Utility Computing Resource Metering and Cost Allocation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current models for providing computational resources often burden service providers with excessive costs, obscuring usage distinctions among organizational units and leading to unfair cost distribution, where smaller consumers may subsidize larger ones without direct cost constraints.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for application resource utilization metering and cost allocation in a utility computing environment, utilizing a metering utility to measure resource usage and a cost model that allocates costs based on measured utilization, allowing for both variable and fixed cost portions to be assigned to applications, ensuring fair distribution of costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If service provider bears the cost of computational resources, then service provision is maintained, but cost distribution becomes unfair and usage distinctions are obscured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the cost allocation by introducing a metering utility that measures resource usage by each application and a cost model that allocates costs based on measured utilization. This divides the previously unified cost-bearing model into distinct segments that track and assign costs to individual applications, thereby preserving usage distinctions while maintaining service provision.
2Ease of operation
If cost is allocated independent of service usage, then budgeting is simplified, but smaller consumers subsidize larger ones
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the metering utility continuously measures resource usage by applications and feeds this information to the cost model. The cost model then uses this feedback to dynamically allocate costs based on actual utilization, ensuring that applications pay according to their consumption rather than through fixed independent budgets, thereby achieving fair cost distribution.
3Adaptability or versatility
If no cost constraint is applied to resource usage, then resource access is unrestricted, but consumers use resources indiscriminately
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic cost constraints through the cost model, which allocates costs based on measured utilization. This creates a flexible system where cost constraints adapt to actual usage patterns rather than being static. Applications maintain unrestricted access to resources but face dynamic cost implications that encourage efficient usage, resolving the contradiction between access freedom and usage efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for application resource utilization metering and cost allocation in a utility computing environment. In one embodiment, the system may include a computational resource, a plurality of applications configured to utilize the computational resource, a metering utility configured to measure utilization of the computational resource by a given one of the plurality of applications, and a cost model configured to allocate a first portion of a cost of the computational resource to the given application dependent upon the measured utilization of the computational resource by the given application.