subscription, changing the services included in the subscription,
extending the time period of the subscription, and canceling the
subscription or specifying different service levels for different
time periods in the subscription.
[0078] After an order has been processed by order processing module
310, business logic is applied to determine whether the order
should proceed to provisioning. In one embodiment, as part of
orchestrating the order, business process identifier 312 receives
the processed order from order processing module 310 and applies
business logic to identify a particular business process to use for
the order being processed. In one embodiment, business process
identifier 312 may utilize information stored in a service catalog
314 to determine the particular business process to be used for the
order. In one embodiment, and as discussed in FIG. 3A, multiple
business processes may be identified for an order and each business
process identifies a series of steps for processing various aspects
of the order. In another embodiment, and as discussed above,
different business processes may be defined for different types of
services, or combinations of services such as a CRM service or a
database service. In one embodiment, service catalog 314 may store
information mapping an order to a particular type of business
process. Business process identifier 312 may use this information
to identify a specific business process for the order being
processed.
[0079] Once a business process has been identified, business
process identifier 312 communicates the particular business process
to be executed to business process executor 316. Business process
executor 316 then executes steps of the identified business process
by operating in conjunction with one or more modules in the cloud
infrastructure system 100. In some embodiments, business process
executor 316 acts as an orchestrator for performing the steps
associated with a business process. For example, the business
process executor may interact with order processing module 310 to
execute steps in a business process that identifies workflows
related to the order, determines the overage of services in the
order or identifies service components related to the order.
[0080] In one example, business process executor 316 interacts with
SDI module 206 to execute steps in a business process for
allocating and provisioning resources for services requested in the
subscription order. In this example, for each step in the business
process, business process executor 316 may send a request to SDI
component 206 to allocate resources and configure resources needed
to fulfill the particular step. SDI component 206 is responsible
for the actual allocation of the resources. Once all the steps of
the business processes of an order have been executed, business
process executor 316 may send a notification to the customer of the
processed order by utilizing the services of services component
202. The notification may include sending an email notification to
the customer with details of the processed order. The email
notification may also include deployment information related to the
order to enable the customer to access the subscribed services.
[0081] In certain embodiments, TAS module 204 may provide one or
more TAS Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) 318 that enable
TAS module 204 to interact with other modules in cloud
infrastructure system 100 and for other modules to interact with
TAS module 204. For example, the TAS APIs may include a system
provisioning API that interacts with SDI module 206 via an
asynchronous Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) based web
services call to provision resources for the customer's
subscription order. In one embodiment, TAS module 204 may also
utilize the system provisioning API to accomplish system and
service instance creation and deletion, switch a service instance
to an increased service level, and associate service instances. An
example of this is the association of a Java service instance to a
fusion applications service instance to allow secure web service
communications. The TAS APIs may also include a notification API
that interacts with the services module 202 to notify the customer
of a processed order. In certain embodiments, the TAS module 204
also periodically propagates subscription information, outages, and
notifications (e.g. planned downtime) to services component
202.
[0082] In certain embodiments, TAS module 204 periodically receives
usage statistics for each of the provisioned services such as the
amount of storage used, the amount data transferred, the number of
users, and the amount of system up time and system down time from
EM module 208. Overage framework 322 utilizes the usage statistics
to determine whether over use of a service has occurred, and if so,
to determine how much to bill for the overage, and provides this
information to order management module 214.
[0083] In certain embodiments, TAS module 204 includes an order
workflow identification module 324 that is configured to identify
one or more workflows associated with processing a customer's
subscription order. In certain embodiments, TAS module 204 may
include a subscription order generation framework 326 for
generating subscription orders for a customer when the customer
places a subscription order for one or more services offered by the
cloud infrastructure system 100. In one embodiment, a subscription
order includes one or more service components responsible for
providing the services requested by a customer in the subscription
order.
[0084] Additionally, TAS module 204 may also interact with one or
more additional databases such as a Tenant Information System (TIS)
database 320 to enable the provisioning of resources for one or
more services subscribed by the customer while taking into
consideration historical information, if any, available for the
customer. TIS database 320 may include historical order information
and historical usage information pertaining to orders subscribed by
the customer.
[0085] TAS module 204 may be deployed using different deployment
models. In certain embodiments, the deployment includes a central
component that interfaces with one or more distributed components.
The distributed components may, for example, be deployed as various
data centers and accordingly may also be referred to as data center
components. The central component includes capabilities to process
orders and co-ordinate services in cloud infrastructure system 100,
while the data center components provide capabilities for
provisioning and operating the runtime system that provides the
resources for the subscribed services.
[0086] FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary distributed deployment of the
TAS module, according to an embodiment of the present invention. In
the embodiment depicted in FIG. 4, the distributed deployment of
TAS module 204 includes a TAS central component 400 and one or more
TAS Data Centers (DCs) components 402, 404 and 406. These
components may be implemented in hardware, or software, or
combinations thereof.
[0087] In one embodiment, the responsibilities of TAS central
component 400 include, without limitation, to provide a centralized
component for receiving customer orders, performing order-related
business operations such as creating a new subscription, changing
the service level for a service in the subscription, changing the
services included in the subscription, and extending the time
period of the subscription, or canceling the subscription. The
responsibilities of TAS central component 400 may also include
maintaining and serving subscription data needed by cloud
infrastructure system 100 and interfacing with order management
module 214, support UI 216, cloud UI 212 and store UI 210 to handle
all the back-office interactions.
