JP2017526038A - Provision of service subscriptions using existing subscriptions - Google Patents

Abstract

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a technique for providing a user with access to a service using an existing service that is provisioned by a cloud infrastructure system. The cloud infrastructure system may provide services to users by creating clone subscriptions based on subscriptions for existing services that the cloud infrastructure system provides. Clone subscriptions can provide users with access to services based on existing services. A cloud infrastructure system may implement a technology that allows various users to anonymously reuse services provisioned by the cloud infrastructure system. When subscribed to a cloud system, a service can be composed of an existing pool of pre-provisioned services. When releasing a service, the resource is returned to the pool for reuse. In this way, the time required to provision a new resource is minimized and the amount of resource usage is maximized.

Description

This application is related to the following applications, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.

(1) US Provisional Application No. 61 / 698,413, filed September 7, 2012, entitled “Tenant Automation System” (2), filed September 7, 2012, entitled “Service Development Infrastructure” US Provisional Application No. 61 / 698,459 (3) US Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 785,299 filed March 14, 2013 and entitled “Cloud Infrastructure” (4) 2013 3 US Provisional Application No. 61 / 794,427 filed on May 15 and entitled “Cloud Infrastructure” (5) United States Provisional Application No. 61 filed on March 15, 2013 and entitled “Service Association Model” This application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for purposes of US Provisional Application No. 61 / 698,463, filed September 7, 2012 and entitled “Shared Identify Management Architecture”. To quote Ri is incorporated.

  This application was filed on Feb. 17, 2015 and claims priority and benefit based on US Provisional Application No. 62 / 010,617, filed June 11, 2014, entitled “REUSABLE ANONYMOUS SUBSCRIPTION”. Claims priority and benefit under US Non-Provisional Application No. 14 / 624,364 entitled REUSABLE ANONYMOUS SUBSCRIPTION.

  This application was filed on February 7, 2015 and claims priority and benefit based on US Provisional Application No. 62 / 011,400 filed June 12, 2014 and entitled “RULE BASED SUBSCRIPTION CLONING”. Claims priority and interest under US Non-Provisional Application No. 14 / 624,356 entitled “RULE BASED SUBSCRIPTION CLONING”.

  The entire contents of the above non-provisional patent applications and provisional patent applications are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND This disclosure relates to computer systems and software, and more specifically to techniques for facilitating and automating service provisioning in a cloud environment.

  Cloud computing is a model that allows convenient on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (eg, networks, servers, storage devices, applications, and services). A service provided or accessed through the cloud (or network) is called a cloud service. In order for a contracted customer to be able to use a cloud service, a cloud service provider needs to perform many processes. Because of its complexity, much of this processing is still done manually. For example, provisioning resources to provide such a cloud service can be a labor intensive process.

  Consumers and operators expect the order and start of use of computer network cloud-based services to be seamless. However, many cloud services are difficult to start up because they require provisioning of resources that can be shared. For example, servers in a server farm may perform cloud services for many customers at once, and may need to move resources to add another customer. The service that the user desires to use can vary from user to user. For example, some users want only raw storage on the cloud, while others want to use advanced database storage. There are also other users who wish to use graphical user interface (GUI) software running on the cloud for their employees or customers.

  In some cases, an operator may wish to try new features or components using an existing computing environment (eg, a production system). However, these business owners may not be able to test new features by implementing another environment using the existing computing environment. As a result, the operator may consume resources to implement another environment that includes additional configuration and computing resources. In addition, the realization of additional systems can involve management procedures for contracting with service providers for more computing resources. The construction of an additional computing environment may require prohibitive costs and a great deal of time depending on the operator.

  Some operators want to try a cloud-based service in order to determine whether it meets their needs. However, operators may not want to test the service. Because establishing a legitimate subscription for that service may require an additional heavyweight process, including configuring resources, before that service can be accessed by that subscription Because. If you purchase a regular subscription, this additional process can cause delays as operators try to use this service further. Further, customer data created during service testing may not be retained for subsequent use of the service by regular subscriptions after service testing. Operators may be burdened with testing the service while spending time and money regenerating customer data for subsequent use based on regular subscriptions by enabling the environment to use . Because of these issues, some operators may not have the flexibility to try the service before purchasing a subscription for the service. Cloud service providers may lose the opportunity to acquire other customers reluctant to try this service before subscribing to the service. Each time a provider wishes to try a service, the provider may be tasked with reprovisioning resources for that service. Customers and service providers will benefit from technologies that enable services and reduce the time required to provision resources to hold customer data associated with the use of these services.

  There is a need in the art for cloud-based computer systems that are faster, cheaper and easier to use.

Overview Generally, aspects of the present disclosure relate to techniques for providing users access to services using existing services provisioned by a cloud infrastructure system. More specifically, the user may be provided with a subscription for access to the service based on an existing subscription. Examples of service types are the Software as a Service (SaaS) category, the Platform as a Service (PaaS) category, and the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) category. ) Categories or other categories of services, including but not limited to hybrid services.

  A cloud infrastructure system may provide users with access to services based on existing services using various techniques described herein. Such techniques can improve processing efficiency in providing access to services to customers by reducing the processing time required to provision resources for a requested service. The cloud infrastructure system can determine the type of service based on a request from a user and provide a subscription that allows access to that service using the provisioning determined for the existing service be able to.

  In some embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system creates a subscription (eg, a “clone subscription”) based on an existing subscription (eg, a base subscription) for an existing service that the cloud infrastructure system provides. Thus, a service can be provided to the user. Clone subscriptions provide users with access to services based on existing services. Multiple clone subscriptions may be created based on the base subscription, with each clone subscription providing a subscription to the service based on the existing service of the base subscription. The clone subscription may be associated with the subscription on which the clone subscription was created. When a clone subscription is associated with the subscription on which this clone subscription was created, the life cycle of this subscription and the clone subscription will be associated with each other.

  In at least one illustrative example, access to services provided by a clone subscription may be provided to support an additional environment for one type of use indicated by a user. The usage type supported by this additional environment may differ from the usage type corresponding to the existing subscription on which the clone subscription was established. For example, a user may request a clone subscription for a production environment provided by a base subscription. Doing so establishes a test environment based on this production environment (eg, a clone of this production environment). A test environment for this clone subscription may be required so that new features can be tested in the clone environment before being deployed to the production environment.

  In some embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system may implement a technology that allows various users to anonymously reuse services provisioned by the cloud infrastructure system. The system may constitute a subscription called “reusable anonymous subscription” (RAS). The RAS may provide the user with access to this service provided by the system prior to obtaining a regular subscription for the service. Services that the RAS can access may already be provisioned. A cloud infrastructure system may constitute one or more pools of RAS. Each RAS provides a reusable subscription for pre-provisioned services. When a service is requested by a user, a RAS for this service may be assigned to the user from the pool so that the service can be accessed.

  If the user decides not to convert the RAS to a regular subscription, the RAS is returned to the pool for reuse of services provisioned for this RAS. Services provisioned for this RAS remain provisioned when the RAS is returned to the pool, minimizing the time required to provision new resources for this service and maximizing resource usage. To. The RAS may be reassigned to another user if the previous user does not convert the RAS into a regular subscription.

  If the user decides to convert the RAS to a regular subscription, the RAS may not be returned to the pool. The RAS may be converted to a regular subscription using a lightweight conversion process. Since the services provided by RAS are already provisioned, the conversion process is lightweight and there will be no need to re-provision the services. The conversion process may establish an account that is assigned a regular subscription for the use of services already provisioned for the RAS. In some embodiments, the customer specific data generated during use of a service provided by RAS may be separated from the service specific data associated with this service. When the RAS is converted into a regular subscription, data for a specific customer may be held and associated with the regular subscription. For this reason, the user provided with the regular subscription may continue to use the service using the existing customer-specific data created while using the service through the RAS.

  In at least one embodiment, a technique for providing access to a service to a user using an existing service provisioned by a cloud infrastructure system is disclosed. One technique is a method that can be implemented by a computing system. This computing system may be included in the service infrastructure system. The service infrastructure system can be realized by a cloud infrastructure system. A service infrastructure system may include a multi-tenant environment. The method can include providing a plurality of services to a service infrastructure system. Services can include Java® services, customer relationship management (CRM) services, or human capital management (HCM) services. Each of these services may be associated with data for a specific service. A service specific actor corresponding to a service may indicate the configuration of the service, which may include one or more resources allocated to provide the service. The method can include providing a plurality of services to a service infrastructure system. The method may include receiving a request from a first customer for access to a service provided by a service infrastructure system. The method may include determining a subscription type based on a service requested by the first customer. The subscription type may be one of a clone subscription or a reusable subscription. The method may include providing a first customer with a subscription to access the service. The subscription may be provided based on the type of subscription, and may be provided using a first service of the plurality of services. The method may include managing a subscription provided to the first customer.

  In some embodiments, the first customer request may indicate a type of service usage by the customer, and the subscription type may be determined based on the type of usage indicated by the request. Good.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer is based on the first subscription to the first service. The first clone subscription is provided as a subscription to the first customer, and providing the subscription to the first customer is based on a set of rules. Associating the clone subscription with the first subscription.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription may cause the life cycle of the first clone subscription to match the first subscription. Mapping to the life cycle of the application. The clone subscription may provide access to the second service, and access to the second service by the customer may end when access to the first service by the customer ends. When the subscription type is a clone subscription, the method further includes updating the access to the first service based on a request from the customer and based on the updated access to the first service. Modifying access to the second service.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, the first clone subscription may provide access to the second service, and the set of rules may include the first rule It may indicate the use of the second service as a clone of the service. The set of rules may indicate a period of access to the second service. The set of rules may indicate the number of users authorized to access the second service, where the number of users authorized to access the second service May be different from the number of authorized users. The set of rules may indicate a configuration of the second service, and the configuration of the second service may be different from the configuration of the first service.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, managing the subscription determines access to the requested service by the subscription in response to a change in the first service. Can include. Access to the requested service may be determined using a set of rules.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer means that the first service is provisioned in a service pool within the service infrastructure system. Determining that the first service for the subscription is not provisioned in the service pool, provisioning the first service for the first subscription in the service pool; Assigning a first subscription for one service to a customer as a subscription for the service. Assigning a first subscription may include assigning a first service from a service pool to a customer. Assigning the first service to the customer can include deleting the first service from the service pool.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, the method may include associating the customer specific data with the service specific data corresponding to the first service. The customer specific data associated with the first customer may include data related to the use of the first service by the customer. When the subscription type is a reusable subscription, managing the subscription to access the service may include assigning a first service to the service pool when the subscription is terminated. Assigning the first service may include releasing the correspondence between the data for the specific customer and the data for the specific service corresponding to the first service. The first service may be reassignable from the service pool to one or more other customers. In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, the method receives a request by a second customer to access a second service of the plurality of services. Determining that the second service is available in the service pool based on the determination that the second service is similar to the first service; and determining the first subscription in the service pool Assigning to the second customer, assigning the first subscription to the second customer includes deleting the first subscription from the service pool, and the method further includes: The data for the specific customer corresponding to is associated with the data for the specific service corresponding to the first service.

