A cloud cost management method and device, electronic equipment and storage medium

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application disclose a cloud cost management method and device, electronic equipment and a storage medium, wherein the method comprises: obtaining actual enjoyment of a user to a first cloud cost discount scheme; when the actual enjoyment is lower than a preset enjoyment threshold, judging whether there is a cloud cost optimization space for the user; and when there is a cloud cost optimization space, sharing a second cloud cost discount scheme to the user. The technical scheme provided by the embodiments of the present application can be applied to the scenario of controlling cloud cost after the user uses the cloud, and can effectively save the cloud cost of the user.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of cloud computing technology, and in particular to a cloud cost management method, apparatus, electronic device, and storage medium. Background Technology

[0002] Cloud computing, as a type of distributed computing technology, obtains the resources needed for applications—hardware, platforms, and software—through a network. The network providing these resources is called the cloud. For cloud users, cloud resources are available anytime, used on demand, and can be scaled infinitely. Cloud costs include the specific amount of cloud resources a user uses within a given timeframe (such as virtual machine instances, memory, storage, network traffic, support, and software licenses), and typically vary as resource needs adjust.

[0003] As enterprises increasingly adopt and utilize cloud services, the pricing methods for each product offered by cloud vendors have become quite complex. Coupled with the diverse scenarios in which enterprises use the cloud, this often leads to excessively high cloud costs and significant waste due to unreasonable budgets, improper resource allocation, and inadequate multi-account management. Currently, although cloud vendors offer some discount programs, such as reserved instances and saving plans, enterprises need to prepare their IT cost budgets and commit to resource usage with the cloud vendor before purchasing these programs.

[0004] In practice, enterprises often fail to effectively utilize the discount schemes offered by cloud vendors when using their products and services. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the inability to accurately determine IT cost budgets and insufficient committed usage volume prevents them from obtaining lower discounts. For medium and large enterprises, the inability to effectively utilize discount schemes is often due to their own business development issues: firstly, explosive business growth exceeding previously set resource usage budgets leaves no discounts available when purchasing new resources; secondly, business contraction resulting in failure to meet expected resource usage levels leads to the waste of initially purchased discounts. Summary of the Invention

[0005] In view of this, embodiments of the present invention provide a cloud cost management method, apparatus, electronic device, and storage medium to effectively reduce cloud costs for users.

[0006] In a first aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a cloud cost management method, comprising:

[0007] To obtain information on how users actually utilize the First Cloud fee discount program;

[0008] When the actual usage is lower than a preset usage threshold, determine whether the user has room for cloud cost optimization.

[0009] If there is room for cloud cost optimization, the second cloud fee discount scheme will be shared with the user.

[0010] Furthermore, obtain information on users' actual utilization of the First Cloud fee discount program, including:

[0011] Analyze users' cloud billing data to obtain the utilization and / or coverage of the first cloud fee discount program.

[0012] Furthermore, determining whether the user has room for cloud cost optimization includes:

[0013] Predict the user's first cloud cost within a subsequently set time period;

[0014] Compare the first cloud cost with the user's second cloud cost over several recent set time periods to determine if the user has room for cloud cost optimization.

[0015] Furthermore, sharing the second cloud fee discount scheme with the users includes:

[0016] Identify the target member account among the user's multiple member accounts that will enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme;

[0017] Share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member account.

[0018] Furthermore, the method also includes: managing multiple member accounts of multiple users in a tree structure, wherein the child nodes of the tree structure are the hierarchical organization of users, and the leaf nodes are the member accounts under the hierarchical organization of users;

[0019] Identify the target member accounts among the user's multiple member accounts that will enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme, including:

[0020] Determine the target tier organization for the users to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme;

[0021] The member accounts under the determined target hierarchical organization will be designated as the target member accounts among the user's multiple member accounts to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme.

[0022] Furthermore, sharing the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member account includes:

[0023] Link the second cloud fee discount plan to the cloud account that enjoys the first cloud fee discount plan on the cloud platform;

[0024] The cloud account is associated with the target member account to calculate cloud fees for the target member account in accordance with the second cloud fee discount scheme.

[0025] Furthermore, the method also includes: obtaining the total cloud cost of the user to which the target member account belongs, the total cloud cost including: a first cost calculated at a discounted price; and a second cost calculated at the actual price;

[0026] If the second fee is less than a set percentage of the total cloud fee, the number of member accounts among the users to which the target member account belongs that are eligible for the second cloud fee discount scheme will be reduced.

[0027] In a second aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a cloud cost management device, comprising:

[0028] The usage status acquisition unit is used to acquire information on the actual usage status of the First Cloud fee discount program by users.

[0029] An optimization space judgment unit is used to determine whether the user has cloud cost optimization space when the actual usage is lower than a preset usage threshold.

