Autonomic Provisioning with Isolation Levels

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Solution Overview

Problem

Data centers face challenges in automating the negotiation and management of service level agreements (SLAs) due to increasing customer requests and the need for improved security and isolation of hosted applications, with existing solutions focusing on computational requirements rather than customer protection and security concerns.

Innovation Solution

A computing system and method for autonomic provisioning of hosted applications with level of isolation terms, utilizing an infrastructure registry, an autonomic provisioning service unit, and a monitoring unit to select and allocate heterogeneous infrastructure resources that fulfill SLAs with defined levels of isolation, ensuring secure protection and efficient resource allocation.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If physical firewalls are used to disconnect dedicated servers running applications of different companies, then security and isolation level is improved, but implementation cost increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesecurity and isolation levelVSAvoidimplementation cost

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments isolation requirements into multiple levels (L1-L4) that can be selectively applied to different virtual machines based on customer needs and SLA agreements, rather than applying uniform physical isolation to all systems

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates a universal framework that can provide multiple isolation levels using the same infrastructure and management system, allowing the data center to serve different security requirements without requiring separate physical systems for each level

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Reliability

If manual negotiation and specification of SLAs is performed, then customer protection and security concerns are addressed, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecustomer protection and securityVSAvoidprocessing time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables automated self-service provisioning where customers can independently select their required isolation level and have SLAs automatically generated and configured based on their choices, eliminating manual negotiation while maintaining security requirements

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent pre-defines multiple isolation levels and their corresponding configurations before customer requests arrive, allowing the system to quickly provision services by selecting from pre-configured options rather than negotiating and configuring from scratch

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Productivity

If heterogeneous infrastructure resources are dynamically allocated, then resource utilization efficiency is improved, but management complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveresource utilization efficiencyVSAvoidmanagement complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary layer (virtualization platform and management system) that abstracts the complexity of heterogeneous infrastructure resources, presenting a unified view and control interface while enabling efficient dynamic allocation underneath

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system manages complexity by parameterizing isolation requirements (L1-L4 levels) and resource allocation policies, allowing dynamic adjustment of these parameters based on SLA agreements without changing the fundamental system architecture or management approach

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS7856499B2Autonomic provisioning of hosted applications with level of isolation terms

Publication Date: 2010.12.21 SAP SE

AI summary

A method and a system are described that involve autonomic provisioning of hosted applications with level of isolation terms. In one embodiment, the system includes an infrastructure registry to provide a set of heterogeneous infrastructure resources, an autonomic provisioning service unit to select a subset of the heterogeneous infrastructure resources, (the subset of resources to fulfill a service level agreement (SLA) with a corresponding level of isolation), and a monitoring unit to collect information about the subset of resources and send the collected information to the autonomic provisioning service unit.In another embodiment, the method includes providing a set of heterogeneous infrastructure resources, selecting a subset of the set of heterogeneous infrastructure resources, the subset of heterogeneous infrastructure resources is defined in a configuration template to fulfill a service level agreement (SLA) with a corresponding level of isolation, and allocating the subset of infrastructure resources in the registry.