  In some embodiments, providing the service may include provisioning the service in the cloud infrastructure system prior to receiving a request by the first customer. A service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with demand for the service. A service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with a service type.

  In at least one embodiment, techniques are disclosed for providing users access to services using existing services provisioned by a cloud infrastructure system. One technique is a system that includes at least one processor and memory operatively coupled to the at least one processor. This system may be included in the service infrastructure system. This service infrastructure system may include a multi-tenant environment. The memory may store computer code. Computer code may be executed by the at least one processor of the system to provide a plurality of services to the service infrastructure system. Services may include Java® services, customer relationship management (CRM) services, or human resource management (HCM) services. Each of these services may be associated with data for a specific service. The service specific data corresponding to the service may indicate a configuration for the service, and the configuration may include one or more resources allocated to provide the service.

  The at least one processor receives a request by a first customer to access a service provided by a service infrastructure system by executing computer code stored in memory. The at least one processor executes the computer code stored in the memory to determine a subscription type based on the service requested by the first customer. The subscription type may be one of a clone subscription or a reusable subscription. The at least one processor provides the first customer with a subscription to access the service by executing computer code stored in the memory. The subscription may be provided based on the type of subscription, and may be provided using a first service of the plurality of services. The at least one processor manages subscriptions provided to the first customer by executing computer code stored in memory.

  In some embodiments, the request by the first customer may indicate the type of use of the service by the customer, and the type of subscription may be determined based on the type of use indicated by the request. .

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer is based on the first subscription to the first service. The first clone subscription is provided as a subscription to the first customer, and providing the subscription to the first customer is based on a set of rules. Associating the subscription with the first subscription.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription may cause the life cycle of the first clone subscription to match the first subscription. Mapping to the life cycle of the application. The clone subscription may provide access to the second service, and access by the customer to the second service may be terminated when customer access to the first service ends. When the subscription type is a clone subscription, the at least one processor updates access to the first service based on a customer request by executing computer code stored in memory. Modifying the access to the second service based on the updated access to the first service.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, the first clone subscription may provide access to the second service, and the set of rules may include the second service May be used as a clone of the first service. The set of rules may indicate a period of access to the second service. The set of rules may indicate the number of users authorized to access the second service, where the number of users authorized to access the second service May be different from the number of authorized users. The set of rules may indicate a configuration of the second service, and the configuration of the second service may be different from the configuration of the first service.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, managing the subscription determines access to the requested service by the subscription in response to a change in the first service. Can include. Access to the requested service may be determined using a set of rules.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer means that the first service is provisioned in a service pool within the service infrastructure system. Determining that the first service for the subscription is not provisioned in the service pool, provisioning the first service for the first subscription in the service pool, and Assigning a first subscription for a service to a customer as a service subscription. Assigning a first subscription may include assigning a first service from a service pool to a customer. Assigning the first service to the customer can include deleting the first service from the service pool.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, the at least one processor executes the computer code stored in memory to obtain customer specific data. Correspond to data for a specific service corresponding to one service. The data for the specific customer is associated with the customer of the first service. The customer specific data associated with the first customer may include data related to the use of the first service by the customer. When the subscription type is a reusable subscription, managing the subscription to access the service includes assigning the first service from the customer to the service pool when the subscription ends. obtain. Assigning the first service may include releasing the correspondence between the data for the specific customer and the data for the specific service corresponding to the first service. The first service may be reassignable from the service pool to one or more other customers. In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, the at least one processor executes a computer code stored in memory to thereby execute a first of a plurality of services. The second service is available in the service pool based on a determination by the second customer to request access to the second service and that the second service is similar to the first service. Determining and assigning a second subscription in the second pool to the second customer and assigning the first subscription to the second customer includes deleting the first subscription from the service pool. Including data for a specific customer corresponding to the second customer and data for the specific service corresponding to the first service. Associate with.

  In some embodiments, providing the service may include provisioning the service in the cloud infrastructure system prior to receiving a request by the first customer. A service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with the operation of the service infrastructure system. Providing the service may include provisioning the service before receiving a request by the first customer. A service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with demand for the service.

  In at least one embodiment, techniques are disclosed for providing users access to services using existing services provisioned by a cloud infrastructure system. One technique is a non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions executable by a processor of a computer system. This non-transitory computer readable medium may be included in the service infrastructure system. A service infrastructure system may include a multi-tenant environment. The instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium are executable by the processor to provide multiple services to the service infrastructure system. Services may include Java® services, customer relationship management (CRM) services, or human resource management (HCM) services. Each of these services may be associated with data for a specific service. The service specific data corresponding to the service may indicate a configuration for the service, and the configuration may include one or more resources allocated to provide the service.

  The instructions stored in the non-transitory computer readable medium can be executed by the processor to receive a request by the first customer for access to services provided by the service infrastructure system. The instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium are executed by the processor so that the type of subscription can be determined based on the service requested by the first customer. The subscription type may be either a clone subscription or a reusable subscription. The instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium may be executed by the processor to provide the first customer with a subscription to access the service. The subscription may be provided based on the type of subscription, or may be provided using a first service among a plurality of services. The subscription provided to the first customer may be managed by the processor executing instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium.

  In some embodiments, the request by the first customer may indicate the type of use of the service by the customer, and the type of subscription may be determined based on the type of use indicated by the request.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer is based on the first subscription to the first service. The first clone subscription is provided as a subscription to the first customer, and providing the subscription to the first customer is based on a set of rules. Associating the clone subscription with the first subscription.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription may cause the life cycle of the first clone subscription to match the first subscription. Mapping to the life cycle of the application. The clone subscription may provide access to the second service, and access by the customer to the second service may be terminated when customer access to the first service ends. When the subscription type is a clone subscription, the processor executes instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium to update access to the first service based on a customer request. Modifying the access to the second service based on the updated access to the first service.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, the first clone subscription may provide access to the second service, and the set of rules may include the second service May be used as a clone of the first service. The set of rules may indicate a period of access to the second service. The set of rules may indicate the number of users authorized to access the second service, where the number of users authorized to access the second service May be different from the number of authorized users. The set of rules may indicate a configuration of the second service, and the configuration of the second service may be different from the configuration of the first service.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, managing the subscription determines access to the requested service by the subscription in response to a change in the first service. Can include. Access to the requested service may be determined using a set of rules.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer means that the first service is provisioned in a service pool within the service infrastructure system. Determining that the first service for the subscription is not provisioned in the service pool, provisioning the first service for the first subscription in the service pool; Assigning a first subscription for a service to a customer as a subscription for the service. Assigning a first subscription may include assigning a first service from a service pool to a customer. Assigning the first service to the customer can include deleting the first service from the service pool.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, the processor executes instructions stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium to store customer specific data. Correspond to data for a specific service corresponding to one service. The data for the specific customer is associated with the customer of the first service. The customer specific data associated with the first customer may include data related to the use of the first service by the customer. When the subscription type is a reusable subscription, managing the subscription to access the service includes assigning the first service from the customer to the service pool when the subscription ends. obtain. Assigning the first service may include releasing the correspondence between the data for the specific customer and the data for the specific service corresponding to the first service. The first service may be reassignable from the service pool to one or more other customers. In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, the processor executes instructions stored in the non-transitory computer readable medium to cause a first of the plurality of services. The second service is available in the service pool based on a determination by the second customer to request access to the second service and that the second service is similar to the first service. Determining and assigning a second subscription in the second pool to the second customer and assigning the first subscription to the second customer includes removing the first subscription from the service pool. , Data for specific customers corresponding to the second customer corresponds to data for specific services corresponding to the first service Kick.

  In some embodiments, providing the service may include provisioning the service in the cloud infrastructure system prior to receiving a request by the first customer. A service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with the operation of the service infrastructure system. Providing the service may include provisioning the service before receiving a request by the first customer. A service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with demand for the service.

  Still other embodiments relate to systems and machine-readable tangible storage media that use or store instructions and / or code to perform operations to implement the techniques described herein.

  The above summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used alone to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter. . The subject matter should be understood with reference to the entire specification of this patent, any or all of the drawings, and the appropriate portion of each claim.

  The nature and advantages of the present invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

  Embodiments for describing the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a logical diagram of a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a hardware / software stack that may be used to implement a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1B is a simplified block diagram of a system environment for realizing the cloud infrastructure system shown in FIG. 1A. FIG. 6 shows a simplified flowchart 300 illustrating processing that may be performed by a TAS module in a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows a simplified high-level view of one or more sub-modules within a TAS module in a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 illustrates an exemplary distributed deployment of TAS components according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram illustrating the interaction of an SDI module and one or more modules in a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows a simplified high level view of sub-modules of an SDI module according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates a simplified flowchart illustrating processing that may be performed by an SDI component in a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 4 shows a simplified block diagram illustrating the high level architecture of Nuviaq system 710 and the relationship of this system with other cloud infrastructure components in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows an exemplary sequence diagram illustrating the steps of a provisioning process using a Nuviaq system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows an exemplary sequence diagram illustrating the steps of a deployment process using a Nuviaq system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a database instance provisioned for a database service according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a system environment for providing reusable anonymous subscriptions according to some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a data structure for implementing a reusable anonymous subscription according to some embodiments of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart of a process for managing the lifecycle of a reusable anonymous subscription according to various embodiments. FIG. 4 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a system environment for providing clonal subscriptions in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a subscription data structure in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 6 illustrates exemplary rules for managing clone subscriptions according to various embodiments. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process for managing the life cycle of a clone subscription according to various embodiments. 6 is a flowchart of a process for cloning a subscription according to various embodiments. 7 is a flowchart of a process for providing a subscription for a service using an existing subscription in accordance with various embodiments. FIG. 4 shows a high level overview of various interactions involved in providing a tenant environment according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 shows a simplified diagram of a distributed system for implementing an embodiment. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical computer system that can be used to implement certain embodiments of the present invention. Fig. 2 illustrates an exemplary service infrastructure system that may be used to implement an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. It will be apparent, however, that various embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. The drawings and description are not intended to be limiting.