[0030] The discount sharing unit is used to share a second cloud fee discount scheme with the user if there is room for cloud cost optimization.

[0031] Furthermore, the usage status acquisition unit is used to acquire information on the user's actual usage of the First Cloud fee discount program, including:

[0032] Analyze users' cloud billing data to obtain the utilization and / or coverage of the first cloud fee discount program.

[0033] Furthermore, the optimization space determination unit is used to determine whether the user has cloud cost optimization space, including:

[0034] Predict the user's first cloud cost within a subsequently set time period;

[0035] Compare the first cloud cost with the user's second cloud cost over several recent set time periods to determine if the user has room for cloud cost optimization.

[0036] Furthermore, the discount sharing unit is used to share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the user, including:

[0037] Identify the target member account among the user's multiple member accounts that will enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme;

[0038] Share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member account.

[0039] Furthermore, the device also includes: an account management unit, used to manage multiple member accounts of multiple users in a tree structure, wherein the child nodes of the tree structure are the hierarchical organization of users, and the leaf nodes are the member accounts under the hierarchical organization of users;

[0040] The discount sharing unit is used to identify the target member account among the user's multiple member accounts that will enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme, including:

[0041] Determine the target tier organization for the users to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme;

[0042] The member accounts under the determined target hierarchical organization will be designated as the target member accounts among the user's multiple member accounts to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme.

[0043] Furthermore, the discount sharing unit is used to share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member account, including:

[0044] Link the second cloud fee discount plan to the cloud account that enjoys the first cloud fee discount plan on the cloud platform;

[0045] The cloud account is associated with the target member account to calculate cloud fees for the target member account in accordance with the second cloud fee discount scheme.

[0046] Furthermore, the device also includes:

[0047] Obtain the total cloud cost of the users to which the target member account belongs, the total cloud cost including: a first cost calculated at a discounted price; and a second cost calculated at the actual price;

[0048] If the second fee is less than a set percentage of the total cloud fee, the number of member accounts among the users to which the target member account belongs that are eligible for the second cloud fee discount scheme will be reduced.

[0049] Thirdly, embodiments of the present invention provide an electronic device, the electronic device comprising: a housing, a processor, a memory, a circuit board, and a power supply circuit, wherein the circuit board is disposed within the space enclosed by the housing, and the processor and the memory are disposed on the circuit board; the power supply circuit is used to supply power to various circuits or devices of the electronic device; the memory is used to store executable program code; the processor runs a program corresponding to the executable program code by reading the executable program code stored in the memory, for executing the cloud cost management method described in the first aspect above.

[0050] Fourthly, embodiments of the present invention also provide a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs that can be executed by one or more central processing units to implement the cloud cost management method described in the first aspect.

[0051] The technical solution provided by this invention analyzes the actual usage of the first cloud fee discount scheme by the user. When the actual usage is very low, it further determines whether the user has room for cloud cost optimization. If it is determined that there is room for cost optimization, the second cloud fee discount scheme is shared with the user. This helps the user flexibly match different cloud fee discount schemes when purchasing cloud resources and minimize cloud cost expenditures. Attached Figure Description

[0052] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0053] Figure 1 A flowchart of a cloud cost management method provided in Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

[0054] Figure 2 A flowchart of a cloud cost management method provided in Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

[0055] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of a multi-user, multi-account management system under a tree structure, as provided in Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

[0056] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of a flexible shared second cloud fee discount scheme provided in Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

[0057] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a cloud cost management device provided in Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

[0058] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of an electronic device provided in an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0059] The embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0060] It should be understood that the described embodiments are merely some, not all, of the embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without inventive effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0061] The technical solution of this invention is applicable to a network architecture consisting of a cloud platform, a cloud service management platform, and a user terminal. The cloud service management platform acts as an intermediate control console, connecting both the cloud platform and the user terminal, and providing the user terminal with management functions for cloud platform services. The user terminal can purchase, activate, and manage cloud resources on the cloud platform according to its business needs through the cloud service management platform. The cloud service management platform provides the user terminal with cloud billing data and cloud cost optimization solutions.

[0062] Based on the above network architecture, the technical solution of the present invention will be described in detail below through various embodiments.

[0063] Example 1

[0064] This embodiment provides a cloud cost management method, which can be executed by a corresponding cloud cost management device, which can be deployed on the cloud service management platform side of the aforementioned network architecture. See also... Figure 1 The method specifically includes the following steps 101-104.

[0065] Step 101: Obtain information on the actual usage of the First Cloud fee discount program by users.

[0066] In this step, "user" refers to a cloud user managed by the current cloud service management platform. This user may have indirectly purchased cloud resources on the cloud platform through the cloud service management platform, or directly purchased cloud resources on the cloud platform through the cloud platform. The purchase plan may or may not include the discount from the first cloud fee discount plan. In practical applications, users are often enterprises that need to migrate to and use the cloud.

