Dynamic deployment of services in a computing network

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products for improving network operations by dynamically deploying services (such as web services or other network-accessible services) in a computing network. A process is defined whereby conditions such as usage metrics for incoming client requests (or other network conditions such as load balancing considerations) are monitored, and used to trigger dynamic deployment of web services to locations in the network in order to improve efficiency (e.g. by reducing response time to the client and / or reducing the burden on the back-end computing system resources). Service requests are dynamically routed to the destination where the service resides, in a manner which is transparent to the client. In an optional aspect, programmatic replication of system upgrades may be implemented by redeploying services using this same dynamic deployment approach, enabling the complexity of upgrading previously-deployed software to be reduced significantly. As another optional aspect, previously-deployed software may also be automatically and programmatically undeployed using disclosed techniques.

Description

RELATED INVENTIONS[0001] The present invention is related to U.S. Pat. No. ______ (Ser. No. ______), which is titled "Dynamic Undeployment of Services in a Computing Network", and U.S. Pat. No. ______ (Ser. No. ______) which is titled "Dynamic Redeployment of Services in a Computing Network", both are which are commonly assigned to International Business Machines Corporation and which were filed concurrently herewith.[0002] 1. Field of the Invention[0003] The present invention relates to computer networks, and deals more particularly with methods, systems, and computer program products for dynamically deploying services (such as web services or other network-accessible services) to various sites within a network.[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art[0005] Web services technology is rapidly emerging as a mechanism for distributed application integration. In general, a "web service" is an interface that describes a collection of network-accessible operations. Web services fulfill a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017] To achieve the foregoing objects, and in accordance with the purpose of the invention as broadly described herein, the present invention provides methods, systems, and computer program products for dynamically deploying services in a computing network. In preferred embodiments, this technique comprises: receiving client requests for a selected service; serving the received requests from a first server when the selected service has not yet been dynamically deployed; effecting a dynamic deployment by programmatically moving the selected service from the first server to one or more other servers when the dynamic deployment is triggered; and serving the received requests from the one or more other servers after the effecting step causes the selected service to be dynamically deployed.

[0018] The present invention may also be used advantageously in methods of doing business, for example by offering dynamic deployment services that will result in more efficient web hosting sites (which may in turn offer their customers the advantage of reduced end-to-end costs and / or improved efficiency for the customer site).

Problems solved by technology

This approach, however, places a heavy demand on the enterprise computing resources.

In these cases, the content distribution process will typically result in reduced response time as well.

When the business logic remains within the heart of the enterprise, network efficiencies are not realized and the enterprise may continue to be a processing bottleneck and a limiting factor in growth of the business.

Furthermore, the static deployment of presentation logic at the network edge is only efficient so long as usage patterns remain constant and predictable: if the usage patterns change, the statically deployed logic might no longer be highly leveraged.

In addition, static deployment of software in this manner will likely increase administration complexity, specifically for software upgrades, as a means must be provided for recording which levels of software have been deployed at which systems and for modifying the deployed software when necessary.

This upgrade process is often manual, and requires tedious, error-prone work.

And, while web services will make distributed software resources more widely available, it is likely that the physical location of some services will result in less-than-optimal response time for large numbers of remote service requesters.

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