[0088] In one embodiment, the responsibilities of TAS DCs 402, 404
and 406 include, without limitation, performing runtime operations
for orchestrating the provisioning the resources for one or more
services subscribed by the customer. TAS DCs 402, 404 and 406 also
include capabilities to perform operations such as locking,
unlocking, enabling, or disabling a subscription order, collecting
metrics related to the order, determining the status of the order,
and sending notification events related to the order.
[0089] In an exemplary operation of the distributed TAS system
shown in FIG. 4, TAS central component 400 initially receives an
order from a customer via cloud UI 212, store UI 210, via order
management system 214, or via order database 224. In one
embodiment, the customer represents a buyer who has financial
information and the authority to order and/or change a
subscription. In one embodiment, the order information includes
information identifying the customer, the type of services that the
customer wishes to subscribe to, and an account administrator who
will be responsible for handling the request. In certain
embodiments, the account administrator may be nominated by the
customer when the customer places an order for a subscription to
one or more services offered by cloud infrastructure system 100.
Based on the order information, the TAS central component 400
identifies the data region of the world such as Americas, EMEA, or
Asia Pacific in which the order originates and the particular TAS
DCs (for e.g., 402, 404 or 406) that will be deployed for
provisioning the order. In one embodiment, the particular TAS DC
(for e.g., from among DCs 402, 404 or 406) that will be deployed
for provisioning the order is determined based on the geographical
data region in which the request originated.
[0090] TAS central component 400 then sends the order request to
the particular TAS DC in which to provision services for the order
request. In one embodiment, TAS DCs 402, 404 or 406 identify a
service administrator and an identity domain administrator
responsible for processing the order request at the particular TAS
DC. The service administrator and the identity administrator may be
nominated by the account administrator identified in the
subscription order. TAS DCs 402, 404 or 406 communicate with SDI
module 204 to orchestrate the provisioning of physical resources
for the order. SDI component 204 in respective TAS DCs 402, 404 or
406 allocates resources and configures those resources needed to
fulfill the subscription order.
[0091] In certain embodiments, TAS DCs, 402, 404 or 406 identify an
identity domain associated with the subscription. SDI component 206
may provide the identity domain information to IDM component 200
(shown in FIG. 2) for identifying an existing identity domain or
creating a new identity domain. Once the order is provisioned by
the SDI module at respective TAS DCs, 402, 404 or 406, TAS central
component 400 may place information regarding the provisioned
resources in a support system, via support UI 216. Information may
include, for example, displaying resource metrics related to the
services and usage statistics of the services.
[0092] Once in operation, at each data center, EM module 208 to
periodically collects usage statistics for each of the provisioned
services provisioned at that data center, such as the amount of
storage used, the amount data transferred, the number of users, and
the amount of system up time and system down time. These statistics
are provided to the TAS DC that is local to EM module 208 (i.e., at
the same data center). In an embodiment, the TAS DCs may use the
usage statistics to determine whether overuse of a service has
occurred, and if so, to determine how much to bill for the overage,
and provide the billing information to order management system
214.
[0093] FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram illustrating the
interactions of the SDI module with one or more modules in the
cloud infrastructure system, in accordance with an embodiment of
the present invention. In one embodiment, SDI module 206 interacts
with TAS module 204 to provision resources for services in a
subscription order received by TAS module 204. In certain
embodiments, one or more of the modules illustrated in FIG. 5 may
be modules within cloud infrastructure system 100. In other
embodiments, one or more of the modules that interact with SDI
module 206 may be outside cloud infrastructure system 100. In
addition, alternative embodiments may have more or less modules
than those shown in FIG. 5. These modules may be implemented in
hardware, or software, or combinations thereof.
[0094] In one embodiment, the modules in SDI module 206 may include
one or more modules in SaaS platform 102 and PaaS platform 104 in
cloud infrastructure system 100. In order to perform provisioning
of resources for various services, SDI module 206 may interact with
various other modules, each customized to help with provisioning
resources for a particular type of service. For example, as
illustrated in FIG. 5, SDI module 206 may interact with a Java
service provisioning control module 500 to provision Java cloud
services. In one embodiment, Java service provisioning control
component 500 may deploy a Java Cloud Service (JCS) assembly
specified by SDI module 206 that includes a set of tasks to be
performed to provision Java cloud services. Infrastructure
resources 106 then determines the resources needed to provision the
Java cloud services.
[0095] As other examples, SDI module 206 may interact with one or
more modules such as a Virtual Assembly Builder (VAB) module 502,
an Application Express (APEX) deployer module 504, a Virtual
Machine (VM) module 506, an IDM module 200, and a database machine
module 118. VAB module 502 includes capabilities to configure and
provision complete multi-tier application environments. In one
embodiment, VAB module 502 deploys a Middleware (MW) service
assembly specified by SDI module 206 to provision a MW service in
cloud infrastructure system 100 using the services provided by VM
module 506. APEX deployer module 504 includes capabilities to
configure and provision database services. In one embodiment, APEX
deployer module 504 deploys a database service assembly specified
by SDI module 206 to provision a database service in cloud
infrastructure system 100 using the resources provided by
infrastructure resources 106. SDI module 206 interacts with IDM
module 200 to provide identity services such as access management
across multiple applications in cloud infrastructure system
100.