[0067] The so-called "first-party cloud fee discount plan" is usually a cloud pricing strategy offered by cloud platform providers, requiring users to commit to certain conditions, such as reserving instances or participating in a savings plan. A reserved instance is a billing discount plan applicable to on-demand instances. When the attributes of the on-demand instance purchased by a cloud user match those of a reserved instance, the on-demand instance can enjoy a billing discount. A savings plan is a discount benefit plan where cloud users can exchange a lower pay-as-you-go discount by committing to using a stable amount of resources (measured in yuan / hour) within a certain period (1 year or 3 years). After purchasing a savings plan, the portion of the hourly bill not exceeding the committed consumption will be calculated according to the savings plan's specific discount.

[0068] The actual utilization of the First Cloud fee discount program can be measured by metrics such as utilization rate and coverage (usage volume, utilization rate). Whether the First Cloud fee discount program is fully and adequately utilized directly affects the user's cloud costs. For example, by analyzing the user's cloud billing data, the utilization rate and / or coverage rate of the First Cloud fee discount program can be obtained, and this utilization rate and / or coverage rate can be used as the user's actual utilization of the First Cloud fee discount program. The calculation period for the cloud billing data can be one billing cycle or multiple billing cycles. When there are multiple billing cycles, the user's utilization rate and / or coverage rate of the First Cloud fee discount program can be calculated for each billing cycle, and the average value across different billing cycles can be taken. Alternatively, multiple billing cycles can be treated as a single time period, and a unified calculation of the user's utilization rate and / or coverage rate of the First Cloud fee discount program can be performed. In specific implementation:

[0069] The utilization rate Where fee1 represents the cost incurred by the user in actually using the First Cloud fee discount program, and fee2 represents the cost incurred by the user in committing to use the First Cloud fee discount program;

[0070] The coverage Where fee3 represents the original total cost corresponding to the discounted portion of the First Cloud fee discount plan actually enjoyed by the user, and fee4 represents the original total cost corresponding to the non-discounted portion of the First Cloud fee discount plan actually enjoyed by the user.

[0071] Taking the First Cloud fee discount plan as an example, and using cloud fee billing data from one billing cycle as an example, the costs are as follows: Fee2 is the cost of the user's committed consumption; Fee1 is the cost of the user enjoying the savings plan; Fee3 is the total original price corresponding to the discount offered by the savings plan for the portion not exceeding the committed consumption; and Fee4 is the total cost of the user enjoying the on-demand pricing under the savings plan for the portion exceeding the committed consumption. For example, after purchasing the savings plan, the portion not exceeding the committed consumption will be calculated at a 30% discount unique to the savings plan. If the on-demand price (i.e., the original price) for each cloud resource is 10 yuan / hour, then the discounted price will be 7 yuan / hour. Suppose there are 20 cloud resources with a billing cycle of 30 days. Ten of these resources actually received a 30% discount, resulting in an actual cost of 50,400 yuan = 7 * 10 * 24 * 30. The other 10 resources did not receive the discount and were charged at the original price, resulting in an actual cost of 72,000 yuan = 10 * 10 * 24 * 30. Therefore, the coverage rate r² = (50,400 / 0.7) / ((50,400 / 0.7) + 72,000) = 50%. fee4 = 72000.

[0072] It should be noted that in practical applications, the cloud platform's method of calculating cloud fees for the cloud service management platform is different from the method of calculating cloud fees for the users it manages. Therefore, before analyzing the cloud fee billing data to obtain the user's utilization rate and / or coverage of the first cloud fee discount scheme, the process also includes: obtaining the original cloud fee billing data from the cloud platform's cloud service management platform; and converting the original cloud fee billing data related to the user into the cloud fee billing data actually incurred by the user.

[0073] Step 102: Determine whether the actual consumption is lower than the preset consumption threshold; if so, proceed to step 103; otherwise, end the process.

[0074] Optionally, step 103 can be executed if both of the following conditions are met simultaneously, otherwise the process ends: ① The user's utilization rate of the first cloud fee discount scheme is lower than a preset utilization threshold; ② The user's coverage rate of the first cloud fee discount scheme is lower than a preset coverage threshold. Alternatively, step 103 can be executed if either of these conditions is met, otherwise the process ends. The utilization threshold and coverage threshold can be set by those skilled in the art based on experience. It should be noted that if the user's utilization rate of the first cloud fee discount scheme is lower than the utilization threshold and / or the coverage rate is lower than the preset coverage threshold, it means that the actual usage is lower than the preset usage threshold. In this case, the utilization threshold and coverage threshold can be understood as usage thresholds.

[0075] Step 103: Determine if the user has room for cloud cost optimization; if so, proceed to step 104; otherwise, end the process.

