Usage Billing for Hosted Applications via Isolated Environments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems fail to provide effective application isolation and usage billing for hosted applications on commodity operating systems like Windows and Linux, requiring customizations or proprietary infrastructure, and do not address the challenges of cloud computing environments where applications are dynamically assigned and accessed remotely.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for usage billing of hosted applications that pre-configures applications within isolated environments on central servers, allowing remote access without local installation, using commodity operating systems and standard applications, with no need for virtual machines or proprietary protocols, and provides fine-grained billing based on various metrics through a two-way authentication subsystem and encryption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If application isolation is implemented using virtual machines or proprietary infrastructure, then application isolation and security are improved, but device complexity and infrastructure cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the application environment into isolated containers that run on commodity operating systems without requiring full virtual machines. Each application is isolated through process-level separation and resource control mechanisms, achieving application isolation while avoiding the complexity of virtualized infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer (application isolation mechanism) that sits between the commodity operating system and the hosted applications. This intermediary provides isolation and security functions without requiring proprietary infrastructure, mediating between standard OS capabilities and isolation requirements.
2Measurement precision
If usage billing is implemented for hosted applications, then billing accuracy is improved, but system complexity and measurement difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where usage metrics are continuously collected from isolated applications and fed back to the billing system. This enables accurate usage-based billing by tracking resource consumption, transaction volumes, and other metrics while maintaining a manageable billing system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables applications to self-report their usage metrics through instrumentation within the isolated environment. This self-service approach simplifies the billing system complexity by having applications automatically provide accurate usage data without requiring complex external measurement and monitoring infrastructure.
3Adaptability or versatility
If remote access to hosted applications is enabled, then accessibility and flexibility are improved, but security risks and authentication complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal authentication subsystem that handles multiple authentication methods and security protocols through a single integrated mechanism. This enables remote access to hosted applications while managing security through a unified authentication framework rather than multiple separate systems.
4Ease of manufacture
If commodity operating systems are used instead of custom operating systems, then ease of manufacture and compatibility are improved, but application isolation and security control become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary actions by pre-configuring isolation mechanisms and security controls within the commodity operating system environment before hosting applications. This preliminary setup ensures that application isolation and security controls are in place without requiring custom operating systems, enabling easy deployment while maintaining reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method, and computer readable medium for usage billing of one or more hosted applications serving one or more clients. The hosted applications are contained within one or more isolated environments or run without isolated environments. The system may include usage billing based on one or more of resources open, amount of data flowing through resources, number of open files, number of transactions, number of concurrent users, number of processes, CPU utilization and memory usage, The system may further include a management interface where administrators may add, remove and configure isolated environments, configure client policies and credentials, and force upgrades. If using isolated environments, the isolated environments may be isolated from other applications and the host operating system on the clients and applications within the isolated environments may run without performing an application-installation on the client.