[0096] FIG. 6 depicts a simplified high level diagram of
sub-modules of the SDI module according to an embodiment of the
present invention. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 6, SDI module
206 includes a SDI-Web Services (WS) module 600, an SDI request
controller module 602, an SDI task manager module 604, an SDI
monitoring module 606, an SDI data access module 608, an SDI common
library module 610, and an SDI connector module 612. These modules
may be implemented in hardware, or software, or combinations
thereof. SDI module 206 depicted in FIG. 6 and its various modules
are meant for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to
limit the scope of embodiments of the present invention.
Alternative embodiments may have more or less modules than those
shown in FIG. 6. These modules and their functions are described in
detail below.
[0097] SDI-WS module 600 includes capabilities for receiving a step
in the business associated with an order from business process
executor 316 of TAS component 204. In one embodiment, SDI-WS module
600 parses each step of the business process and converts the step
into an internal representation used by SDI module 206. In one
embodiment, each step of the business process associated with the
order arrives through a web service processing layer (for example,
via System Provisioning API discussed in FIG. 3B) in the form of a
SOAP request to SDI-WS module 600.
[0098] SDI request controller module 602 is the internal request
processing engine in SDI module 206 and includes capabilities for
performing asynchronous request processing, concurrent request
processing, concurrent task processing, fault tolerant and recovery
and plug-in support related to the order requests. In one
embodiment, SDI request controller module 602 accepts each step of
the business process associated with the order from SDI-WS module
600 and submits the step to SDI task manager module 604.
[0099] SDI task manager module 604 translates each step specified
in the business process into a series of tasks for provisioning the
particular step. Once the set of tasks for a specific step have
been provisioned, SDI task manager module 604 responds to business
process executor 316 in TAS module 204 with operation results that
includes an order payload with details of the resources provisioned
to fulfill the particular step. SDI task manager module 604 repeats
this process until all the steps of the particular business process
associated with the order are complete.
[0100] In certain embodiments, SDI task manager module 604
translates each step specified in the business process into a
series of tasks by utilizing the services of SDI connector module
612. SDI connector module 612 includes one or more connectors for
handling the deployment of tasks specified by SDI task manager
module 604 to provision one or more services related to the order
request. In certain embodiments, one or more of the connectors may
handle tasks that are specific to a particular service type while
other connectors may handle tasks that are common across different
service types. In one embodiment, SDI connector module 612 includes
a set of connectors (wrapper APIs) that interface with one or more
of the external modules (shown in FIG. 5) in cloud infrastructure
system 100 to provision the services and resources related to the
order request. For example, Application Express (APEX) connector
614 interfaces with APEX deployer module 504 to provision database
services. Web Center Connector 616 (WCC) interfaces with a web
center module in cloud infrastructure system 100 to provision web
services. The web center module is a user engagement platform and
includes capabilities for delivering connectivity between people
and information in cloud infrastructure system 100.
[0101] In certain embodiments, Middleware Applications (MA)
connector 618 interfaces with VAB module 502 in cloud
infrastructure system 100 to provision middleware application
services. NUVIAQ connector 620 interfaces with VAB module 502 to
provision Java services. IDM connector 622 interfaces with IDM
module 200 to provide identity and access management for users
subscribing to services and resources in cloud infrastructure
system 100. Virtual Assembly Builder (VAB) connector 624 interfaces
with VAB module 502 in cloud infrastructure system 100 to configure
and provision complete multi-tier application environments. Plug-in
connector 626 interfaces with EM module 208 to manage and monitor
the components in cloud infrastructure system 100. HTTP server
connector 628 interfaces with one or more web servers in the PaaS
platform to provide connection services to users in cloud
infrastructure system 100.
[0102] SDI monitoring module 606 in SDI module 206 provides an
inbound interface for receiving Java Management Extensions (JMX)
requests. SDI monitoring module 606 also provides tools for
managing and monitoring applications, system objects and devices in
cloud infrastructure system 100. SDI-data access module 608
provides an inbound interface for receiving Java Database
Connectivity (JDBC) requests. SDI-data access module 608 supports
data access and provides object relational mapping, java
transaction API services, data access objects, and connection
pooling in cloud infrastructure system 100. The SDI-common library
module 610 provides configuration support for the modules in SDI
module 206.
[0103] The embodiment of FIG. 6 discussed above describes modules
in the SDI module according to an embodiment of the present
invention. FIG. 7A depicts a simplified flowchart 700 depicting
processing that may be performed by the modules of the SDI module
in the cloud infrastructure system, in accordance with an
embodiment of the present invention. The processing depicted in
FIG. 7A may be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions,
program) executed by one or more processors, hardware, or
combinations thereof. The software may be stored in memory (e.g.,
on a memory device, on a non-transitory computer-readable storage
medium). The particular series of processing steps depicted in FIG.
7A is not intended to be limiting. Other sequences of steps may
also be performed according to alternative embodiments. For
example, alternative embodiments of the present invention may
perform the steps outlined above in a different order. Moreover,
the individual steps illustrated in FIG. 7A may include multiple
sub-steps that may be performed in various sequences as appropriate
to the individual step. Furthermore, additional steps may be added
or removed depending on the particular applications. One of
ordinary skill in the art would recognize many variations,
modifications, and alternatives. In one embodiment, the processing
depicted in FIG. 7A may be performed by one or more modules in the
SDI module 206 discussed in detail in FIG. 6.
