IT Infrastructure Lifecycle Management via Workspace Merging
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Solution Overview
Problem
The development and deployment of software applications often lack effective communication and collaboration between software developers and IT professionals, leading to difficulties in deployment, testing, and maintenance due to the absence of integrated lifecycle management for information technology infrastructure.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for managing IT infrastructure that includes generating workspaces for different configurations, merging configuration files to create an execution plan, and applying these plans to provision, modify, or de-provision resources, ensuring seamless deployment, testing, and maintenance across various environments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If separate development and deployment processes are used without integrated lifecycle management, then software developers and IT professionals can work independently, but deployment, testing, and maintenance become difficult due to lack of collaboration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges separate development and deployment processes into an integrated lifecycle management system. Configuration files define both software application settings and IT infrastructure resource requirements in a unified manner, allowing automated coordination between development activities and infrastructure provisioning. This integration eliminates the collaboration gap between software developers and IT professionals while managing complexity through automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary lifecycle management system that acts as a bridge between software developers and IT professionals. This intermediary automatically translates software configuration requirements into infrastructure provisioning actions, coordinating deployment, testing, and maintenance activities without requiring direct human-to-human collaboration while maintaining process integration.
2Productivity
If manual configuration management is used, then flexibility in managing IT infrastructure is maintained, but deployment efficiency and automation are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service automation where the lifecycle management system automatically manages IT infrastructure configuration based on software application requirements defined in configuration files. The system autonomously provisions, modifies, and de-provisions resources without manual intervention, significantly improving deployment efficiency while maintaining flexibility through configurable policies and parameters that can be adjusted as needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-defining infrastructure resource requirements in configuration files alongside software application settings. This advance preparation allows the automated system to quickly provision and configure necessary IT resources when deployment is initiated, eliminating manual configuration steps and accelerating deployment efficiency while maintaining adaptability through configurable specifications.
3Reliability
If integrated lifecycle management is implemented, then collaboration between developers and IT professionals improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates feedback mechanisms where the lifecycle management system continuously monitors deployment status, resource provisioning state, and system performance. This feedback enables automated adjustments and coordination between software and infrastructure components, improving deployment reliability by detecting and resolving issues early while managing system complexity through standardized monitoring and control protocols.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the integrated lifecycle management system into modular components: software configuration management, infrastructure provisioning, deployment orchestration, and monitoring. Each segment handles specific aspects of the lifecycle independently but coordinates through standardized interfaces defined in configuration files. This segmentation improves reliability by isolating failures to specific modules while managing overall system complexity through clear separation of concerns.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for managing an information technology infrastructure is provided. The method may include generating a workspace configured to maintain configurations for the information technology infrastructure. A configuration file specifying configurations to apply to the information technology infrastructure may be merged into the workspace. An execution plan may be generated based on the workspace. The execution plan may include operations to apply, to the information technology infrastructure, the configurations specified in the configuration file. The configurations may be applied, based on the execution plan, by at least provisioning, modifying, and/or de-provisioning one or more resources at the information technology infrastructure. Related systems and articles of manufacture, including computer program products, are also provided.