  Certain embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for automating the provisioning, management, and tracking of services provided by cloud infrastructure systems.

In a specific embodiment, a cloud infrastructure system is a set of applications that are given to customers in a self-service, subscription-based, flexible, scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner, Middleware and database service offerings may be included. An example of such a cloud infrastructure system is the Oracle Public Cloud provided by the assignee of the present application.

  Cloud infrastructure systems provision, manage and track customer subscriptions for services and resources in cloud infrastructure systems, and provide predictable business costs to customers using services in cloud infrastructure systems Providing robust identity domain separation and protection of customer data within the cloud infrastructure system, providing customers with a transparent architecture and control of cloud infrastructure system design, reliable data protection and data privacy Integrated development experience for providing customers with compliance with standards and regulations, building and deploying services in cloud infrastructure systems Provides a number of features including, but not limited to, providing customers and seamless integration between business software, middleware, databases and infrastructure services in cloud infrastructure systems obtain.

  In certain embodiments, the services provided by the cloud infrastructure system may include a number of services that are made available on demand to users of the cloud infrastructure system. These services include online data storage and backup solutions, web-based email services, hosted office software packages and document collaboration services, database processing, managed technical support services, and the like. Services provided by the cloud infrastructure system can be dynamically adjusted to meet the needs of the users. A materialized service provided by the cloud infrastructure system is referred to as a service instance in this specification. Generally, a service that can be used by a user from a cloud service provider system via a communication network such as the Internet is called a cloud service. Typically, in a public cloud environment, the servers and systems that make up the cloud service provider's system are different from the customer's own premises servers and systems. For example, a cloud service provider's system may host an application, and a user can order and use the application on demand via a communication network such as the Internet.

  Services in a computer network cloud infrastructure include protected computer network access to storage, hosted databases, hosted web servers, software applications, or other services provided to users by cloud vendors, or Includes other services known in the art. For example, a service may include password protected access to remote storage on the cloud through the Internet. As another example, a service may include a web service-based hosted relational database and scripting language middleware engine for private use by networked developers. As another example, a service may include access to an email software application hosted on a cloud vendor's website.

  FIG. 1A is a logical diagram of a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The cloud infrastructure system 100 can provide various services via a cloud or network-connected environment. These services may be one or more provided in the software as a service (SaaS) category, the platform as a service (PaaS) category, the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) category, or other categories of services including hybrid services. Service can be included. A customer may order one or more services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100 via a subscription order. In that case, the cloud infrastructure system 100 executes the process to provide the customer's subscription order service.

  The cloud infrastructure system 100 can provide cloud services via various deployment models. For example, the service may be provided in a public cloud model. In the public cloud model, the cloud infrastructure system 100 is owned by an organization-sold cloud service (eg, owned by Oracle), and the service is made available to general public or companies from various industries. As another example, the service may be provided in a private cloud model. In the private cloud model, the cloud infrastructure system 100 can operate only for one organization and provide services to one or more entities within that organization. Cloud services can also be provided by a community cloud model. In the community cloud model, the cloud infrastructure system 100 and the services provided by this system are shared by several organizations in the community concerned. Cloud services can also be provided in a hybrid cloud model that is a combination of two or more different models.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, the cloud infrastructure system 100 may include multiple components that work together to enable provisioning of services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1A, the cloud infrastructure system 100 includes a SaaS platform 102, a PaaS platform 104, an IaaS platform 110, infrastructure resources 106, and a cloud management function 108. These components may be realized by hardware, software, or a combination thereof.

  The SaaS platform 102 is configured to provide cloud services included in the SaaS category. For example, the SaaS platform 102 may provide functionality for building and providing a set of on-demand applications on an integrated development and deployment platform. The SaaS platform 102 can manage and control the underlying software and infrastructure for providing SaaS services. By using the service provided by the SaaS platform 102, the customer can use an application executed on the cloud infrastructure system 100. Customers can get application services without purchasing separate licenses and support.

  A variety of different SaaS services may be provided. Examples include, but are not limited to, services that provide solutions for sales performance management, enterprise integration and business versatility for large organizations. In some embodiments, the SaaS service may include a customer relationship management (CRM) service 110 (eg, a fusion CRM service provided by the Oracle cloud), a human resource management (HCM) / human resources management service 112, and the like. CRM services 110 may include services directed to reporting and managing sales activity cycles for customers, and the like. HCM / Human Resource Services 112 may include services directed to providing global workforce lifecycle management and human resource management services to customers.

  A variety of different PaaS services can be provided by the PaaS platform 104 in a standardized, shared and flexible scalable application development and deployment platform. The PaaS service example builds services that allow organizations (such as Oracle) to merge existing applications on a common shared architecture and new applications that enhance the shared services offered by this platform Functions may be included, but are not limited to these. The PaaS platform 104 can manage and control the software and infrastructure that are the basis for providing PaaS services. The customer can acquire the PaaS service provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100 without purchasing separate licenses and support. Examples of PaaS services include, but are not limited to, Oracle Java Cloud Service (JCS), Oracle Database Cloud Service (DBCS), and others.

  By utilizing the services provided by the PaaS platform 104, customers can take advantage of programming languages and tools supported by the cloud infrastructure system 100 and can also control deployed services. In some embodiments, the PaaS service provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100 may include a database cloud service 114, a middleware cloud service (eg, Oracle Fusion middleware service) 116, and a Java cloud service 117. . In one embodiment, the database cloud service 114 may support a shared service deployment model that allows an organization to pool database resources and provide database as a service to customers in the form of a database cloud. The middleware cloud service 116 provides a platform for customers to develop and deploy various business applications, and the Java cloud service 117 provides a platform for customers to deploy Java applications in the cloud infrastructure system 100. To do. The components in SaaS platform 102 and PaaS platform 104 shown in FIG. 1A are shown for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of embodiments of the present invention. In alternative embodiments, the SaaS platform 102 and the PaaS platform 104 may include additional components for providing additional services to customers of the cloud infrastructure system 100.

  A variety of different IaaS services may be provided by the IaaS platform 110. The IaaS service facilitates management and control of basic computing resources such as storage, network and other basic computing resources for customers utilizing services provided by the SaaS platform and the PaaS platform.

  In certain embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system 100 includes infrastructure resources 106 for providing resources that are used to provide various services to customers of the cloud infrastructure system 100. In one embodiment, the infrastructure resource 106 is a pre-integrated, optimized combination of hardware such as server, storage and networking resources to perform the services provided by the PaaS platform and the SaaS platform. Including.

  In certain embodiments, the cloud management function 108 provides comprehensive management of cloud services (eg, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS services) in the cloud infrastructure system 100. In one embodiment, the cloud management function 108 includes functions for provisioning, managing and tracking customer subscriptions received by the cloud infrastructure system 100 and the like.

  FIG. 1B is a simplified block diagram of a hardware / software stack that can be used to implement a cloud infrastructure system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. It should be understood that the implementation shown in FIG. 1B may have other components than those shown in FIG. 1B. Further, the embodiment shown in FIG. 1B is only one example of a cloud infrastructure system that can incorporate embodiments of the present invention. In some other embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system 100 may have more or fewer components than those shown in FIG. 1B, may combine two or more components, or It may have different configurations or arrangements of components. In certain embodiments, hardware and software components are stacked to provide vertical integration that provides optimal performance.

  Various types of users may interact with the cloud infrastructure system 100. These users may include end users 150 that may interact with the cloud infrastructure system 100 using various client devices such as desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and the like. In addition, the user can use a command line interface (CLI), an application programming interface (CLI), through various integrated development environments (IDE) and through other applications. An API) may be included to include a developer / programmer 152 that can interact with the cloud infrastructure system 100. The user may also include an operation staff 154. These may include staff of cloud service providers or staff of other users.

  The application service layer 156 identifies various cloud services that can be provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. These services may be mapped to respective software components 160 (eg, an Oracle web logic server for providing Java services, an Oracle database for providing database services, etc.) via service integration and connectivity layer 158, or Or it can be associated.

  In certain embodiments, a number of internal services 162 may be provided that are shared by various components or modules of the cloud infrastructure system 100 and services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. These internal shared services include security and identity services, integration services, enterprise repository services, enterprise manager services, virus scanning and whitelist services, high availability, backup and recovery services, services to enable cloud support in IDEs, This may include, but is not limited to, email services, notification services, file transfer services, and the like.

  The runtime infrastructure layer 164 represents the hardware layer on which various other layers and components are built. In certain embodiments, the runtime infrastructure layer 164 may comprise a single Oracle Exadata machine for providing storage, processing and networking resources. Exadata machines can be composed of various database servers, storage servers, networking resources, and other components for hosting cloud service related software layers. In certain embodiments, Exadata machines can be designed to work with Oracle Exalogic, an engineered system that provides a collection of storage, computing, network and software resources. The combination of Exadata and Exalogic provides a complete hardware and software engineered solution that provides a high-performance, highly available, scalable, secure, and managed platform for delivering cloud services.

  FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a system environment for realizing the cloud infrastructure system shown in FIG. 1A according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the illustrated embodiment, the system environment 230 includes one or more client computing devices 224, 226 and 228 that can be used by a user to interact with the cloud infrastructure system 100. The client device may be used by a user of the client device to interact with the cloud infrastructure system 100 to utilize services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100, such as a web browser, a proprietary client application (eg, Oracle Forms) or It may be configured to run client applications such as other applications.

  It should be understood that the cloud infrastructure system 100 shown in FIG. 2 may have other components than those shown in FIG. Further, the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is only one example of a cloud infrastructure system that can incorporate embodiments of the present invention. In some other embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 100 may have more or fewer components than those shown in FIG. 2, may combine two or more components, or It may have different configurations or arrangements of components.