[0076] In practice, step 103 may include the following sub-steps:

[0077] Sub-step 1031: Predict the user's first cloud cost within a subsequently set time period;

[0078] Sub-step 1032: Compare the first cloud cost with the user's second cloud cost in the most recent set time periods to determine whether the user has room for cloud cost optimization.

[0079] In sub-step 1031 above, the user's first cloud cost within a subsequent set time period can be predicted by analyzing the cloud costs of the user's previous multiple billing periods. The time periods corresponding to multiple billing periods are typically much longer than the subsequent set time period; for example, N times the subsequent set time period can be selected, where N is an integer greater than 1. The cloud cost of a single billing period refers to the total cloud fees incurred by the user within that billing period. For example, the cloud costs of the user's previous multiple billing periods can be used as training samples to train the prediction model, thereby obtaining a usable prediction model. Inputting the subsequent set time period into the prediction model yields the first cloud cost; the subsequent set time period can be the next week, month, or longer. The modeling methods include ARIMA models, exponential smoothing models, or regression models. Preferably, the prediction model is an ARIMA model, specifically using common statistical software packages (such as statsmodels in Python and forecast in R) to fit the ARIMA model. During training, information criteria (such as AIC and BIC) can be used to select the optimal model. As a preferred implementation, after training the prediction model, a test sample set is used to evaluate the predictive performance of the ARIMA model. Evaluation metrics include mean absolute error (MAE), mean squared error (MSE), and root mean square error (RMSE). Once the evaluation is passed, the ARIMA model is used for cloud cost prediction. Of course, the prediction model can be updated based on new training samples to ensure its accuracy and reliability. More preferably, multiple prediction models can be established, each with a different prediction range (i.e., the length of the subsequent set time period) to adapt to prediction needs in different scenarios. Furthermore, a Fourier transform prediction algorithm can be used to predict the user's first cloud cost within the subsequent set time period.

[0080] In sub-step 1032 above, if the first cloud cost is equal to the second cloud cost, or if the first cloud cost shows an upward trend compared to the second cloud cost, then it is determined that the user has room for cloud cost optimization; otherwise, it is determined that the user does not have room for cloud cost optimization. Wherein, the difference between the first cloud cost and the second cloud cost within a preset fluctuation range can be considered equal; let the most recent multiple time periods be M time periods, if the second cloud cost is lower than the first cloud cost in N of these time periods, it can be determined that the first cloud cost is showing an upward trend, where N is greater than 1 and less than or equal to M, preferably the ratio of N to M is greater than 90%.

[0081] It should be noted that other methods can also be used to determine whether the user has room for cloud cost optimization. For example, the operator can input the judgment result through human-computer interaction, or the user level can be obtained based on pre-maintained user information, and the existence of cloud cost optimization space can be judged according to the user level. For example, if the level is higher than a set level, it is determined that there is room for cloud cost optimization. This embodiment of the invention does not specifically limit this.

[0082] Step 104: Share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the user.

[0083] In step 104, the second cloud fee discount scheme is typically a cloud service provider's pricing strategy offered by the cloud service management platform. This scheme does not require users to commit to any discount conditions; discounted pricing applies to all times and cloud resource usage. Even when users are required to commit to discount conditions, the cloud service provider on the cloud service management platform, acting as an intermediary, manages a large number of users, and the discount conditions they offer are often much more lenient than those offered by the cloud platform itself, such as larger discounts. Compared to the first cloud fee discount scheme, the second cloud fee discount scheme is more favorable, representing a deeper discount scheme based on the first. After sharing the second cloud fee discount scheme with users, they can use it to plan cloud cost expenditures and purchase cloud resources.

[0084] Example 2

[0085] This embodiment provides a cloud cost management method. Based on Embodiment 1 described above, this method optimizes the sharing steps of the second cloud fee discount scheme to achieve more accurate and reasonable sharing of the second cloud fee discount scheme. Similarly, this method can be executed by a corresponding cloud cost management device, which can be deployed on the cloud service management platform side of the aforementioned network architecture. See also... Figure 2 The method specifically includes the following steps 201-205.

[0086] Step 201: Obtain information on the actual usage of the First Cloud fee discount program by users.

[0087] Step 202: Determine whether the actual consumption is lower than the preset consumption threshold; if so, proceed to step 203; otherwise, end the process.

[0088] Step 203: Determine whether the user has room for cloud cost optimization; if so, proceed to step 204; otherwise, end the process.

[0089] Step 204: When there is room for cloud cost optimization, determine the target member account among the user's multiple member accounts to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme.

[0090] Step 205: Share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member account.

