Declarative Specification Auditing for Cloud Data Center Provisioning

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing cloud computing platforms face challenges in auditing changes made to platform-independent declarative specifications of data centers, which are subsequently provisioned and deployed on target cloud platforms, leading to complexities in tracking and managing large-scale data center infrastructure.

Innovation Solution

A system that generates and stores snapshots of modified platform-independent declarative specifications, associates them with unique identifiers, and tags platform-specific metadata representations, ensuring that changes can be tracked and audited throughout the provisioning and deployment process, enabling efficient auditing of data center entities.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Extent of automation

If continuous delivery platforms are used to manage large data centers on cloud platforms, then automation and deployment capability are improved, but system complexity and difficulty of maintenance increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveautomation of data center deploymentVSAvoidcomplexity of managing large data centers

Core Design Contradiction:

Extent of automationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the data center management system into multiple independent components: declarative specification layer, compilation layer, provisioning layer, and audit layer. Each layer handles specific functions independently, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining automation capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary compilation system that translates high-level declarative specifications into platform-specific deployment configurations. This intermediary layer abstracts away the complexity of cloud platform specifics from the user's declarative definitions, enabling automation without exposing users to underlying complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Adaptability or versatility

If platform-independent declarative specifications are used for provisioning data centers, then adaptability and portability are improved, but difficulty of tracking and auditing changes increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveportability of data center specificationsVSAvoiddifficulty of tracking changes

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a comprehensive feedback mechanism through the audit system that automatically tracks changes to declarative specifications, generates snapshots, and maintains version history. This feedback loop provides visibility into changes while preserving the benefits of platform-independent specifications.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates snapshots (copies) of declarative specifications at different stages of the provisioning process. These snapshots serve as auditable records that can be tracked and compared, enabling change detection without constraining the use of platform-independent formats.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

3Reliability

If snapshots of modified specifications are stored and associated with unique identifiers, then audit capability and traceability are improved, but information storage requirements and processing overhead increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaudit capabilityVSAvoidstorage of specification snapshots

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the essential audit information from full specification snapshots, storing unique identifiers and change metadata separately from the complete specification content. This extraction approach maintains audit capability while reducing storage requirements for historical data.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

4Reliability

If comprehensive auditing of data center entities is implemented, then compliance and management transparency are improved, but system complexity and processing time increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompliance trackingVSAvoidprocessing time for auditing

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary actions by automatically generating snapshots and audit records during the normal provisioning and deployment process, rather than requiring separate audit operations. This integration ensures compliance tracking without adding significant processing time to the main workflow.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS11570048B2Declarative language and compiler for provisioning and deploying data centers on cloud platforms

Publication Date: 2023.01.31 SALESFORCE INC

AI summary

A system is presented for provisioning resources on a target cloud platform based on a platform-independent specification of a data center. The system identifies data center entities represented within the platform-independent declarative specification and generates data structures and metadata representations of the data center entities. The system then generates instructions for provisioning services or deploying applications for creating one or more services on the target cloud platform based on the data structures and metadata representations of the data center entities according to the declarative specification. The system sends the generated instructions for execution on the target cloud computing platform, where the target cloud computing platform executes the instructions to generate the data center. The system provides users with access to the computing resources of the data center created by the cloud computing platform.