  Client computing devices 224, 226 and 228 may be general purpose personal computers (including, by way of example, personal computers and / or laptop computers running various versions of Microsoft Windows® and / or Apple Macintosh operating systems), Runs software such as Microsoft Windows Mobile and is a mobile phone or PDA (such as the Internet, email, SMS, Blackberry or any other communication protocol that can be used), various commercial operating systems such as UNIX (R) or UNIX Any system (including but not limited to various GNU / Linux operating systems) Or workstation computers running or may be another computing device. For example, client computing devices 224, 226, and 228 may be other electronic devices such as thin client computers that can communicate over a network, game consoles capable of connecting to the Internet, and / or personal messaging devices. Good. Although an exemplary system environment 230 is shown with three client computing devices, any number of client computing devices may be supported. Other devices, such as devices having sensors, may interact with the cloud infrastructure system 100.

  Network 232 may facilitate communication and exchange of data between clients 224, 226 and 228 and cloud infrastructure system 100. The network 232 is well known to those skilled in the art that can support data communication using any of a variety of commercially available protocols including but not limited to TCP / IP, SNA, IPX, Apple Talk, etc. Any type of network may be used. By way of example only, the network 232 includes, but is not limited to, an Ethernet network, a local area network (LAN) such as a token ring network, a wide area network, or a virtual private network (VPN). Virtual network, Internet, intranet, extranet, public switched telephone network (PSTN), infrared network, wireless network (eg IEEE 802.1X series of protocols, Bluetooth known in the art) Network operating under any of the (registered trademark) protocol and / or other wireless protocols), and / or these and / or other networks. It may be any combination of work.

  The cloud infrastructure system 100 is a general-purpose computer, a dedicated server computer (including, for example, a PC server, a UNIX server, a midrange server, a mainframe computer, a rack mount server, etc.), a server farm, a server cluster, or any other One or more computers and / or servers may be provided, which may be any suitable configuration and / or combination. The computing devices making up the cloud infrastructure system 100 execute any of the operating system or various additional server applications and / or middle tier applications, including HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI servers, Java servers, database servers, etc. Can do. Typical database servers include, but are not limited to, those commercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, IBM, and the like.

  In various embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system 100 may be adapted to automatically provision, manage and track customer subscriptions to services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the components in the cloud infrastructure system 100 include an identity management (IDM) module 200, a service module 202, and a tenant automation system (TAS) module. 204, Service Deployment Infrastructure (SDI) module 206, Enterprise Manager (EM) module 208, store user interface (UI) 210, cloud user interface (UI) 212 and support. One or more front-end web interfaces, such as a user interface (UI) 216, and an order management module 214 , Including the sales staff 218, the operator staff 220, and the order database 222. These modules may include one or more computers and / or servers that may be general purpose computers, specialized server computers, server farms, server clusters, or other suitable arrangements and / or combinations. Or may be provided using them. In one embodiment, one or more of these modules may be provided by the cloud management function 108 or the IaaS platform 110 in the cloud infrastructure system 100. The various modules of the cloud infrastructure system 100 shown in FIG. 2 are shown for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of embodiments of the present invention. Alternative embodiments may include more or fewer modules than those shown in FIG.

  In an exemplary operation, in (1), a customer using a client device, such as client device 224 or 226, browses various services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100 and is provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. One can interact with the cloud infrastructure system 100 by placing an order for a subscription for one or more services. In certain embodiments, a customer may access the store UI 210 or the cloud UI 212 and place a subscription order via these user interfaces.

  The order information received by the cloud infrastructure system 100 in response to the customer placing an order includes the customer and one or more services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100 that the customer intends to subscribe to. The information to identify may be included. A single order may include orders for multiple services. For example, a customer may log into the cloud UI 212 and request a subscription for CRM service and Java cloud service in the same order.

  In addition, the order may also include one or more service levels for the ordered service. As used herein and described in more detail below, the service level for a service refers to the service requested in the context of the subscription, such as the amount of storage, the amount of computing resources, data transfer facilities, etc. Determine the amount of resources allocated to provide. For example, a basic service level may provide a minimum level of storage, data transmission, or number of users, and a higher service level may include additional resources.

  Also, in some examples, the order information received by the cloud infrastructure system 100 may include information indicating the customer level and the period for which service is desired. The customer level defines the priority of customers making subscription requests. In one example, the priority is a service that the cloud infrastructure system 100 guarantees or promises to the customer as defined by a Service Level Agreement (SLA) agreed between the customer and the provider of the cloud service. Can be determined based on quality. In one example, the various customer levels include a basic level, a silver level, and a gold level. The service period may specify the start date and time of the service and the period for which the service is required (for example, the service end date and time may be specified).

  In one embodiment, the customer may request a new subscription via the store UI 210 or request a trial subscription via the cloud UI 212. In certain embodiments, the store UI 210 may represent a service provider's e-commerce storefront (eg, www.oracle.com/store for an Oracle cloud service). Cloud UI 212 may represent a business interface for a service provider. Customers can investigate available services and sign up for services of interest via the cloud UI 212. The cloud UI 212 captures the user input necessary to order a trial subscription provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. The cloud UI 212 can also be used to view account functions and configure a runtime environment located within the cloud infrastructure system 100. In addition to placing orders for new subscriptions, the store UI 210 can also change subscription service levels, extend subscription durations, improve subscription service levels, terminate existing subscriptions, etc. It may also allow customers to perform subscription related tasks.

  After the order is placed per (1), in (2), the order information received via either the store UI 210 or the cloud UI 212 is stored in the order database 222, and the order database 222 is stored in the cloud infrastructure system 100. It can be one of several databases that are manipulated by and used in conjunction with other system elements. Although the order database 222 is logically shown in FIG. 2 as a single database, in an actual implementation this may comprise one or more databases.

  In (3), the order is sent to the order management module 214. Order management module 214 is configured to perform billing and accounting functions associated with orders, such as order validation and order reservation upon validation. In certain embodiments, the order management module 214 may include a contract management module and an install base module. The contract management module may store contract information associated with a customer subscription order, such as a customer service level agreement (SLA) with the cloud infrastructure system 100. The installed base module may include a detailed description of the service in the customer's subscription order. In addition to order information, the install base module may track installation details associated with the service, product status and support service history associated with the service. When a customer orders a new service or upgrades an existing one, the installed base module can automatically add new order information.

  In (4), information regarding the order is communicated to the TAS module 204. In one embodiment, TAS module 204 utilizes order information to orchestrate service and resource provisioning for orders made by customers. In (5), the TAS component 204 orchestrates the provisioning of resources to support subscribed services using the services of the SDI module 206. In (6), the TAS module 204 provides the service module 202 with information related to the provisioned order received from the SDI module 206. In some embodiments, at (7), the SDI module 206 may also use the services provided by the service module 202 to allocate and configure the resources necessary to realize the customer's subscription order. .

  In (8), the service module 202 sends a notification regarding the status of the order to the customers on the client devices 224, 226 and 228.

  In certain embodiments, the TAS module 204 functions as an orchestration component that manages business processes associated with each other and applies business logic to determine whether an order should proceed to provisioning. In one embodiment, upon receiving an order for a new subscription, the TAS module 204 requests the SDI module 206 to allocate resources and configure those resources necessary to fulfill the subscription order. Send. The SDI module 206 allows allocation of resources for services ordered by the customer. The SDI module 206 provides a level of abstraction between the cloud service provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100 and the physical implementation layer used to provision the resources to provide the requested service. To do. Thus, the TAS module 204 can be decoupled from implementation details such as whether services and resources are actually provisioned on-the-fly, or whether they are pre-provisioned and simply allocated / allocated on demand.

  In certain embodiments, the user may use the store UI 210 to interact directly with the order management module 214 to perform billing and accounting related functions such as order validation and order reservation at validation. In some embodiments, instead of the customer placing an order, at (9) the order may instead be placed by a sales staff 218 representing the customer, such as a customer service representative or sales representative. . Sales staff 218 may interact directly with order management module 214 via a user interface (not shown in FIG. 2) provided by order management module 214 to place an order or provide a quote to a customer. . For example, this can be done for large customers where orders can be placed by customer sales representatives via order management module 214. The sales representative may prepare a subscription on behalf of the customer.

  The EM module 208 is configured to monitor activities related to managing and tracking customer subscriptions in the cloud infrastructure system 100. The EM module 208 collects usage statistics for services in the subscription order, such as the amount of storage used, the amount of data transferred, the number of users, the amount of system up time and system down time. In (10), the host operator staff 220, who may be an employee of the provider of the cloud infrastructure system 100, is an enterprise manager user to manage the systems and resources for which services are provisioned within the cloud infrastructure system 100. The EM module 208 may be interacted via an interface (not shown in FIG. 2).

  An identity management (IDM) module 200 is configured to provide identity services, such as access management and authorization services, in the cloud infrastructure system 100. In one embodiment, the IDM module 200 controls information about customers who want to use services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. Such information includes information that authenticates the identity of such customers, and what actions they perform on various system resources (eg, files, directories, applications, communication ports, memory segments, etc.) Information may be included that indicates whether the authorization is permitted. The IDM module 200 may also include management of descriptive information about each customer and who can access and modify the descriptive information.

  In one embodiment, information managed by the identity management module 200 can be split to create a separate identity domain. Information belonging to a particular identity domain can be isolated from all other identity domains. An identity domain can also be shared by multiple separate tenants. Each such tenant may be a customer that subscribes to services in the cloud infrastructure system 100. In some embodiments, a customer can have one or many identity domains, each identity domain can be associated with one or more subscriptions, and each subscription can have one or more subscriptions. Have service. For example, a single customer may correspond to a large business entity, and an identity domain may be created for a department / department within this large business entity. Further, EM module 208 and IDM module 200 may interact with order management module 214 at (11) and (12), respectively, to manage and track customer subscriptions in cloud infrastructure system 100.

  In one embodiment, support services may also be provided to the customer via the support UI 216 at (13). In one embodiment, the support UI 216 allows support staff to interact with the order management module 214 via a support backend system to perform support services at (14). Support staff and customers in the cloud infrastructure system 100 can submit bug reports and check the status of these reports via the support UI 216.

  Other interfaces not shown in FIG. 2 may also be provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. For example, an identity domain administrator may use a user interface to IDM module 200 to configure domain and user identities. The customer can also log into a separate interface for each service that they want to use. In certain embodiments, customers who wish to subscribe to one or more services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100 may also be assigned various roles and duties. In one embodiment, the various roles and missions that can be assigned to a customer are the buyers, account administrators, service administrators, identity domain administrators, or users utilizing the services and resources provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. May include roles and missions. Various roles and missions are more fully illustrated in FIG. 4 below.

