Cloud Service Connector Hub for Rapid Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional cloud service brokerage systems require manual and time-consuming processes for integrating software applications into cloud service platforms, leading to longer release times due to the need for multiple API methods and limited user interface integration points.
Innovation Solution
A method for creating and distributing cloud service integration connectors involves a developer portal where connector descriptor information is received, a connector is built, and a package is generated and transmitted to a connector hub, with analysis for version coincidence and potential service relations, enabling efficient integration and deployment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If manual implementation of API connectors is used in traditional cloud service broker platforms, then each platform can have its own customized connector, but the release time for ISVs to integrate services becomes longer
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a connector hub that stores master copies of API connectors, which can be replicated and distributed to multiple cloud service broker platforms. This copying mechanism allows platforms to obtain standardized connectors quickly without manual implementation, reducing integration time while maintaining platform-specific customization capabilities through selective replication and configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The connector hub pre-builds and stores standardized API connectors before they are needed by individual platforms. By performing the connector creation and standardization work in advance at the hub, the system eliminates the time-consuming manual implementation process at each platform, allowing rapid deployment while ensuring adaptability through configured distributions.
2Loss of time
If standardized connector packages are distributed through a connector hub, then release time is reduced, but the ability to provide platform-specific customized connectors may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the connector distribution system into a central connector hub that manages standardized packages and individual cloud service broker platforms that receive customized distributions. This segmentation allows the hub to efficiently produce standardized connectors while each platform can selectively configure and customize specific connectors for its unique requirements, maintaining adaptability without sacrificing the time-saving benefits of standardization.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies local quality by allowing each cloud service broker platform to receive standardized connector packages from the hub and then apply platform-specific configurations and customizations locally. This ensures that while the core connector functionality is standardized and quickly deployable, each platform can tailor the connector to its specific integration needs, balancing standardization efficiency with local adaptability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple API methods are required for each cloud service broker platform, then platform-specific functionality is achieved, but the integration process becomes more complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal connector package structure at the connector hub that contains standardized API methods capable of serving multiple cloud service broker platforms. This multi-functional approach allows a single set of API methods to be replicated and adapted across different platforms, reducing the total number of unique API methods needed while maintaining platform-specific functionality through configuration rather than separate implementation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges the API method implementations into a centralized connector hub that manages a unified set of standardized methods. By combining the functionality into a single source that can be selectively distributed and configured for different platforms, the system reduces complexity while preserving the ability to provide platform-specific API functionality through the same core methods.
Data Source
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AI summary
Technologies for creating and distributing integration connectors in cloud service brokerage systems include a developer portal computing device communicatively coupled to a connector hub of a marketplace computing. The developer portal computing device is configured to receive information from a developer via a developer UI portal of a developer portal computing device. Such information includes connector descriptor information for a connector associated with a cloud service and one or more resource types of the connector. The developer portal computing device is further configured to build, via a connector builder of the developer portal computing device, the connector as a function of the connector descriptor information and the one or more resource types, generate a connector package for the built connector, and transmit the generated connector package to a connector hub of a cloud service marketplace computing device, wherein the connector package is usable to create one or more instances of the connector. Additional embodiments are described herein.