Pre-provisioning Storage Volumes to Reduce Cloud Provisioning Latencies

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Solution Overview

Problem

Public cloud provisioning latencies are high due to the need for on-demand provisioning of storage volumes, which can lead to overloading of the control plane and centralized storage backend, resulting in slow VM provisioning.

Innovation Solution

Creating a pool of pre-provisioned generic storage volumes before receiving user requests, allowing for quick customization and provisioning of custom volumes to meet user demands, thereby reducing the load on the control plane and storage backend.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If on-demand provisioning of storage volumes is used, then storage volumes can be provisioned according to user needs, but provisioning latencies increase and control plane becomes overloaded

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvestorage volume provisioning flexibilityVSAvoidprovisioning latency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system pre-provisions storage volumes in advance and maintains a pool of ready-to-allocate volumes. When a user requests storage, the system can immediately allocate from the pre-provisioned pool rather than creating volumes on-demand, significantly reducing provisioning latency while maintaining flexibility through the pool management mechanism

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Adaptability or versatility

If on-demand provisioning is used, then storage can be allocated dynamically, but centralized storage backend becomes overloaded

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedynamic storage allocationVSAvoidstorage backend processing speed

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

Storage volumes are pre-created and prepared in advance, with their allocation metadata stored in a pool. When user requests arrive, the system simply retrieves pre-prepared allocation information from the pool rather than performing complex real-time provisioning operations, thereby maintaining dynamic allocation capability while reducing backend processing load

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system creates a pool of pre-provisioned volume descriptors or templates that can be quickly instantiated. Instead of creating unique volumes from scratch for each user request, the system copies and adapts pre-existing volume configurations, reducing the computational burden on the centralized storage backend

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentUS12271297B2Pre-provisioning storage volumes in the public cloud to reduce provisioning latencies

Publication Date: 2025.04.08 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION

AI summary

A system and related method reduce public cloud provisioning latencies using one or more processors. The method comprises, prior to receiving a volume provisioning request from a user, creating a pool of pre-provisioned generic volumes. The method further comprises receiving the request from the user to provision a volume from the pool, and then determining that a pre-provisioned generic volume is available for customization based on the request. Responsive to the determination, the method executes the actions comprising customizing the pre-provisioned generic volume based on the request, creating a custom volume, and providing the customized pre-provisioned volume to the user.