  FIG. 3A shows a simplified flowchart 300 illustrating processing that may be performed by a TAS module in a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The processing illustrated in FIG. 3A may be implemented in software (eg, code, instructions, program) executed by one or more processors, hardware, or a combination thereof. The software may be stored in memory (eg, on a memory device, non-transitory computer readable storage medium). The particular series of processing steps shown in FIG. 3A is not intended to be limiting. Other sequences of steps may also be performed in accordance with alternative embodiments. For example, alternative embodiments of the invention may perform the above steps in a different order. Furthermore, the individual steps shown in FIG. 3A may include multiple sub-steps that may be performed in various sequences as appropriate to the individual steps. Furthermore, additional steps may be added or deleted depending on the particular application. Those skilled in the art will recognize many variations, modifications and alternatives. In one embodiment, the process shown in FIG. 3A may be performed by one or more components in the TAS component 204, as shown in detail in FIG. 3B.

  At 302, a customer subscription order is processed. The process may include order authentication in one example. Order verification ensures that the customer has paid for the subscription and ensures that the customer does not yet have a subscription with the same name, or Including ensuring that the customer does not attempt to create multiple subscriptions of the same type in the same identity domain for unauthorized subscription types. Processing may also include tracking the status of the order for each order being processed by the cloud infrastructure system 100.

  At 304, the business process associated with the order is identified. In some examples, multiple business processes may be identified for an order. Each business process identifies a series of steps for processing various aspects of the order. As an example, a first business process may identify one or more steps related to provisioning physical resources for an order, and a second business process creates an identity domain along with a customer identity for the order One or more steps related to doing can be identified, and the third business process is related to performing back office functions such as creating customer records for users, performing accounting functions related to orders, etc. One or more steps may be identified. In certain embodiments, various business processes may also be identified to handle various services in the order. For example, various business processes may be identified to handle CRM services and database services.

  At 306, the business process identified for the order at 304 is executed. Execution of the business process associated with the order may include an orchestration of a series of steps associated with the business process identified in step 304. For example, the execution of a business process related to provisioning physical resources for an order sends a request to the SDI module 206 to allocate resources and configure those resources needed to fulfill the subscription order. It may include.

  At 308, a notification is sent to the customer regarding the status of the provisioned order. Further explanation relating to the execution of steps 302, 304, 306 and 308 is described in detail in FIG. 3B.

  FIG. 3B shows a simplified high-level diagram of one or more submodules in a TAS module in a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In one embodiment, the module shown in FIG. 3B performs the process described in steps 302-308 shown in FIG. 3A. In the illustrated embodiment, the TAS module 204 includes an order processing module 310, a business process identifier 312, a business process executor 316, an excess framework 322, a workflow identification module 324, and a bundled subscription generation module 326. With. These modules may be implemented in hardware or software or a combination thereof. The various modules of the TAS module shown in FIG. 3B are shown for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of embodiments of the present invention. Alternative embodiments may include more or fewer modules than those shown in FIG. 3B.

  In one embodiment, order processing module 310 receives orders from customers from one or more input sources 321. For example, the order processing module 310 may receive orders directly via the cloud UI 212 or the store UI 210 in one embodiment. Alternatively, order processing module 310 may receive orders from order management module 214 or order database 222. The order processing module 310 then processes the order. In certain embodiments, the processing of an order includes a customer record that includes information about the order, such as service type, service level, customer level, resource type, amount of resources allocated to a service instance, and the period for which service is required. Includes generation. As part of the processing, the order processing module 310 also determines whether the order is a valid order. This ensures that the customer does not yet have a subscription with the same name, or multiple of the same type in the same identity domain for unauthorized subscription types (such as in the case of a fusion CRM service) Including ensuring that the customer has not attempted to create a subscription.

  The order processing module 310 may also perform further processing on the order. Processing may include tracking order status for each order being processed by cloud infrastructure system 100. In one embodiment, order processing module 310 may process each order to identify a number of states related to the order. In one example, the various states of the order can be an initialization state, a provisioning state, an active state, a state that requires management, an error state, and so on. The initialization state refers to the state of the new order, and the provisioning state refers to the state of the order when the services and resources for the order are provisioned. When the order is processed by the TAS module 204 and a notification to that effect is given to the customer, the order becomes active. An order is in a state that needs to be managed if an administrator intervention is required to solve the problem. If the order cannot be processed, the order is in error. In addition to maintaining the order progress state, the order processing module 310 maintains detailed information about any failures encountered during the execution of the process. In other embodiments, as described in detail below, further processing performed by the order processing module 310 may include changing the service level of a service in a subscription, changing a service included in a subscription, It may also include extending the period and specifying different service levels over different periods in the cancellation or subscription of the subscription.

  After the order is processed by the order processing module 310, business logic is applied to determine whether the order should proceed to provisioning. In one embodiment, as part of the order orchestration, the business process identifier 312 receives the processed order from the order processing module 310 and applies the business logic to identify the specific to be used in the order being processed. Identify business processes. In one embodiment, business process identifier 312 may utilize information stored in service catalog 314 to determine a particular business process to be used in the order. In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3A, multiple business processes may be identified for an order, each business process identifying a series of steps for processing various aspects of the order. In another embodiment, as described above, various business processes may be defined for various types of services or combinations of services, such as CRM services or database services. In one embodiment, the service catalog 314 may store information that maps orders to specific types of business processes. Business process identifier 312 may use this information to identify a particular business process for the order being processed.

  Once the business process is identified, the business process identifier 312 communicates the specific business process to be executed to the business process executor 316. The business process executor 316 then operates in conjunction with one or more modules in the cloud infrastructure system 100 to execute the identified business process steps. In some embodiments, the business process executor 316 serves as an orchestrator for performing steps associated with the business process. For example, a business process executor identifies an order-related workflow and determines an excess of service in the order, or executes a step in a business process that identifies a service component associated with the order. 310 may be interacted with.

  In one example, the business process executor 316 interacts with the SDI module 206 to perform steps in the business process for allocating and provisioning resources for the services requested in the subscription order. In this example, for each step in the business process, business process executor 316 may send a request to SDI component 206 to allocate resources and configure the resources necessary to implement a particular step. The SDI component 206 is responsible for the actual allocation of resources. Once all the steps of the order's business process have been executed, the business process executor 316 may send a notification of the processed order to the customer by utilizing the service of the service component 202. The notification may include sending an email notification with the details of the processed order to the customer. The email notification may also include deployment information associated with the order to allow the customer to access the subscribed service.

  In certain embodiments, the TAS module 204 may include one or more TAS application programming that allows the TAS module 204 to interact with other modules in the cloud infrastructure system 100 and allow other modules to interact with the TAS module 204. An interface (Application Programming Interface: API) 318 may be provided. For example, the TAS API interacts with the SDI module 206 via an asynchronous Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) based web service call to provision resources for customer subscription orders. A system provisioning API to be included. In one embodiment, the TAS module 204 may also utilize the system provisioning API to accomplish system and service instance creation and deletion, switch service instances to enhanced service levels, and associate service instances. An example of this is the association of a Java service instance to a fusion application service instance to enable secure web service communication. The TAS API may also include a notification API that interacts with the service module 202 to notify the customer of the processed order. In certain embodiments, the TAS module 204 also periodically communicates subscription information, outages and notifications (eg, planned downtime) to the service component 202.

  In certain embodiments, the TAS module 204 uses for each provisioned service, such as the amount of storage used, the amount of data transferred, the number of users, and the amount of system up and down time. Statistics are received periodically from the EM module 208. The excess framework 322 determines whether an overuse of the service has occurred and, if so, uses the usage statistics to determine how much is charged for the excess and orders this information. Provide to the management module 214.

  In certain embodiments, the TAS module 204 includes an order workflow identification module 324 that is configured to identify one or more workflows associated with processing a customer's subscription order. In certain embodiments, the TAS module 204 is a subscription order for generating a subscription order for a customer when the customer places a subscription order for one or more services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. A generation framework 326 may be included. In one embodiment, the subscription order includes one or more service components responsible for providing the services requested by the customer in the subscription order.

  In addition, the TAS module 204 may provide a tenant information system to allow provisioning of resources for one or more services subscribed to by a customer, taking into account historical information available to the customer, if any. One or more additional databases, such as a (Tenant Information System: TIS) database 320, may also be interacted with. The TIS database 320 may include historical order information and historical usage information related to orders subscribed by the customer.

  The TAS module 204 can be deployed using various deployment models. In certain embodiments, a deployment includes a central component that interacts with one or more distributed components. Distributed components may be deployed, for example, as various data centers and therefore may also be referred to as data center components. The central component includes functions for processing orders and organizing services in the cloud infrastructure system 100, and the data center component is functions for provisioning and operating a runtime system that provides resources to subscribed services. I will provide a.

  FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary distributed deployment of TAS modules according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the distributed deployment of the TAS module 204 includes a TAS center component 400 and one or more TAS data center (DC) components 402, 404 and 406. These components may be implemented in hardware or software or a combination thereof.

  In one embodiment, the task of the TAS-centric component 400 is to receive a customer order and create a new subscription, change the service level of the service in the subscription, change the service included in the subscription, and the duration of the subscription Including, but not limited to, providing a centralized component for performing order-related business operations such as extension of subscriptions or cancellation of subscriptions. Also, the task of the TAS-centric component 400 is to maintain and supply the subscription data required by the cloud infrastructure system 100, as well as order management module 214, support UI 216, to handle all back office interactions, Interacting with the cloud UI 212 and the store UI 210 may also be included.

  In one embodiment, the duties of TAS DCs 402, 404 and 406 include performing runtime operations to orchestrate the provisioning of resources for one or more services subscribed to by a customer. It is not limited. TAS DCs 402, 404 and 406 also perform operations such as subscription order locking, unlocking, enabling or disabling, order-related metrics collection, order status determination, and order-related notification event transmission. The function for executing is also included.

  In the exemplary operation of the distributed TAS system shown in FIG. 4, the TAS-centric component 400 is initially through the cloud UI 212, the store UI 210, the order management system 214, or the order database 222. Receive orders from customers. In one embodiment, a customer represents a buyer who has the authority to order and / or change financial information and subscriptions. In one embodiment, the order information includes information identifying the customer, the type of service the customer wants to subscribe to, and the account administrator responsible for handling the request. In certain embodiments, an account administrator may be appointed by a customer when the customer places an order for a subscription to one or more services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. Based on the order information, the TAS-centric component 400 determines the data region in the world, such as the United States, EMEA or Asia Pacific where the order originates, and the specific TAS DC (eg, 402, 404 or 406) deployed to provision the order. ). In one embodiment, the particular TAS DC deployed to provision the order (eg, from within DC 402, 404 or 406) is determined based on the geographic data region where the request originated.