[0104] At 702, a business process associated with a subscription
order is received. In one embodiment, SDI-WS module 600 in SDI
module 206 receives one or more steps in the business process
associated with the subscription order from business process
executor 316. At 704, each step in the business process is
translated into a series of tasks for provisioning resources for
the subscription order. In one embodiment, SDI task manager module
604 in SDI module 206 translates each step specified in the
business process into a series of tasks by utilizing the services
of SDI connector module 612. At 706, the subscription order is
provisioned based on the series of tasks. In one embodiment, and as
discussed in FIG. 6, SDI connector module 612 includes one or more
connectors for handling the deployment of tasks specified by SDI
task manager module 604 to provision resources for the services in
the subscription order.
[0105] As described above with respect to FIG. 6, SDI task manager
module 604 translates each step specified in a business process
into a series of tasks by utilizing the services of SDI connector
module 612, which may include one or more connectors for handling
the deployment of tasks specified by SDI task manager module 604 to
provision one or more services related to the order request. One or
more of the connectors may handle tasks that are specific to a
particular service type while other connectors may handle tasks
that are common across different service types. In one embodiment,
SDI connector module 612 includes a set of connectors (wrapper
APIs) that interface with one or more of the external modules
(shown in FIG. 5) in cloud infrastructure system 100 to provision
the services and resources related to the order request. For
example, a NUVIAQ connector 620 interfaces with VAB module 502 to
provision Java services.
[0106] FIG. 7B depicts a simplified block diagram showing the
high-level architecture of a Nuviaq system 710 and its
relationships with other cloud infrastructure components according
to an embodiment of the present invention. It should be appreciated
that Nuviaq system 710 depicted in FIG. 7B may have other
components than those depicted in FIG. 7B. Further, the embodiment
shown in FIG. 7B is only one example of a cloud infrastructure
system that may incorporate an embodiment of the invention. In some
other embodiments, Nuviaq system 710 may have more or fewer
components than shown in FIG. 7B, may combine two or more
components, or may have a different configuration or arrangement of
components.
[0107] In certain embodiments, Nuviaq system 710 may be configured
to provide a runtime engine for orchestrating PaaS operations.
Nuviaq system 710 may provide a web service API to facilitate
integration with other products and services. Nuviaq system 710
also provides support for complex workflows in system provisioning,
application deployment and associated lifecycle operations and
integrates with management and monitoring solutions.
[0108] In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 7B, Nuviaq system 710
comprises a Nuviaq proxy 712, a Nuviaq manager 714, and a Nuviaq
database 716. In certain embodiments, Nuviaq manager 714 provides
an entry point into Nuviaq system 710, providing secure access to
PaaS operations via the web service API. Internally, it tracks
system state in the database and controls job execution on the
workflow engine. In a public cloud, Nuviaq manager 714 may be
accessed by the Tenant Provisioning system (SDI 206) and the Tenant
Console, to drive provisioning and deployment operations
respectively.
[0109] In one embodiment, Nuviaq manager 714 executes jobs
asynchronously via an internal workflow engine. A job may be a
sequence of actions specific to a given PaaS workflow. Actions may
be performed in order, with failure in any step resulting in
failure of the overall job. Many workflow actions delegate to
external systems relevant to the workflow, such as the EM command
line interface (cli). In one implementation, Nuviaq manager 714
application may be hosted in a 2-node WebLogic cluster with
associated HTTP server (e.g., Oracle HTTP Server or OHS) instance,
running inside a firewall.
[0110] In certain embodiments, Nuviaq proxy 712 is the public
access point to the Nuviaq API. In one embodiment, only Public API
may be exposed here. Requests received by proxy 712 may be
forwarded to Nuviaq manager 714. In one embodiment, Nuviaq proxy
712 runs outside the firewall, whereas manager 714 runs within the
firewall. In one implementation, Nuviaq proxy 712 application runs
on a WebLogic cluster running outside the firewall.
[0111] In certain embodiments, Nuviaq database 716 tracks various
domain entities such as, without limitation, platform instance,
deployment plan, application, WebLogic domain, jobs, alerts, and
the like. Primary keys may be aligned with the Service Database
where appropriate.
[0112] In one embodiment, Platform Instance 718 may contain all
resources required for a WebLogic service for a given tenant.
[0113] Nuviaq system 710 may rely on additional systems of cloud
infrastructure system 100 to carry out the workflows used the
WebLogic cloud service. These dependencies may include dependencies
on SDI 206, IDM 200, a virus scan system, a service database, CRM
instances, and the like. For example, Nuviaq system 710 may depend
upon functions performed by an Assembly Deployer in SDI 206. In one
embodiment, the Assembly Deployer is a system to manage
interactions with OVAB (Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder) and OVM
(Oracle Virtual Machine). Capabilities of the Assembly Deployer
used by Nuviaq system 710 may include, without limitation,
functions for deploying an assembly, un-deploying an assembly,
describing assembly deployment, scaling appliance, and the like. In
one implementation, Nuviaq system 710 accesses the Assembly
Deployer via a web service API.
[0114] In certain embodiments, security policies may require
certain artifacts to be scanned for viruses before being deployed
to an application. Cloud infrastructure system 100 may provide a
virus scan system for this purpose that provides scanning as a
service for multiple components of the public cloud.
[0115] In certain embodiments, a public cloud infrastructure may
maintain a Service Database containing information about tenants
(e.g., customers) and their service subscriptions. Nuviaq workflows
may access to this data in order to properly configure a WebLogic
service as a client to other services that the tenant also
subscribes to.
[0116] Nuviaq system 710 may depend on IDM 200 for its security
integration. In certain embodiments, Java Service instances can be
associated with a CRM instance. The association allows user
applications deployed to their Java Service instance to access a
CRM instance though Web Service calls.
