Service Metering Framework for Application-Specific Cloud Billing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current cloud-based metering and billing systems fail to accurately account for application-specific activities, leading to overcharging or undercharging, as they lack the ability to consider unique attributes and values of different applications, thereby not providing an application model-driven metering approach.
Innovation Solution
A service metering framework (SMF) that generates metered records with application-specific metering attributes and values during runtime, using REST APIs and JMS, allowing for flexible data storage and integration with existing systems to provide application model-driven metering, enabling better monetization and billing based on actual usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a traditional cloud-based metering system is used, then billing can be performed, but accurate accounting of application-specific activities cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the metering process into application-specific components by introducing application model definitions that capture unique attributes and values for different applications. This allows the generic metering system to be divided into customizable application models, enabling accurate measurement of specific application activities while maintaining overall system functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by allowing different applications to have their own specific metering attributes and values defined in their respective application models. Each application can specify its unique characteristics (e.g., number of photos printed, document processing metrics) rather than using a uniform metering approach, thus achieving both accuracy and adaptability.
2Measurement precision
If a generic metering system is used, then implementation is simple, but application-specific usage data cannot be accurately captured
Solution Approach 1:
The system achieves universality by creating a multi-functional framework where a single generic metering infrastructure can handle multiple application-specific metering requirements. The application model definitions serve as a universal interface that allows different applications to be metered accurately without requiring separate complex systems for each application.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces application model definitions as an intermediary layer between the generic metering system and specific applications. This intermediary captures application-specific attributes and values, translating them into a format that the generic metering system can process, thus enabling accurate usage data capture without directly complicating the core metering infrastructure.
3Reliability
If application model-driven metering is implemented, then accurate billing is achieved, but integration complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary action by defining application models in advance, before actual metering operations begin. These pre-defined models contain all necessary application-specific attributes and values, allowing the metering system to accurately capture and bill for usage without requiring complex real-time integration logic during operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is provided in one example embodiment executed at a service metering framework (SMF) engine including a processor, and includes interfacing, by an event listener at the SMF engine, with an application being executed in a cloud by a remote client device, detecting a metering event associated with the application during execution of the application, receiving a value of at least one metering attribute associated with the metering event, and storing the at least one metering attribute and the value as a formatted metered record in a SMF database searchable according to the metering attribute. In a specific embodiment, the event listener exposes an application programming interface (API) of the SMF engine to the application to facilitate definitions of the metering event and the at least one metering attribute in the application.