  The TAS center component 400 then sends the order request to a particular TAS DC to provision a service for the order request. In one embodiment, the TAS DC 402, 404 or 406 identifies the service administrator and identity domain administrator responsible for processing order requests at a particular TAS DC. Service administrators and identity managers can be appointed by account administrators identified in the subscription order. The TAS DC 402, 404 or 406 communicates with the SDI module 204 to orchestrate provisioning of physical resources for the order. The SDI component 206 in each TAS DC 402, 404 or 406 allocates resources and configures those resources needed to fulfill the subscription order.

  In certain embodiments, TAS DC 402, 404 or 406 identifies the identity domain associated with the subscription. The SDI component 206 may provide identity domain information to the IDM component 200 (shown in FIG. 2) for identification of an existing identity domain or creation of a new identity domain. Once the order is provisioned by the SDI module in the respective TAS DC 402, 404 or 406, the TAS-centric component 400 may place information about provisioned resources in the support system via the support UI 216. The information may include, for example, display of resource metrics and service usage statistics associated with the service.

  During operation, at each data center, the EM module 208 determines the amount of storage used, amount of data transferred, number of users, and system up time for each provisioned service provisioned at that data center. And regularly collect usage statistics such as the amount of system downtime. These statistics are provided to the TAS DC that is local to the EM module 208 (ie, in the same data center). In an embodiment, the TAS DC determines whether an overuse of the service has occurred, and if so, uses usage statistics to determine how much is charged for the excess and The order management system 214 may be provided.

  FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram illustrating SDI module interaction with one or more modules in a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In one embodiment, the SDI module 206 interacts with the TAS module 204 to provision resources for service in the subscription order received by the TAS module 204. In certain embodiments, one or more of the modules shown in FIG. 5 may be a module within the cloud infrastructure system 100. In other embodiments, one or more of the modules that interact with the SDI module 206 may be external to the cloud infrastructure system 100. Alternate embodiments may also have more or fewer modules than those shown in FIG. These modules may be implemented in hardware or software or a combination thereof.

  In one embodiment, the modules in SDI module 206 may include one or more modules in SaaS platform 102 and PaaS platform 104 in cloud infrastructure system 100. In order to provision resources for various services, the SDI module 206 may interact with various other modules, each customized to help provision resources for a particular type of service. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the SDI module 206 may interact with a Java service provisioning control module 500 to provision a Java cloud service. In one embodiment, the Java service provisioning control component 500 deploys a Java Cloud Service (JCS) assembly defined by the SDI module 206 that includes a set of tasks performed to provision a Java cloud service. Can do. The infrastructure resource 106 then determines the resources needed to provision the Java cloud service.

  As another example, the SDI module 206 includes a virtual assembly builder (VAB) module 502, an application express (APEX) deployer module 504, a virtual machine (VM) module 506, and an IDM. One or more modules such as module 200 and database machine module 118 may interact. VAB module 502 includes functionality for configuring and provisioning a complete multi-tier application environment. In one embodiment, the VAB module 502 is a MW service defined by the SDI module 206 for provisioning a middleware (MW) service in the cloud infrastructure system 100 using the service provided by the VM module 506. Deploy the assembly. The APEX deployer module 504 includes functionality for configuring and provisioning database services. In one embodiment, the APEX deployer module 504 deploys a database service assembly defined by the SDI module 206 to provision a database service in the cloud infrastructure system 100 using the resources provided by the infrastructure resource 106. To do. The SDI module 206 interacts with the IDM module 200 to provide identity services such as access management across multiple applications in the cloud infrastructure system 100.

  FIG. 6 shows a simplified high-level diagram of submodules of an SDI module according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the SDI module 206 includes an SDI-Web Service (WS) module 600, an SDI request controller module 602, an SDI task manager module 604, an SDI monitoring module 606, and SDI data. The access module 608 includes an SDI common library module 610 and an SDI connector module 612. These modules may be implemented in hardware or software or a combination thereof. The SDI module 206 and its various modules shown in FIG. 6 are shown for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of embodiments of the present invention. Alternative embodiments may have more or fewer modules than those shown in FIG. These modules and their functions are described in detail below.

  The SDI-WS module 600 includes functionality for receiving steps in the business associated with the order from the business process executor 316 of the TAS component 204. In one embodiment, the SDI-WS module 600 parses each step of the business process and converts the step into an internal representation used by the SDI module 206. In one embodiment, each step of the business process associated with the order is performed in the form of a SOAP request to the SDI-WS module 600 via the web service processing layer (eg, via the system provisioning API shown in FIG. 3B). )arrive.

  The SDI request controller module 602 is an internal request processing engine in the SDI module 206, and functions for executing asynchronous request processing, simultaneous request processing, simultaneous task processing, fault tolerant recovery and plug-in support related to order requests. including. In one embodiment, the SDI request controller module 602 accepts each step of the business process associated with the order from the SDI-WS module 600 and submits the step to the SDI task manager module 604.

  The SDI task manager module 604 translates each step defined in the business process into a series of tasks for provisioning a particular step. Once a set of tasks for a particular step is provisioned, the SDI task manager module 604 may return the TAS module 204 with an operation result that includes an order payload with details of resources provisioned to implement the particular step. In response to the business process executor 316 at. The SDI task manager module 604 repeats this process until all steps of the specific business process associated with the order are completed.

  In certain embodiments, the SDI task manager module 604 transforms each step defined in the business process into a series of tasks by utilizing the services of the SDI connector module 612. The SDI connector module 612 includes one or more connectors for addressing the deployment of tasks defined by the SDI task manager module 604 to provision one or more services associated with order requests. In certain embodiments, one or more of the connectors can handle tasks that are specific to a particular service type, and other connectors can handle tasks that are common across various service types. In one embodiment, the SDI connector module 612 interacts with one or more of the external modules (shown in FIG. 5) in the cloud infrastructure system 100 to provision services and resources related to order requests. Includes connector (wrapper API). For example, Application Express (APEX) connector 614 interacts with APEX deployer module 504 to provision database services. A web center connector 616 (Web Center Connector: WCC) interacts with a web center module in the cloud infrastructure system 100 to provision web services. The web center module is a user engagement platform, and includes a function for providing connectivity between people and information in the cloud infrastructure system 100.

  In certain embodiments, a Middleware Application (MA) connector 618 interacts with the VAB module 502 in the cloud infrastructure system 100 to provision middleware application services. NUVIAQ connector 620 interacts with VAB module 502 to provision Java services. The IDM connector 622 interacts with the IDM module 200 to provide identity and access management to users who subscribe to services and resources in the cloud infrastructure system 100. Virtual assembly builder (VAB) connector 624 interacts with VAB module 502 in cloud infrastructure system 100 to configure and provision a complete multi-tier application environment. Plug-in connector 626 interacts with EM module 208 to manage and monitor components in cloud infrastructure system 100. The HTTP server connector 628 interacts with one or more web servers in the PaaS platform to provide connection services to users in the cloud infrastructure system 100.

  The SDI monitoring module 606 in the SDI module 206 provides an inbound interface for receiving Java Management Extensions (JMX) requests. The SDI monitoring module 606 also provides tools for managing and monitoring applications, system objects and devices in the cloud infrastructure system 100. The SDI data access module 608 provides an inbound interface for receiving Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) requests. The SDI data access module 608 supports data access in the cloud infrastructure system 100 and provides object relationship mapping, Java transaction API service, data access object and connection pooling. The SDI common library module 610 provides configuration support for modules in the SDI module 206.

  The embodiment of FIG. 6 above describes the modules in the SDI module according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7A shows a simplified flowchart 700 illustrating processing that may be performed by modules of an SDI module in a cloud infrastructure system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The process illustrated in FIG. 7A may be implemented in software (eg, code, instructions, program), hardware, or a combination thereof executed by one or more processors. The software may be stored in memory (eg, on a memory device, non-transitory computer readable storage medium). The particular series of processing steps shown in FIG. 7A is not intended to be limiting. Other sequences of steps may also be performed in accordance with alternative embodiments. For example, alternative embodiments of the invention may perform the above steps in a different order. Further, the individual steps shown in FIG. 7A may include multiple sub-steps that may be performed in various sequences as appropriate to the individual steps. Furthermore, additional steps may be added or deleted depending on the particular application. Those skilled in the art will recognize many variations, modifications and alternatives. In one embodiment, the process shown in FIG. 7A may be performed by one or more modules in the SDI module 206 shown in detail in FIG.

  At 702, a business process associated with a subscription order is received. In one embodiment, the SDI-WS module 600 in the SDI module 206 receives one or more steps in the business process associated with the subscription order from the business process executor 316. At 704, each step in the business process is converted into a series of tasks for provisioning resources for the subscription order. In one embodiment, the SDI task manager module 604 in the SDI module 206 converts each step defined in the business process into a series of tasks by utilizing the services of the SDI connector module 612. At 706, the subscription order is provisioned based on a series of tasks. In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the SDI connector module 612 handles the deployment of tasks defined by the SDI task manager module 604 to provision resources for services in the subscription order. One or more connectors.

  As described above with respect to FIG. 6, the SDI task manager module 604 utilizes the services of the SDI connector module 612 to convert each step defined in the business process into a series of tasks, and the SDI connector module 612 One or more connectors for addressing the deployment of tasks defined by the SDI task manager module 604 may be included to provision one or more services associated with the request. One or more of the connectors can handle tasks that are specific to a particular service type, and other connectors can handle tasks that are common across various service types. In one embodiment, the SDI connector module 612 interacts with one or more of the external modules (shown in FIG. 5) in the cloud infrastructure system 100 to provision services and resources related to order requests. Includes connector (wrapper API). For example, the NUVIAQ connector 620 interacts with the VAB module 502 to provision Java services.