[0117] Various entities may use services provided by Nuviaq system
710. These clients of Nuviaq system 710 may include: a Tenant
Console, which is an management server (e.g., Oracle Management
Server) based user interface that customers may access to manage
their applications on their platform instances; several IDEs such
as Oracle IDEs (JDeveloper, NetBeans, and OEPE) have been extended
to offer access to application lifecycle management operations; one
or more Command Line Interfaces (CLIs) that are available to access
lifecycle operations on the platform instances.
[0118] Provisioning use case for Nuviaq system 710--A Provision
Platform Instance use case is realized via the Create Platform
Instance operation of the Nuviaq API. In the context of cloud
infrastructure system 100, a service instance with respect to the
Nuviaq system corresponds to a Nuviaq platform instance. A platform
instance is assigned a unique identifier is used on all subsequent
operations related to this instance. A Platform Deployment
descriptor provided to the Create Platform Instance action allows
for properties to be set that modify the configuration of the
platform instance to meet the subscription requirements of the
tenant. These properties may include for example:
Property#1: oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.size [0119] Values:
BASIC, STANDARD, ENTERPRISE [0120] Description: Specifies the
subscription type. This impacts the number of servers, database
limits and quality of service settings. Property#2:
oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.trial [0121] Values: TRUE, FALSE
[0122] Description: Indicates whether or not this is a trial
subscription. Property#3: oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.crm [0123]
Values: CRM Service ID [0124] Description: Identifies a CRM service
to be associated with this WebLogic service instance.
[0125] FIG. 7C depicts an example sequence diagram illustrating
steps of a provisioning process using a Nuviaq system according to
an embodiment of the present invention. The sequence diagram
depicted in FIG. 7C is only an example and is not intended to be
limiting.
[0126] Install/Update Application use case--The Install Application
operation deploys an application to a running WebLogic Server after
validating that the application archive meets the security
requirements of the Public Cloud. In one embodiment, the
Application Deployment descriptor provided to the Install
Application action allows for properties to be set that modify the
configuration of the application to meet the subscription
requirements of the tenant. These properties may include for
example:
Property: oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.state
Values: RUNNING, STOPPED
[0127] Description: Specifies the initial state of the application
after deployment.
[0128] FIG. 7D depicts an example sequence diagram illustrating
steps of a deployment process using a Nuviaq system according to an
embodiment of the present invention. The sequence diagram depicted
in FIG. 7D is only an example and is not intended to be
limiting.
[0129] Referring back to FIG. 2, in certain embodiments, TAS 204
and SDI 206 working in cooperation are responsible for provisioning
resources for one or more services ordered by a customer from a set
of services offered by cloud infrastructure system 100. For
example, in one embodiment, for provisioning a database service,
the automated provisioning flow may be as follows for a paid
subscription:
(1) Customer places an order for a paid subscription to a service
via Store UI 210. (2) TAS 204 receives the subscription order. (3)
When services are available TAS 204 initiates provisioning by using
the services of SDI 206. TAS 204 may perform business process
orchestration, which will execute the relevant business process to
complete the provisioning aspect of the order. In one embodiment,
TAS 204 may use a BPEL (Business Process Execution Language)
Process Manager to orchestrate the steps involved in the
provisioning and handle the lifecycle operations. (4) In one
embodiment, to provision a database service, SDI 206 may call PLSQL
APIs in the CLOUD_UI to associate a schema for the requesting
customer. (5) After successful association of a schema to the
customer, SDI signals TAS and TAS send a notification to the
customer that the database service is now available for use by the
customer. (6) The customer may log into cloud infrastructure system
100 (e.g., using an URAL such as cloud.oracle.com) and activate the
service.
[0130] In some embodiments, a customer may also be allowed to
subscribe to a service on a trial basis. For example, such a trial
order may be received via cloud UI 212 (e.g., using
cloud.oracle.com).
[0131] In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 100
enables underlying hardware and service instances to be shared
between customers or tenants. For example, the database service may
be provisioned as shown in FIG. 7E in one embodiment. FIG. 7E
depicts multiple Exadata compute nodes 730 and 732, each providing
a database instance provisioned for the database service. For
example, compute node 730 provides a database instance 734 for a
database service. Each Exadata compute node may have multiple
database instances.
[0132] In certain embodiments, each database instance can comprise
multiple schemas and the schemas may be associated with different
customers or tenants. For example, in FIG. 7E, database instance
734 provides two schemas 736 and 738, each with its own tables.
Schema 736 may be associated with a first customer or tenant
subscribing to a database service and schema 738 may be associated
with a second customer or tenant subscribing to the database
service. Each tenant gets a completely isolated schema. Each schema
acts like a container that can manage database objects including
tables, views, stored procedures, triggers, etc. for the associated
tenant. Each schema may have one dedicated tablespace, with each
tablespace having one data file.
[0133] In this manner, a single database instance can provide
database services to multiple tenants. This not only enables
sharing of underlying hardware resources but also enables sharing
of service instance between tenants.
[0134] In certain embodiments, such a multi-tenancy system is
facilitated by IDM 200, which beneficially enables multiple
separate customers, each having their own separate identity
domains, to use hardware and software that is shared in the cloud.