[0091] In this embodiment, multiple users are pre-managed, and multiple member accounts are further managed for each user. Each user's member accounts can be created according to different functions, such as registration, demand management, and payment, with one member account corresponding to one function. Specifically, when the user is an enterprise, multiple member accounts can be created according to the enterprise's organizational structure. When there is room for cloud cost optimization, the target member account for enjoying the second cloud fee discount scheme can be determined based on the user's actual needs. For example, upon receiving a cloud fee discount request from a unit organization within the user's organizational structure, the member account corresponding to that unit organization can be used as the target member account for enjoying the second cloud fee discount scheme.

[0092] As a preferred implementation, multiple member accounts of multiple users are managed in a tree structure, where the child nodes of the tree structure represent the user's hierarchical organization, and the leaf nodes represent the member accounts under the user's hierarchical organization. Accordingly, determining the target member account among the user's multiple member accounts to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme may specifically include:

[0093] Determine the target tier organization for the users to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme;

[0094] The member accounts under the determined target hierarchical organization will be designated as the target member accounts among the user's multiple member accounts to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme.

[0095] For example, the second cloud fee discount scheme is bound to the cloud account that enjoys the first cloud fee discount scheme on the cloud platform; the cloud account is then associated with the target member account to calculate cloud fees for the target member account according to the second cloud fee discount scheme. Therefore, the second cloud fee discount scheme will be prioritized for the target member account in subsequent billing periods, and the discount scheme will be automatically applied upon successful matching. Here, the cloud account is an account purchased by the cloud service management platform from the cloud platform that can enjoy the first cloud fee discount scheme; the target member account consists of multiple accounts created by users managed by the cloud service management platform.

[0096] The following section provides a detailed introduction to the tree-structured organization of multi-user, multi-member accounts.

[0097] See Figure 3 :

[0098] I. Organization

[0099] This is an entity created when a user opens an account with a cloud provider. It is used to merge user member accounts and manage each member account as a unit. The cloud service management platform can centrally view and manage all member accounts within the organization. An organization has one master member account and zero or more slave member accounts. Member accounts can be organized in a hierarchical tree structure with the root at the top and organizational units nested under the root. Each member account can be located directly in the root directory or placed in one of the OUs in the hierarchy. The organization has permission restrictions on the set of policy functions enabled.

[0100] II. Root

[0101] When a user opens an account with a cloud provider, the cloud service management platform automatically creates a root organization for the user. The root organization is the parent node of all member accounts. If the user applies a policy to the root, it will be applied to all organizational units (OUs) and member accounts within the organization. A user can only have one root account.

[0102] III. Organizational Unit (OU)

[0103] Other organizational nodes are not root nodes; OUs can also contain other OUs, allowing users to construct a hierarchical structure similar to an inverted tree, with the root at the top and branches of the OU extending downwards; when a user attaches a policy to a node in the hierarchy, it flows downwards and affects all branches (OUs) and leaves (accounts) below it; an OU can only have one parent, and currently each account can only be a member of one OU.

[0104] IV. Member Accounts

[0105] The account used by users to pay for cloud resources; administrators can also attach control policies to designated accounts to strengthen account control; there are two types of accounts in the organization:

[0106] The primary member account is the account that created the organization; through the organization's primary account, the following operations can be performed:

[0107] Create member accounts within an organization; invite other existing member accounts to join the organization; delete member accounts from the organization; manage invitations; apply policies to entities (root, OU, or account) within the organization; have payment responsibility, and be responsible for paying all fees incurred by member accounts;

[0108] From a member account, it refers to the remaining member accounts in the organization. A member account can only belong to one organization at a time.

[0109] Based on the above solutions, the cloud cost management method provided in this embodiment also includes:

[0110] Obtain the total cloud cost F of the users to which the target member account belongs, which includes: a first cost F1 calculated based on the discounted price; and a second cost F2 calculated based on the actual price.

[0111] If the second fee F2 is less than a set percentage (e.g., 20%) of the total fee F, the number of member accounts among the users to which the target member account belongs that are eligible for the second cloud fee discount scheme is reduced.

[0112] The first fee F1, calculated based on the discounted price, refers to the actual cost paid for the discounted portion after calculation. The second fee F2, calculated based on the original price, refers to the actual cost paid for the non-discounted portion after calculation. For example, if the original price is 10 yuan / hour per resource and the discounted price is 6 yuan / hour per resource (i.e., a 60% discount), and a user enjoys a 60% discount on 25 cloud resources and not on 20 cloud resources within a 30-day cloud billing cycle, then the first cloud cost is 108,000 yuan = 6 * 25 * 24 * 30, the second cloud cost is 144,000 yuan = 10 * 20 * 24 * 20, and the total cloud cost is 25,200 yuan. The number of member accounts reduced each time can be greater than or equal to 1, and less than or equal to the total number of member accounts among the users of the target member account that actually enjoy the second cloud cost discount scheme.

[0113] As a result, fewer member accounts among the users belonging to the target member account are eligible for the second cloud fee discount program. The second cloud fee discount program can then be transferred to other users for member accounts among other users who meet the cost optimization criteria.