  FIG. 7B shows a simplified block diagram illustrating a high level architecture of Nuviaq system 710 and its relationship with other cloud infrastructure systems according to an embodiment of the present invention. It should be understood that the Nuviaq system 710 shown in FIG. 7B may have other components than those shown in FIG. 7B. Furthermore, the embodiment shown in FIG. 7B is only one example of a cloud infrastructure system that can incorporate embodiments of the present invention. In some other embodiments, the Nuviaq system 710 may have more or fewer components than those shown in FIG. 7B, may combine two or more components, or It may have a different configuration or arrangement.

  In certain embodiments, Nuviaq system 710 may be configured to provide a runtime engine for orchestrating PaaS operations. Nuviaq system 710 may provide a web service API to facilitate integration with other products and services. Nuviaq system 710 also provides support for complex workflows in system provisioning, application deployment and associated lifecycle operations, and integrates with management and monitoring solutions.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7B, the Nuviaq system 710 comprises a Nuviaq proxy 712, a Nuviaq manager 714, and a Nuviaq database 716. In certain embodiments, Nuviaq manager 714 provides an entry point to Nuviaq system 710 and provides secure access to PaaS operations via a web service API. Internally, Nuviaq manager 714 tracks the system state in the database and controls the execution of jobs on the workflow engine. In the public cloud, Nuviaq manager 714 can be accessed by the tenant provisioning system (SDI 206) and the tenant console to drive provisioning and deployment operations, respectively.

  In one embodiment, Nuviaq manager 714 executes jobs asynchronously via an internal workflow engine. A job may be a sequence of actions specific to a given PaaS workflow. Actions may be executed in order, and failure at any step results in failure of the entire job. Many workflow actions delegate authority to external systems associated with the workflow, such as the EM command line interface (cli). In one implementation, the Nuviaq manager 714 application may be hosted in a two-node web logic cluster with an associated HTTP server (eg, Oracle HTTP server or OHS) instance running within the firewall.

  In certain embodiments, the Nuviaq proxy 712 is a public access point to the Nuviaq API. In one embodiment, only public APIs can be published here. Requests received by proxy 712 may be sent to Nuviaq manager 714. In one embodiment, Nuviaq proxy 712 runs outside the firewall, while manager 714 runs inside the firewall. In one implementation, the Nuviaq proxy 712 application runs on a web logic cluster that runs outside the firewall.

  In certain embodiments, the Nuviaq database 716 tracks various domain entities such as, but not limited to, platform instances, deployment plans, applications, web logic domains, jobs, alerts, and the like. If necessary, the primary key may be aligned with the service database.

  In one embodiment, platform instance 718 may include all the resources necessary for web logic services for a given tenant.

  Nuviaq system 710 may rely on additional systems of cloud infrastructure system 100 to execute workflows used by web logic cloud services. These dependencies may include dependencies on the SDI 206, IDM 200, virus scanning system, service database, CRM instance, and the like. For example, Nuviaq system 710 may rely on functions performed by an assembly deployer at SDI 206. In one embodiment, the assembly deployer is a system for managing interactions with OVAB (Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder) and OVM (Oracle Virtual Machine). Assembly deployer functions used by Nuviaq system 710 may include functions for deploying assemblies, functions for undeploying assemblies, functions for describing assembly deployment, functions for scaling appliances, etc. However, it is not limited to these. In one implementation, the Nuviaq system 710 accesses an assembly deployer via a web service API.

  In certain embodiments, the security policy may require that certain artifacts be scanned for viruses before being deployed to the application. The cloud infrastructure system 100 can provide a virus scanning system for this purpose, providing scanning as a service for multiple components of the public cloud.

  In certain embodiments, the public cloud infrastructure may maintain a service database that includes information about tenants (eg, customers) and their service subscriptions. The Nuviaq workflow may access this data to properly configure the web logic service as a client to other services that the tenant also subscribes to.

  Nuviaq system 710 may rely on IDM 200 for its security integration. In certain embodiments, a Java service instance may be associated with a CRM instance. With this association, a user application deployed on the Java service instance can access the CRM instance via a web service call.

  Various entities may use the services provided by Nuviaq system 710. These clients of Nuviaq system 710 include a tenant console that is a management server (eg, Oracle management server) based user interface that customers can access to manage applications on platform instances, and access to application lifecycle management operations. Several IDEs, such as Oracle IDEs (JDeveloper, NetBeans, and OEPE) that have been extended to provide one and more command line interfaces (Command Line) that can be used to access lifecycle operations on platform instances Interface: CLI).

The provisioning use case for the Nuviaq system 710, ie the use case of the provisioning platform instance, is realized by the Nuviaq API creation platform instance operation. In the context of the cloud infrastructure system 100, a service instance for a Nuviaq system corresponds to a Nuviaq platform instance. A platform instance is assigned a unique identifier that is used on all subsequent operations associated with this instance. The platform deployment descriptor provided in the create platform instance action allows you to set properties that modify the configuration of the platform instance to meet tenant subscription requirements. These properties may include, for example:
Property # 1 : oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.size
Value: Basic, Standard, Enterprise Description: Specifies the subscription type. This affects the number of servers, database limits and quality of service settings.

Property # 2 : oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.trial
Value: True, False Description: Indicates whether this is a trial subscription.

Property # 3 : oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.crm
Value: CRM service ID
Description: Specifies the CRM service to be associated with this web logic service instance.

  FIG. 7C shows an exemplary sequence diagram illustrating the steps of a provisioning process using a Nuviaq system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The sequence diagram shown in FIG. 7C is only an example and is not intended to be limiting.

The install / update application use case, i.e., install application operation, deploys the application to a running weblogic server after confirming that the application archive meets the security requirements of the public cloud. In one embodiment, the application deployment descriptor provided in the install application action can set properties that modify the application configuration to meet tenant subscription requirements. These properties may include, for example:
Property : oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.state
Value: Run, Stop Description: Specifies the initial state of the application after deployment.

  FIG. 7D shows an exemplary sequence diagram illustrating the steps of the deployment process using the Nuviaq system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The sequence diagram shown in FIG. 7D is only an example and is not intended to be limiting.

Returning to FIG. 2, in a particular embodiment, the TAS 204 and SDI 206 operating in concert are for one or more services ordered by a customer from a set of services provided by the cloud infrastructure system 100. Responsible for provisioning resources. For example, in one embodiment, to provision a database service, an automated provisioning flow may be as follows for a paid subscription:
(1) The customer orders a paid subscription for the service via the store UI 210.

(2) The TAS 204 receives the subscription order.
(3) When the service is available, the TAS 204 starts provisioning by using the service of the SDI 206. The TAS 204 may perform orchestration of business processes and execute related business processes to complete the provisioning aspect of the order. In one embodiment, the TAS 204 may use a BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) process manager to orchestrate the steps involved in provisioning and process lifecycle operations.

  (4) In one embodiment, to provision a database service, the SDI 206 may call a PSQL API in the CLOUD_UI to associate the schema with the requesting customer.

  (5) After successfully associating the schema with the customer, the SDI informs the TAS and the TAS sends a notification to the customer that the database service is currently available for use by the customer.

  (6) The customer may log into the cloud infrastructure system 100 (eg, using a URAL such as cloud.oracle.com) and activate the service.

  In some embodiments, the customer may also be allowed to subscribe to the service on a trial basis. For example, such a trial order may be received via the cloud UI 212 (eg, using cloud.oracle.com).

  In certain embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system 100 allows basic hardware and service instances to be shared between customers or tenants. For example, a database service may be provisioned as shown in FIG. 7E in one embodiment. FIG. 7E shows a plurality of Exadata compute nodes 730 and 732, each of which provides a database instance provisioned for database services. For example, compute node 730 provides a database instance 734 for database services. Each Exadata operation node may have a plurality of database instances.

  In certain embodiments, each database instance may comprise multiple schemas, which may be associated with different customers or tenants. For example, in FIG. 7E, database instance 734 provides two schemas 736 and 738, each of which has its own table. Schema 736 can be associated with a first customer or tenant that subscribes to the database service, and schema 738 can be associated with a second customer or tenant that subscribes to the database service. Each tenant gets a completely isolated schema. Each schema acts like a container that can manage database objects including tables, views, stored procedures, triggers, etc. for the associated tenant. Each schema can have one dedicated tablespace, and each tablespace has one data file.

  Thus, a single database instance can provide database services to multiple tenants. This not only allows basic hardware resource sharing, but also allows service instances to be shared between tenants.

  In certain embodiments, such a multi-tenancy system is facilitated by the IDM 200 so that multiple separate customers, each having its own separate identity domain, are shared in the cloud and It is advantageously possible to use software. As a result, each customer does not need to have their own dedicated hardware or software resources, and in some cases, resources that are not used by some customers at any given time are made available to other customers, This prevents waste of those resources. For example, as shown in FIG. 7E, a database instance can be served to multiple customers, each having a respective identity domain. Each such database service instance may be a separate abstraction or view of a single physical multitenant database system shared within many separate identity domains, but each such database A service instance may have a different and possibly different schema than each other database service instance has. Thus, a multi-tenant database system can store a mapping between customer-specified database schemas and the identity domains to which those database schemas relate. A multi-tenant database system may cause a database service instance for a particular identity domain to use a schema that is mapped to that particular identity domain.

  Multi-tenancy can be extended to other services such as Java services. For example, multiple customers may have JAVA service instances located within their identity domain. Each such identity domain may have a JAVA virtual machine that can be considered a virtual “slice” of hardware. In one embodiment, the job monitoring service (e.g., Hudson) provides JAVA in the cloud to allow each separate identity domain to have its own separate virtual "slice" of the JAVA enterprise edition platform. It may be combined with an enterprise version platform (for example, Oracle Web Logic). Such a job monitoring service may monitor the execution of repetitive jobs, such as building a software project or job executed by an operating system time-based job scheduler, for example. Such repeated jobs may include the continuous construction and / or testing of software projects. Additionally or alternatively, such repeated jobs may include monitoring the execution of an operating system boot job that is executed on a machine remote from the machine on which the job monitoring service is executed.

Reusable anonymous subscription (RAS)
In certain embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system 100 not only allows the underlying hardware and service instances to be shared between customers or tenants, but also does not fully provision new resources. Allowing other customers or tenants to reuse existing subscriptions. In one aspect, a reusable anonymous subscription (RAS) is a type of subscription that allows customers to access this service that has already been provisioned prior to requesting access to the service. In some embodiments, RAS may have been used by other customers to access the service. After the RAS has been used for access to the service, it may be reassigned to another customer. Services resources accessible using RAS may remain provisioned for this RAS for reuse by other customers who have been granted this RAS.