Consequently, there is no need for each customer to have its own
dedicated hardware or software resources, and in some cases
resources that are not being used by some customers at a particular
moment can be used by other customers, thereby preventing those
resources from being wasted. For example, as depicted in FIG. 7E, a
database instance can service multiple customers each with their
respective identity domains. Although each such database service
instance can be a separate abstraction or view of a single physical
multi-tenant database system that is shared among the many separate
identity domains, each such database service instance can have a
separate and potentially different schema than each other database
service instance has. Thus, the multi-tenant database system can
store mappings between customer-specified database schemas and the
identity domains to which those database schemas pertain. The
multi-tenant database system can cause the database service
instance for a particular identity domain to use the schema that is
mapped to that particular identity domain.
[0135] The multi-tenancy can also be extended to other services
such as the Java Service. For example, multiple customers can have
a JAVA service instance placed within their respective identity
domains. Each such identity domain can have a JAVA virtual machine,
which can be viewed as being a virtual "slice" of hardware. In one
embodiment, a job-monitoring service (e.g., Hudson) can be combined
with a JAVA enterprise edition platform (e.g., Oracle WebLogic) in
the cloud to enable each separate identity domain to have its own
separate virtual "slice" of the JAVA enterprise edition platform.
Such a job-monitoring service can, for example, monitor the
execution of repeated jobs, such as building a software project or
jobs run by an operating system's time-based job scheduler. Such
repeated jobs can include the continuous building and/or testing of
software projects. Additionally or alternatively, such repeated
jobs can include the monitoring of executions of operating
system-run jobs that are executed on machines that are remote from
the machine on which the job-monitoring service executes.
[0136] In certain embodiments, techniques for automating the
provisioning, managing and tracking of services provided by cloud
infrastructure system 100 include providing the customer with the
ability to request for services in a subscription order with
different service levels for different time periods. As an example,
a customer may request for a first level of a service for a first
time period (e.g., for the first year) and a second level of the
service for a second time period following the first time period
(e.g., for the second year) and a third level of service for a
third period of time following the second period of time, such as a
third year and so on. The second level of service and the third
level of service may be less than or more than the first level of
service. In this manner, a customer is provided with the ability to
subscribe to a multi-year (or other time period) plan, with
changing service levels (increasing/decreasing) from one year to
the next. As another example, the customer may also request for a
first level of a service for a first time period and request for
additional services at the same service level or at different
service levels for future time periods.
[0137] The manner in which the service levels are defined may be
service-specific and may vary from one service to another. In one
embodiment, the service levels relate to the amount of resources
assigned to one or more services in the subscription order. For
example, a basic service level may provide a minimum level of
storage, data transmission, or number of users, and higher service
levels may include additional resources. As an example, for a CRM
service, the level of the service may depend upon the number of
users for which the service provides. A subscription order from a
customer may request a CRM service for 100 users in the first year
with an increase of another 100 users for the next year (i.e., for
a total of 200 users in the second year), and another 200 users for
the next year (i.e., for a total of 400 users in the third year),
and so forth. It is to be appreciated that the service levels and
time periods listed above are merely provided by way of example and
are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. One
of ordinary skill in the art would recognize many variations,
modifications, and alternatives. Certain embodiments of the present
invention provide techniques for performing a phased deployment of
a customer's subscription order based on the service levels and
time periods specified by the customer in the subscription order,
in an efficient manner as will be discussed in detail below.
[0138] FIG. 8 is a high level block diagram illustrating modules in
the cloud infrastructure system for performing a phased deployment
of a customer's subscription order, in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention. In one embodiment, processing
related to performing a phased deployment of the customer's
subscription order is performed by one or more modules in order
processing system 310 of TAS component 204, shown in FIG. 8. These
modules include a provisioning order generator 800, an order
scheduler 802 and a heuristics module 804. These modules may be
implemented in hardware, or software, or combinations thereof. The
modules depicted in FIG. 8 are meant for illustrative purposes only
and are not intended to limit the scope of embodiments of the
present invention. For example, alternative embodiments of the
present invention may include additional modules or even modules
that are not part of order processing system 310.
[0139] Upon receiving a subscription order from one or more input
sources 322 as discussed in FIG. 3B, in one embodiment,
provisioning order generator 800 in the order processing system 310
analyzes the received subscription order to determine whether the
subscription order includes a request for one or more services at
different service levels for different time periods and generates
separate orders for each of the identified time periods.
[0140] In one embodiment, the separate orders generated by
provisioning order generator 800 may include a base order (also
referred to as an initial order or an onboarding order) for a base
time period, and one or more additional orders for future time
periods. The base time period is the earliest time period for when
the service is to be provided and the future time periods
correspond to time periods after the base time period. In one
embodiment, the additional orders may include one or more ramp-up
orders or one or more ramp-down orders. Whether an order is a
ramp-up order or a ramp-down order depends upon the level of
service specified in the time period immediately prior to the
ramp-up or ramp-down order. For example, if a subscription order
requests a first level of service for a first time period and a
second level of service for a second time period following the
first time period, then if the second service level is higher than
the first level, then the order for the second time period is a
ramp-up order since the service level has been increased from the
previous time period. If however, the second level of service is
lower or less than the first level of service, then the order
generated for the second time period is considered a ramp-down
order since the service level has been decreased from the
immediately prior time period. In one embodiment, the separate
orders generated by provisioning order generator 800 may also
include generating multiple base orders for different services in
the subscription order.
[0141] In certain embodiments, provisioning order generator 800
initially analyzes the subscription order to identify a request for
a service at a first service level for a first time period.