[0114] See Figure 4Cloud service providers typically manage a large number of Organizations (OUs) through their cloud service management platforms. Each OU corresponds to a user, as shown in the diagram: User A, User B, and User C. User A has their own member accounts: Member-Account1, Member-Account2, and Member-Account3; User B has their own member accounts: Member-Account1, Member-Account2, Member-Account3, Member-Account4, and Member-Account5; and User C has their own member accounts: Member-Account1, Member-Account2, Member-Account3, and Member-Account4. The cloud service management platform can share the cloud accounts (i.e., FlexAccounts, such as FlexAccount-SP3 and FlexAccount-RI2) pre-purchased under the first cloud fee discount plan with the target user and calculate the cloud fees for the target user according to the second cloud fee discount plan. For the target user, the second cloud fee discount plan FlexAccount-SP3 and FlexAccount-RI2 applies. Meanwhile, the cloud service management platform applies the cloud cost management method described in this embodiment of the invention to all managed users, dynamically scheduling the cloud accounts (FlexAccount) among different users to achieve elastic sharing of the second cloud fee discount scheme. For example, previously, Member-Account1 in user A enjoyed the second cloud fee discount scheme FlexAccount5; Member-Account1 in user B enjoyed the second cloud fee discount scheme FlexAccount3, Member-Account2 enjoyed the second cloud fee discount scheme FlexAccount-SP3, and Member-Account4 enjoyed a second cloud fee discount scheme FlexAccount-RI2. Subsequently, the second cloud fee discount scheme FlexAccount-SP3 migrated to Member-Account3 in user A, and the second cloud fee discount scheme FlexAccount-RI2 migrated to Member-Account3 in user C. User B no longer enjoys the second cloud fee discount schemes FlexAccount-RI2 and FlexAccount-SP3. This elastic sharing mechanism achieves the goal of elastic scheduling discount schemes among multiple users, which can reduce the risk of cloud cost waste. If only a fixed number of users purchase the second cloud fee discount scheme, but these users do not actually enjoy it, it will result in the waste of the discount scheme.

[0115] Example 3

[0116] This embodiment provides a cloud cost management device that can be used to execute the cloud cost management method described in this embodiment of the invention. The device can be implemented by software and / or hardware and is deployed on the cloud service management platform side of the aforementioned network architecture. See also Figure 5 The device specifically includes the following units:

[0117] The usage status acquisition unit 501 is used to acquire the user's actual usage status of the First Cloud fee discount program;

[0118] The optimization space judgment unit 502 is used to determine whether the user has cloud cost optimization space when the actual enjoyment is lower than the preset enjoyment threshold.

[0119] The discount sharing unit 503 is used to share a second cloud fee discount scheme with the user when there is room for cloud cost optimization.

[0120] Furthermore, the usage status acquisition unit 501 is used to acquire information on the user's actual usage of the First Cloud fee discount program, including:

[0121] Analyze users' cloud billing data to obtain the utilization and / or coverage of the first cloud fee discount program.

[0122] Furthermore, the optimization space determination unit 502 is used to determine whether the user has cloud cost optimization space, including:

[0123] Predict the user's first cloud cost within a subsequently set time period;

[0124] Compare the first cloud cost with the user's second cloud cost over several recent set time periods to determine if the user has room for cloud cost optimization.

[0125] Furthermore, the discount sharing unit 503 is used to share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the user, including:

[0126] Identify the target member account among the user's multiple member accounts that will enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme;

[0127] Share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member account.

[0128] Furthermore, the device also includes: an account management unit 500, used to manage multiple member accounts of multiple users in a tree structure, wherein the child nodes of the tree structure are the hierarchical organization of users, and the leaf nodes are the member accounts under the hierarchical organization of users;

[0129] Discount sharing unit 503 is used to determine the target member account among the user's multiple member accounts that enjoys the second cloud fee discount scheme, including:

[0130] Determine the target tier organization for the users to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme;

[0131] The member accounts under the determined target hierarchical organization will be designated as the target member accounts among the user's multiple member accounts to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme.

[0132] Furthermore, the discount sharing unit 503 is used to share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member account, including:

[0133] Link the second cloud fee discount plan to the cloud account that enjoys the first cloud fee discount plan on the cloud platform;

[0134] The cloud account is associated with the target member account to calculate cloud fees for the target member account in accordance with the second cloud fee discount scheme.

[0135] Furthermore, the device also includes an adjustment unit 504, used for:

[0136] Obtain the total cloud cost of the users to which the target member account belongs, the total cloud cost including: a first cost calculated at a discounted price; and a second cost calculated at the actual price;

[0137] If the second fee is less than a set percentage of the total cloud fee, the number of member accounts among the users to which the target member account belongs that are eligible for the second cloud fee discount scheme will be reduced.

