Cloud Broker Abstraction for Hybrid Resource Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current cloud computing systems limit users to specific service levels and applications offered by individual vendors, restricting their ability to install custom applications and operate environments that match their workload needs, and require cumbersome business relationships for hybrid cloud environments.
Innovation Solution
A brokering service system that periodically polls multiple compute environments to identify resource capabilities and presents a unified interface for users, allowing for the selection of resources that meet service level agreements and workload requirements, and can modify or reprovision resources to ensure compatibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If users access cloud services through individual vendor interfaces, then they can utilize specific cloud resources, but they are limited to the service levels and applications offered by each vendor and face cumbersome administrative requirements for hybrid environments
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cloud broker as an intermediary system that manages user access to multiple cloud environments. The broker abstracts the complexity of interacting with multiple vendors by providing a unified interface, handling resource selection across different clouds, and managing the administrative overhead of hybrid cloud relationships, thereby resolving the contradiction between versatility and complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The cloud broker is designed as a universal system that can interface with multiple different cloud vendors and types (public, private, hybrid) through a single platform. This multi-functional capability allows users to access diverse cloud resources without needing separate management systems for each cloud environment, addressing both the need for adaptability and the reduction of administrative complexity
2Ease of operation
If cloud vendors provide fixed service levels and applications, then their infrastructure can be simplified and maintained, but users lose the ability to install custom applications and configure environments to match their workload requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The cloud broker implements dynamic resource provisioning that allows cloud environments to be configured and adapted based on specific workload requirements. Rather than fixed configurations, the system dynamically selects and configures resources from multiple cloud vendors to match user needs, enabling custom application installation and environment configuration while the broker manages the resulting complexity
3Adaptability or versatility
If users establish separate business relationships with multiple clouds for hybrid environments, then they can access diverse resources, but the process becomes cumbersome and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The cloud broker performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing and managing relationships with multiple cloud vendors on behalf of users. It proactively handles the administrative setup, resource allocation, and configuration across hybrid clouds before users need to access resources, thereby reducing the time and effort users would otherwise spend managing these relationships
Data Source
AI summary
System, method, and tangible computer-readable storage media are disclosed for providing a brokering service for compute resources. The method includes, at a brokering service, polling a group of separately administered compute environments to identify resource capabilities and information, each compute resource environment including the group of managed nodes for processing workload, receiving a request for compute resources at the brokering service system, the request for compute resources being associated with a service level agreement (SLA) and based on the resource capabilities across the group of compute resource environments, selecting compute resources in one or more of the group of compute resource environments. The brokering service system receives workload associated with the request and communicates the workload to the selected resources for processing. The brokering services system can aggregate resources for multiple cloud service providers and act as an advocate for or a guarantor of the SLA associated with the workload.