Provisioning order generator 800 then determines a base order for
the service at the first service level for the first time period.
Provisioning order generator 800 then inputs the base order into
order scheduler 802. In one embodiment, order scheduler 802
schedules the base order for execution at the first time
period.
[0142] In certain embodiments, provisioning order generator 800
also analyzes the subscription order to identify requests for
additional service levels for the service for future time periods.
Provisioning order generator 800 may also analyze the subscription
order to identify requests for additional services with the same
service level or with a different service level as compared to the
first service level for future time periods. Provisioning order
generator 800 then determines one or more additional orders for the
additional service levels or the additional services for future
time periods. The additional orders may include one or more ramp-up
orders or one or more ramp-down orders. As an example, consider
that provisioning order generator 800 identifies a request for a
second service level for the service for a future time period. In
such a case, in addition to the base order, provisioning order
generator 800 generates a ramp-up order or a ramp-down order for
the service based on the second service level for the future time
period. As another example, consider that provisioning order
generator 800 identifies a request for an additional service at the
same service level or at a different service level for a future
time period. In such a case, provisioning order generator 800
generates either a ramp-up order or a ramp-down order for the
additional service for the future time period, in addition to the
base order.
[0143] In one embodiment, as discussed above, provisioning order
generator 800 may determine the additional orders based on
identifying requests for additional service levels for different
time periods or additional services for future time periods in the
subscription order. In certain situations, a customer's
subscription order request may not include additional service
levels or additional services for future time periods. In such a
case, in an alternate embodiment, heuristics module 804 may
automatically determine one or more additional orders for the
customer based on heuristic information related to the customer. In
one example, the heuristic information relates to the customer
level of the customer specified in the subscription order. For
example, if the customer level specified in the subscription order
indicates that the customer is a gold customer based on the quality
of service that the cloud infrastructure system guarantees to the
customer (e.g., determined based on the customer's SLA with cloud
infrastructure system 100), heuristics module 804 may automatically
determine an additional order which may be a ramp-up order for the
customer for a future time period.
[0144] In another example, the heuristic information may also
relate to the current usage of resources utilized by the customer.
Accordingly, in another embodiment, heuristics module 804 may
determine one or more ramp-up orders or ramp-down orders based on
the current usage of computing resources in the base order. For
example, if the current usage of resources in the base order
indicates that a significant ramp-up of resources is expected in a
future time period, then heuristics module 804 determines a ramp-up
order with additional computing resources such as by assigning a
high capacity server pool to the ramp-up order. On the other hand,
if the current usage of resources in the base order indicates that
a significant ramp-down of resources is expected in a future time
period, then heuristics module 804 may determine a ramp-down order
with fewer computing resources such as by assigning low capacity
server pool to the ramp-down order. In one embodiment, the current
usage of resources for the customer may be determined by accessing
usage information stored in the TIS database 320.
[0145] In certain embodiments, the initial physical configuration
of the subscription of the base order may be based on the ramp-up
orders and the ramp-down orders specified by the customer. In one
embodiment, the provisioning order generator may optimize the
initial physical layout of the subscription based on the ramp-up
order and the ramp-down orders specified by the customer as
follows. For example, provisioning order generator 800 may assign
the base subscription order initially to a high-capacity server
pool if a significant ramp-up order in the near future is in the
initial subscription order submitted by the customer. Later,
provisioning order generator 800 may move the base subscription
order to a low-capacity server pool if a significant ramp-down of
resources is expected at a future time.
[0146] The order scheduler 802 then schedules the additional orders
which may include the ramp-up orders and ramp-down orders for
execution based on the future time periods. In one embodiment,
order scheduler 802 outputs a temporally ordered queue in which
each ramp-up order and ramp-down order is scheduled for execution
in accordance with an execution date specified in the ramp-up and
ramp-down orders. In the example of the CRM service discussed
above, a base order for a CRM service for 100 users may be executed
for the first year, while a ramp-up order for the CRM service for
200 users may be queued and scheduled to be executed after the
first year. Similarly, a future ramp-up order for providing CRM
services for 400 users may be queued and scheduled to be executed
two years from the original order date.
[0147] A business process associated with the base order, the
ramp-up orders and the ramp-down orders are then identified by the
business process identifier 312. The business process executor 316
executes the business process associated with the orders. As
discussed in FIG. 3B, the business process executor 316
accomplishes this by sending a request to the SDI component 206 to
enable the provisioning of resources needed to fulfill the base
order, the ramp-up orders and the ramp-down orders.
[0148] In addition to specifying different service levels for
different time periods, a customer may also specify updates to the
subscription order including the base subscription order and the
ramp-up or ramp-down orders at any time during the subscription. In
this situation, the order scheduler 802 makes the appropriate
updates to the queued entries including adding new entries or
modifying or deleting existing entries.
[0149] The apparatus of FIG. 8 described above discusses an
implementation of the order processing module in the cloud
infrastructure system for performing a phased deployment of a
customer's subscription order. FIG. 9 depicts a simplified
flowchart depicting processing that may be performed by the order
processing module in the cloud infrastructure system, in accordance
with an embodiment of the present invention. The processing 900
depicted in FIG. 9 may be implemented in software (e.g., code,
instructions, program) executed by one or more processors,
hardware, or combinations thereof. The software may be stored in
memory (e.g., on a memory device, on a non-transitory
computer-readable storage medium). The particular series of
processing steps depicted in FIG. 9 is not intended to be limiting.