[0138] The cloud cost management device provided in this embodiment belongs to the same inventive concept as the aforementioned method embodiment. Technical details not described in this embodiment can be found in the relevant descriptions in the aforementioned method embodiment, and will not be repeated here.

[0139] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of an embodiment of the electronic device of the present invention, which can implement the process of embodiment one or embodiment two of the present invention, such as... Figure 6 As shown, the aforementioned electronic device may include: a housing 61, a processor 62, a memory 63, a circuit board 64, and a power supply circuit 65. The circuit board 64 is disposed inside the space enclosed by the housing 61, and the processor 62 and the memory 63 are disposed on the circuit board 64. The power supply circuit 65 is used to supply power to the various circuits or devices of the aforementioned electronic device. The memory 63 is used to store executable program code. The processor 62 runs a program corresponding to the executable program code by reading the executable program code stored in the memory 63, for executing the cloud cost management method described in any of the foregoing embodiments.

[0140] For details on the specific execution process of the above steps by the processor 62 and the steps further executed by the processor 62 by running executable program code, please refer to the descriptions of Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 2 of the present invention, which will not be repeated here.

[0141] This electronic device exists in various forms, including but not limited to:

[0142] (1) Mobile communication devices: These devices are characterized by their mobile communication capabilities and primarily aim to provide voice and data communication. These terminals include: smartphones (e.g., iPhones), multimedia phones, feature phones, and low-end phones, etc.

[0143] (2) Ultra-mobile personal computer devices: These devices fall under the category of personal computers, possessing computing and processing capabilities, and generally also have mobile internet access features. These terminals include PDAs, MIDs, and UMPCs, such as the iPad.

[0144] (3) Portable entertainment devices: These devices can display and play multimedia content. This category includes: audio and video players (such as iPods), handheld game consoles, e-books, as well as smart toys and portable car navigation devices.

[0145] (4) Server: A device that provides computing services. The components of a server include a processor, hard disk, memory, system bus, etc. Servers are similar to general computer architectures, but because they need to provide highly reliable services, they have higher requirements in terms of processing power, stability, reliability, security, scalability, and manageability.

[0146] (5) Other electronic devices with data interaction functions.

[0147] Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention also provide a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs, which can be executed by one or more central processing units to implement the cloud cost management method described in the foregoing embodiments.

[0148] The technical solution provided by this invention can effectively reduce users' cloud costs. Users typically use cloud vendor-recommended, commitment-based discount schemes, but business growth often leads to waste or inadequacy of these schemes. By using the solution provided by this invention, users can intelligently select a better cloud fee discount scheme to optimize their cloud resource usage, allowing them to focus entirely on business development without worrying about losses due to cost fluctuations caused by business growth or decline.

[0149] It should be noted that, in this document, relational terms such as "first" and "second" are used only to distinguish one entity or operation from another, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Furthermore, the terms "comprising," "including," or any other variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not expressly listed, or elements inherent to such a process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitations, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one..." does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes said element.

[0150] In this embodiment of the invention, the term "and / or" describes the relationship between associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent: A existing alone, A and B existing simultaneously, or B existing alone. The character " / " generally indicates that the preceding and following associated objects have an "or" relationship.

[0151] The various embodiments in this specification are described in a related manner. The same or similar parts between the various embodiments can be referred to each other. Each embodiment focuses on describing the differences from other embodiments.

[0152] In particular, the device embodiment is basically similar to the method embodiment, so the description is relatively simple. For relevant details, please refer to the description of the method embodiment.

[0153] For ease of description, the above apparatus is described by dividing it into various functional units / modules. Of course, in implementing this invention, the functions of each unit / module can be implemented in one or more software and / or hardware.

[0154] Those skilled in the art will understand that all or part of the processes in the above embodiments can be implemented by a computer program instructing related hardware. The program can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and when executed, it can include the processes of the embodiments of the above methods. The storage medium can be a magnetic disk, optical disk, read-only memory (ROM), or random access memory (RAM), etc.

