Cloud Policy Management With Tenant Testing and Approval
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for providing policy structure, visibility, accessibility, and change management in multi-tenant cloud environments lack consistency and standardization, as policies are often hard-wired into code or defined in external configuration files, making them inaccessible and non-transparent to teams outside the domain.
Innovation Solution
A policy manager platform that enables centralized policy definition, approval, and enforcement within a multi-tenant cloud environment, using a policy manager platform to define, test, and deploy tenant-specific policies, ensuring transparency and accessibility while preventing unauthorized access across tenants.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If policies are hard-wired into code or defined in external configuration files, then policy implementation is straightforward, but policy visibility and accessibility to teams outside the domain are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cloud-based policy management platform that adds a new dimensional layer for policy storage and access. Instead of policies being confined to code or local configuration files, they are elevated to a cloud-based repository accessible across multiple domains and teams, thereby improving visibility without compromising implementation ease
Solution Approach 2:
The cloud-based policy management platform acts as an intermediary between policy creators and policy users. It mediates policy storage, approval workflows, and distribution, enabling teams outside the original domain to access and understand policies while maintaining the original implementation mechanisms
2Reliability
If policies are defined by program managers and engineers within a domain, then domain-specific policy expertise is utilized, but policy accessibility to other teams is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The cloud-based policy management platform provides universal access to policies across multiple domains and teams. It maintains domain-specific expertise through structured policy definitions while enabling broad accessibility through centralized cloud storage and standardized interfaces, allowing any authorized team to access relevant policies
3Adaptability or versatility
If policies are manually managed without a standardized process, then flexibility in policy creation is maintained, but consistency and standardization across domains are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic policy management with structured templates that adapt to different domains while enforcing consistent approval workflows. Policies can be customized for specific domains through template parameters, yet all policies follow standardized creation, approval, and deployment processes, achieving both flexibility and consistency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses parameter-based policy templates where specific policy details can be customized through parameter changes rather than restructuring the entire policy framework. This allows domain-specific adaptations while maintaining consistent policy structures and approval processes across all domains
4Productivity
If policies are deployed directly to production without testing, then deployment speed is increased, but policy performance and reliability are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements preliminary testing actions in a cloud-based test environment before policies are deployed to production. Policies undergo validation, simulation, and approval workflows in the cloud platform, ensuring performance and reliability are verified before actual deployment, thereby maintaining both speed and reliability through automated preliminary actions
Data Source
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AI summary
Aspects of the disclosed technology include techniques and mechanisms for cloud-based policy definition and enforcement. Using a policy manager platform, entities associated with a tenant within a multi-tenant cloud environment define a policy and submit the policy for approval. The policy manager platform deploys the pending policy in a test environment for analysis by one or more entities associated with the tenant. The policy manager platform generates a pending policy protype for deployment in a subscriber environment. Policy manager platform receives an indication that the pending policy changed from a pending state to an active state based on policy performance analysis in both the test environment and the subscriber environment. Based on receiving the indication, the policy manager platform pushes the active policy to relevant policy subscribers associated with the tenant.