Cloud Exchange Mediator for Multi-Provider Service Subscription
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current cloud environments provided by different cloud service providers (CSPs) operate as closed ecosystems, restricting customers to using only the services offered by that CSP, with no easy way to access services from different CSPs.
Innovation Solution
The system allows provisioning of a cloud service from a first CSP using the control plane of a second CSP, enabling a first computing resource of the first CSP to provide a service to a user with a second user account from the second CSP, through a private network, and associating this service with a subscription available via the second CSP.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If cloud environments operate as closed ecosystems, then service management and control are simplified, but customer access to multiple CSP services is restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cloud exchange as an intermediary platform that enables customers to access services from multiple CSPs through a single point of entry. The cloud exchange acts as a mediator that orchestrates service provisioning, billing, and management across different cloud providers without requiring customers to directly interact with each CSP's closed ecosystem, thus resolving the contradiction between maintaining simple control structures and enabling multi-CSP access.
Solution Approach 2:
The cloud exchange is designed as a universal platform that performs multiple functions including service brokerage, unified billing, resource orchestration, and multi-CSP integration. This multi-functional approach allows a single system to handle diverse cloud service access requirements while maintaining a simplified customer interface, addressing both the need for versatility and the desire for operational simplicity.
2Ease of operation
If customers subscribe to services through their home CSP, then billing and account management are simplified, but access to services from other CSPs requires complex inter-CSP agreements
Solution Approach 1:
The cloud exchange serves as an intermediary billing and management platform that handles service subscriptions from multiple CSPs through a unified interface. Customers can subscribe to and manage services from different CSPs through their cloud exchange account without needing to establish direct billing relationships with each CSP, simplifying operations while the cloud exchange manages the complex inter-CSP integration in the background.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates virtual representations of CSP services through the cloud exchange platform, allowing customers to access and manage services from multiple providers through a standardized interface. This virtualization layer copies the essential service access and management functions while abstracting away the underlying complexity of inter-CSP agreements and integrations.
3Reliability
If cloud services are provided through dedicated direct connections, then service reliability is improved, but infrastructure cost and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple dedicated direct connections from different CSPs into a unified cloud exchange infrastructure. By consolidating these connections through a single hub, the system maintains the reliability benefits of dedicated connections while reducing the overall network infrastructure complexity that would result from managing separate direct connections to each CSP.
Solution Approach 2:
The cloud exchange creates a universal network infrastructure that serves multiple functions including service brokerage, unified billing, resource orchestration, and network connectivity aggregation. This multi-functional platform provides reliable dedicated connections to multiple CSPs through a single infrastructure, eliminating the need for customers to establish and manage separate direct connections to each provider.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for a method including providing, by a first computing resource of a first cloud service provider (CSP), a first service to a user having a first user account with a second CSP, the first service provided via a first private network of the user with the second CSP. The method further including transmitting data between a second private network communicatively coupled with the first private network, the second private network associated with a second user account of the user with the first CSP. The method further including associating, by a second computing resource of the first CSP, the first private network and the second private network with a subscription of the second user account with the first CSP, the subscription available via the second CSP.