[0155] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto. Any variations or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in the present invention should be included within the scope of protection of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention should be determined by the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A cloud cost management method, characterized in that, The method includes: To obtain information on how users actually utilize the First Cloud fee discount program; When the actual usage is lower than a preset usage threshold, determine whether the user has room for cloud cost optimization. If there is room for cloud cost optimization, the second cloud fee discount scheme will be shared with the user. The step of obtaining information on users' actual use of the first cloud fee discount scheme includes: Analyze the user's cloud billing data to obtain the user's utilization rate and / or coverage rate of the first cloud fee discount scheme; the utilization rate r1 ,in This indicates the actual cost incurred by the user when utilizing the First Cloud fee discount program. This indicates the cost incurred by the user's commitment to enjoy the First Cloud fee discount program; the coverage r2 ,in This represents the total original price corresponding to the discounted portion of the First Cloud fee discount plan actually enjoyed by the user. This represents the total original price cost corresponding to the non-discounted portion of the First Cloud fee discount plan actually enjoyed by the user. The determination of whether the user has room for cloud cost optimization includes: Predict the user's first cloud cost within a subsequently set time period; Compare the first cloud cost with the user's second cloud cost over several recent set time periods to determine if the user has room for cloud cost optimization. The sharing of the second cloud fee discount scheme with the user includes: Identify the target member account among the user's multiple member accounts that will enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme; Share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member account.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The method further includes: managing multiple member accounts of multiple users in a tree structure, wherein the child nodes of the tree structure are the user's hierarchical organization, and the leaf nodes are the member accounts under the user's hierarchical organization; Identify the target member accounts among the user's multiple member accounts that will enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme, including: Determine the target tier organization for the users to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme; The member accounts under the determined target hierarchical organization will be designated as the target member accounts among the user's multiple member accounts to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, Sharing the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member accounts includes: Link the second cloud fee discount plan to the cloud account that is enjoying the first cloud fee discount plan on the cloud platform; The cloud account is associated with the target member account to calculate cloud fees for the target member account in accordance with the second cloud fee discount scheme.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The method further includes: Obtain the total cloud cost of the users to which the target member account belongs, the total cloud cost including: a first cost calculated at a discounted price; and a second cost calculated at the actual price; If the second fee is less than a set percentage of the total cloud fee, the number of member accounts among the users to which the target member account belongs that are eligible for the second cloud fee discount scheme will be reduced.

5. A cloud cost management device, characterized in that, The device includes: The usage status acquisition unit is used to acquire information on the actual usage status of the First Cloud fee discount program by users. An optimization space judgment unit is used to determine whether the user has cloud cost optimization space when the actual usage is lower than a preset usage threshold. The discount sharing unit is used to share a second cloud fee discount scheme with the user if there is room for cloud cost optimization. in, The usage status acquisition unit is used to acquire the user's actual usage status of the first cloud fee discount scheme, including: Analyze the user's cloud billing data to obtain the user's utilization rate and / or coverage rate of the first cloud fee discount scheme; the utilization rate r1 ,in This indicates the actual cost incurred by the user when utilizing the First Cloud fee discount program. This indicates the cost incurred by the user's commitment to enjoy the First Cloud fee discount program; the coverage r2 ,in This represents the total original price corresponding to the discounted portion of the First Cloud fee discount plan actually enjoyed by the user. This represents the total original price cost corresponding to the non-discounted portion of the First Cloud fee discount plan actually enjoyed by the user. The optimization space determination unit is used to determine whether the user has cloud cost optimization space, including: Predict the user's first cloud cost within a subsequently set time period; Compare the first cloud cost with the user's second cloud cost over several recent set time periods to determine if the user has room for cloud cost optimization. The discount sharing unit is used to share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the user, including: Identify the target member account among the user's multiple member accounts that will enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme; Share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member account.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, characterized in that, The device further includes: an account management unit, used to manage multiple member accounts of multiple users in a tree structure, wherein the child nodes of the tree structure are the hierarchical organization of users, and the leaf nodes are the member accounts under the hierarchical organization of users; The discount sharing unit is used to identify the target member account among the user's multiple member accounts that will enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme, including: Determine the target tier organization for the users to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme; The member accounts under the determined target hierarchical organization will be designated as the target member accounts among the user's multiple member accounts to enjoy the second cloud fee discount scheme.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that, The discount sharing unit is used to share the second cloud fee discount scheme with the target member account, including: Link the second cloud fee discount plan to the cloud account that enjoys the first cloud fee discount plan on the cloud platform; The cloud account is associated with the target member account to calculate cloud fees for the target member account in accordance with the second cloud fee discount scheme.

8. The apparatus according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that, The device further includes an adjustment unit for: Obtain the total cloud cost of the users to which the target member account belongs, the total cloud cost including: a first cost calculated at a discounted price; and a second cost calculated at the actual price; If the second fee is less than a set percentage of the total cloud fee, the number of member accounts among the users to which the target member account belongs that are eligible for the second cloud fee discount scheme will be reduced.

9. An electronic device, characterized in that, The electronic device includes: a housing, a processor, a memory, a circuit board, and a power supply circuit, wherein the circuit board is disposed inside the space enclosed by the housing, and the processor and the memory are disposed on the circuit board; the power supply circuit is used to supply power to various circuits or devices of the electronic device; the memory is used to store executable program code; the processor runs a program corresponding to the executable program code by reading the executable program code stored in the memory, for executing the cloud cost management method described in any one of claims 1-4 above.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer-readable storage medium stores one or more programs, which can be executed by one or more central processing units to implement the cloud cost management method according to any one of claims 1-4.

Images