Other sequences of steps may also be performed according to
alternative embodiments. For example, alternative embodiments of
the present invention may perform the steps outlined above in a
different order. Moreover, the individual steps illustrated in FIG.
9 may include multiple sub-steps that may be performed in various
sequences as appropriate to the individual step. Furthermore,
additional steps may be added or removed depending on the
particular applications. One of ordinary skill in the art would
recognize many variations, modifications, and alternatives. In one
embodiment, the processing depicted in FIG. 9 may be performed by
one or more modules in the order processing system 310 discussed in
detail in FIG. 8.
[0150] At 902, a subscription order requesting one or more services
offered by cloud infrastructure system 100, is received. At step
904, the subscription order is analyzed to identify a request for a
service at a first service level for a first time period.
[0151] At 906, a base order is scheduled for execution at the first
time period. The base order corresponds to the service requested at
the first service level for the first time period.
[0152] At 908, the subscription order is analyzed to identify
requests for additional service levels for the service for future
time periods. The subscription order may also be analyzed to
identify requests for additional services with the same service
level or with a different service level as compared to the first
service level for future time periods.
[0153] At 910, one or more additional orders are scheduled for
execution at the future time periods. In one embodiment, the
additional orders correspond to requests for additional service
levels to be provided of the service over the future time periods.
In another embodiment, the additional orders may correspond to
requests for additional services to be provided with the same
service level or with a different service level as compared to the
first service level for the future time periods. In one embodiment,
the additional orders may include one or more ramp-up orders or one
or more ramp-down orders. In another embodiment, and as discussed
in FIG. 8, the additional orders may be determined based on
heuristic information related to the customer. In one example, the
heuristic information relates to the customer level of the customer
specified in the subscription order. In another example, the
heuristic information may also relate to the current usage of
resources utilized by the customer in the base order. In other
embodiments, the additional orders may also specify removing one or
more services in the future time periods.
[0154] FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of a computing system
1000 that may be used in accordance with embodiments of the present
invention. For example, cloud infrastructure system 100 may
comprise one or more computing devices. System 1000 depicted in
FIG. 10 may be an example of one such computing device. Computer
system 1000 is shown comprising hardware elements that may be
electrically coupled via a bus 1024. The hardware elements may
include one or more central processing units (CPUs) 1002, one or
more input devices 1004 (e.g., a mouse, a keyboard, etc.), and one
or more output devices 1006 (e.g., a display device, a printer,
etc.). The CPUs may include single or multicore CPUs. Computer
system 1000 may also include one or more storage devices 1008. By
way of example, the storage device(s) 1008 may include devices such
as disk drives, optical storage devices, and solid-state storage
devices such as a random access memory (RAM) and/or a read-only
memory (ROM), which can be programmable, flash-updateable and/or
the like.
[0155] Computer system 1000 may additionally include a
computer-readable storage media reader 1012, a communications
subsystem 1014 (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless or wired),
an infra-red communication device, etc.), and working memory 1018,
which may include RAM and ROM devices as described above. In some
embodiments, computer system 1900 may also include a processing
acceleration unit 1016, which can include a digital signal
processor (DSP), a special-purpose processor, and/or the like.
[0156] Computer-readable storage media reader 1012 can further be
connected to a computer-readable storage medium 1010, together
(and, optionally, in combination with storage device(s) 1008)
comprehensively representing remote, local, fixed, and/or removable
storage devices plus storage media for temporarily and/or more
permanently containing computer-readable information.
Communications system 1014 may permit data to be exchanged with
network 1024 and/or any other computer described above with respect
to system environment 1000.
[0157] Computer system 1000 may also comprise software elements,
shown as being currently located within working memory 1018,
including an operating system 1020 and/or other code 1022, such as
an application program (which may be a client application, Web
browser, mid-tier application, RDBMS, etc.). In an exemplary
embodiment, working memory 1018 may include executable code and
associated data structures such as memory structures used for
processing authorization requests described above. It should be
appreciated that alternative embodiments of computer system 1000
may have numerous variations from that described above. For
example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particular
elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including
portable software, such as applets), or both. Further, connection
to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may
be employed.
[0158] Storage media and computer readable media for containing
code, or portions of code, can include any appropriate media known
or used in the art, including storage media and communication
media, such as but not limited to volatile and non-volatile,
removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or
technology for storage of information such as computer readable
instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data.
Examples of storage and computer-readable media include RAM, ROM,
EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital
versatile disk (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,
magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage
devices, or any other memory medium which can be used to store the
desired information and which can be read by a computer. Storage
media and computer readable media may include non-transitory memory
devices.
[0159] Although specific embodiments of the invention have been
described, various modifications, alterations, alternative
constructions, and equivalents are also encompassed within the
scope of the invention. Embodiments of the present invention are
not restricted to operation within certain specific data processing
environments, but are free to operate within a plurality of data
processing environments. Additionally, although embodiments of the
present invention have been described using a particular series of
transactions and steps, it should be apparent to those skilled in
the art that the scope of the present invention is not limited to
the described series of transactions and steps.
[0160] Further, while embodiments of the present invention have
been described using a particular combination of hardware and
software, it should be recognized that other combinations of
hardware and software are also within the scope of the present
invention. Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented
only in hardware, or only in software, or using combinations
thereof.
[0161] The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be
regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It
will, however, be evident that additions, subtractions, deletions,
and other modifications and changes may be made thereunto without
departing from the broader spirit and scope as set forth in the
claims.
* * * * *
References