Virtualized Resource Display with Metric Shading
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge lies in visually representing and managing a large number of resources and users within a cloud computing service's virtualized infrastructure, including relationships and real-time operational metrics, which becomes complex due to the vast scale and interconnected nature of these elements.
Innovation Solution
A graphical user interface (GUI) is developed to display virtualized infrastructure resources, users, and relationships through parallel, linear rows of graphical representations, with features like filtering, zooming, and shading to differentiate related objects, and the ability to reflect changes and metrics visually, facilitating navigation and management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a traditional display method is used to represent all resources and users, then complete information is provided, but the display becomes overwhelmingly complex and difficult to navigate
Solution Approach 1:
The display is segmented into multiple hierarchical levels: a high-level summary view showing aggregate metrics, and detailed views that can be accessed by drilling down into specific resource types or user groups. This allows complete information to be organized in manageable segments rather than presented as an overwhelming single view.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces temporal dimension through time-based filtering and aggregation, allowing users to view historical trends alongside current status. It also adds hierarchical dimension by organizing resources and users in nested groups, transforming a flat complex dataset into a multi-dimensional structured display that reduces perceived complexity while preserving information completeness.
2Loss of information
If all resources and users are displayed simultaneously, then comprehensive visibility is achieved, but navigation and understanding become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Resources and users are segmented into category groups (e.g., compute resources, storage resources, network resources) that can be independently explored. Each segment maintains its own navigation context, allowing users to focus on specific areas without being overwhelmed by the entire system at once, while comprehensive visibility is maintained through the ability to switch between segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The display dynamically adapts based on user interactions, automatically adjusting which resources and users are highlighted or expanded. When a user selects a particular resource type or user group, the system dynamically reorganizes the display to emphasize relevant information while maintaining access to broader context through navigation controls, making navigation intuitive without sacrificing comprehensive visibility.
3Reliability
If real-time metrics are continuously updated for all resources, then operational performance is fully monitored, but system resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements partial real-time monitoring by continuously tracking only the most critical metrics for high-priority resources, while using periodic sampling or aggregated updates for less critical resources. This selective approach maintains reliable monitoring accuracy for essential operations while significantly reducing the overall computational load and system resource consumption compared to continuous full-system monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
Metrics are updated using periodic sampling intervals that adapt based on resource priority and current system load. Critical resources receive more frequent updates while less critical resources are monitored at lower frequencies. This periodic action maintains sufficient monitoring accuracy for operational reliability while optimizing system resource consumption by avoiding unnecessary continuous updates across all resources.
Data Source
AI summary
A visual representation of a set of instantiated virtualized resources may be displayed and include a linear row of graphical representations of individual ones of a set of instantiated virtualized resources. In addition, a performance-related metric for individual ones of the set of instantiated virtualized resources may be monitored, and the display may be caused to reflect values for the metric for the individual instantiated virtualized resources in connection with the corresponding graphical representations of the individual instantiated virtualized resources.