  In some embodiments, RAS allows a customer to use this service before purchasing a subscription for the service (eg, a regular subscription). The access that the service provides for the RAS may be different (eg, may be restricted) than the access that the service provides for the regular subscription. For example, RAS may allow a customer to access this service as a guest for temporary use (eg, test or trial use) prior to purchasing a subscription for the service. RAS will help to allow customers to try the service without actually paying for the service.

  In some aspects, the RAS may be configured differently from the regular subscription so that the purpose of using the RAS is to try out the service. In some embodiments, the RAS may not provide all of the features available to customers with regular subscriptions. In one example, for RAS, operation updates and extensions may not be supported. That is, the customer cannot add new features or increase the size of the RAS (for example, the number of users). On the other hand, customers with regular subscriptions may be able to access some or all of these features. In another example, a customer who is assigned a RAS may not have access to support such as high availability and disaster recovery features (eg, such support may be disabled). In another example, the RAS may not allow gradual deployment of services accessed by RAS customers. In staged deployment, the subscription configuration is changed based on a predetermined deployment plan. In another example, a RAS customer may not be allowed to overrun. In another example, a customer with an assigned RAS may not be able to use notifications such as warnings related to use.

  If the customer decides not to convert the RAS into a regular subscription, the RAS can be reassigned to another customer for reuse of this RAS. Services provisioned for this RAS will remain provisioned when the customer returns the RAS. In this way, the time required to provision new resources for the service is minimized and the resource usage is maximized.

  When the customer agrees to obtain a regular subscription for a service accessed using RAS, the cloud infrastructure system 100 may convert the RAS into a regular subscription. In various embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system 100 may implement a conversion process (eg, a lightweight personality injection process) for converting a RAS to a regular subscription. The conversion process keeps resources provisioned for the RAS so that the resources of services provided by the RAS are not re-provisioned. Thus, RAS can be very useful for complex products (eg CRM systems) that are provisioned using a heavy weight process. The conversion process may hold data generated by the customer using services accessed via RAS. Retained customer data may be used by customers for services accessed through regular subscriptions. By maintaining customer data, the customer can save time and resources required to regenerate the customer data based on the use of the service by the customer.

  In another aspect, the customer specific data generated during use of the service provided by the RAS may be separated from the service specific data associated with the service provided by the RAS. In some embodiments, if the RAS is not converted to a regular subscription, the service-specific data for services provided by this RAS may be maintained in association with the RAS, and the customer-specific data may be The corresponding relationship may be canceled. When RAS is converted into a regular subscription, data for specific customers may be retained and associated with the regular subscription. Accordingly, a user who is provided with a regular subscription can continue to use the service using the existing customer-specific data generated when the service is accessed using RAS. RAS can be distinguished from trial subscriptions that are usually not reusable by different customers. The trial subscription is canceled at the end of the trial period.

  8A-8C, various embodiments for providing a RAS to a customer according to some embodiments of the present embodiment are shown. FIG. 8A shows a simplified block diagram of a system environment 800 for providing a reusable anonymous subscription in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 8B shows an example of a data structure for implementing a reusable anonymous subscription according to some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 8C is a flowchart of a process for managing the lifecycle of a reusable anonymous subscription according to various embodiments.

  FIG. 8A illustrates several customers, such as customer 1, customer 2, and customer 3, that are associated with client device 224, client device 226, and client device 228, respectively, for communication with cloud infrastructure system 100. A system environment 800 is also shown. The cloud infrastructure system 100 may manage one or more service pools (eg, service pool 810) of RAS subscriptions for customers. Service pool 810 may include one or more RAS, such as RAS 812 (“RAS 1”), RAS 814 (“RAS 2”), and RAS 816 (“RAS 3”), each available for assignment to a customer. In some embodiments, access to already provisioned services may be enabled by creating one or more service pools (eg, RAS pools) and providing RAS.

  In various embodiments, service pools may be built based on configurations or templates (eg, product templates). For example, a service pool may be built and maintained for a specific product configuration. If the customer needs a RAS for a product configuration for which no RAS pool exists, a new service is created for this product configuration and a new RAS is added to this service pool. If one or more additional RASs are created for the same product configuration in the future, these RASes may also be added to the service pool. Templates may incorporate resource constraints (eg, limits on the number of users, limits on storage, etc.) imposed on access to products (eg, services). For example, one service pool may be configured based on a product configuration template for a database as a service (DBAAS) product, and another service pool may be based on a product configuration template for a CRM service product. May be configured. In some embodiments, the service pool may include other pools, each further defined based on a category. In the previous example, the service pool for the DBAAS service pool may have separate service pools, each providing a different type of RAS for DBAAS, such as DBAAS Basic, DBAAS Standard, and DBAAS Enterprise. Alternatively, separate pools may be created for different types of subscriptions for either the same product or different products.

  In some embodiments, service pools may be associated or classified based on one or more criteria. This criterion may be indicated by the template used to configure the service pool. Templates may be based on service type, resources provisioned for services made available by the service pool, subscription type, number of subscriptions, resource availability, and the like. A service corresponding to each RAS in the service pool may be provisioned before the subscription order for the service in this service pool is processed.

  In one aspect, the template used to define the service pool may be determined based on feedback provided by various components of the cloud infrastructure system 100. For example, it may be used to determine the rate at which customers place orders and reflect this in the number of subscriptions assigned to the pool. In another example, the service type may be used to allocate X subscriptions for the first type and a different number of subscriptions for the second type. Other performance, marketing, and customer related metrics can be used to determine the number of available subscriptions and to determine how to reassign these subscriptions. Further, the cloud infrastructure system 100 can dynamically increase or decrease the number of RAS available in the service pool based on the analysis of feedback determined by the cloud infrastructure system 100.

  In some embodiments, a RAS may be created based on a customer-specific product template configured based on customer needs. The RAS for specific customers may be stored in a service pool designated for one or more customers. In some embodiments, the customer specific RAS may be reused by other customers who have needs that are met by the customer specific RAS. In some embodiments, a service pool may be created for services configured like a customer specific RAS. Another RAS created as a specific customer RAS with the same configuration may be added to the service pool. The specific customer RAS may be stored in a service pool designed for the customers who have configured this specific customer RAS.

  As described above, the TAS module 204 of the cloud infrastructure system 100 manages the business process associated with each subscription order and applies business logic to determine whether the subscription order should proceed to provisioning. Act as an orchestration component. The TAS module 204 handles processing for processing subscription orders based on customer requests for services. In some embodiments, the TAS module 204 may determine whether a request for a service (eg, request 802) that the RAS may provide access has been made. The TAS module 204 may build an environment for the requested service based on the type of usage indicated by the customer request. The TAS module 204 can determine that a RAS has been requested based on an explicit request for the RAS indicated by the request received from the customer.

  A request for service from cloud infrastructure system 100 (eg, request 802) may include information that may be used to provide the service. Specifically, the request may include information (eg, order information) that enables the cloud infrastructure system 100 to determine the RAS to provide to the customer for the requested service. In some embodiments, the request may indicate the type of service or the type of intended use for the requested service. Types of use include, but are not limited to, development, testing, training, prototyping, load balancing, marketing, sales, design, production, etc.

  In some embodiments, the request may indicate one or more requirements for the requested service. This requirement includes rate constraints (eg minimum and / or maximum fees), time limit for using requested service, amount of users using this service, desired type of service support, other related to use of service Or a combination thereof. The cloud infrastructure system 100 may determine a subscription to provide to the customer to allow access to the requested service based on the requirements indicated by the customer request. At least one example of a subscription provided to a customer may be RAS.

  The TAS module 204 may implement operations for establishing a RAS that allows access to the requested service. In the example shown in FIG. 8A, the cloud infrastructure system 100 may determine whether a requested service has been provisioned for a RAS in one or more service pools (eg, service pool 810). Whether the available subscription provides access to the requested service by analyzing the available subscriptions (eg, RAS) in one or more service pools by performing the process You may judge. A service pool may include multiple RASes. Each RAS can be assigned to a customer when this RAS is available. By examining each RAS, the resources and / or services that this RAS provides may be determined. Subscriptions such as RAS are based in part on information determined from the request (eg, the type of subscription requested by the customer, the type of use of the requested service, the duration of the requested service, or a combination thereof) May be specified in the service pool.

  In some embodiments, a service pool may be constructed for a particular geographic location (eg, geographic region). The geographic location may be determined based on the geographic location of the data center. A service pool may be established for a geographic location for legal and / or compliance reasons. A service pool may be established for a geographic location when a service pool is not established for this geographic location. In some embodiments, a service pool built at a geographic location may be further defined based on the product configuration. For example, a service pool may be constructed for a geographical location for a RAS with a specific product configuration. In such an embodiment, if there is no existing service pool at a geographical location defined for the product configuration of this new RAS for a new RAS, You may create it.

  If a RAS that matches the customer's request cannot be found, a new RAS may be provisioned based on the customer's request. The newly provisioned RAS may be added to an appropriate service pool. The service pool may be expanded to include a new RAS to meet customer demand. A new RAS can then be assigned to the customer.

  In some embodiments, provisioned RAS may not be added to an existing service pool. For example, RAS may not be added to a service pool when an existing service pool is full due to resource capacity. In some embodiments, the RAS may not be added to the service pool when the provisioned RAS product configuration does not fit the service pool classification. An RAS in an existing service pool may be configured for a subscription type or usage type that does not match the new RAS configuration. In one example, the provisioned RAS is a product configuration of the RAS. If the application does not match the product configuration of the existing service pool, it may not be assigned to the existing service pool. In some embodiments, the newly created RAS product configuration is different from the existing RAS product configuration because the new RAS product configuration is different from the RAS product configuration of each existing service pool. May not match the product configuration of each service pool. In such a case, a new service pool may be constructed on demand.

  In some embodiments, the service pool may be specific to a customer, and the service pool may include a RAS configured according to a custom template for a customer. In this embodiment, a RAS in such a service pool may be assigned only to the specific customer designated for this service pool.

  In some embodiments, determining whether a requested service has been provisioned can include determining a service pool corresponding to a service pool type. The type of service pool may be identified based on information indicated by a request from a customer. For example, the service pool type may include the requested service, the type of subscription requested by the customer (eg, a RAS subscription), the type of usage of the requested service, or a combination thereof, The request may indicate any or all of these.

  In one example shown in FIG. 8A, the TAS module 204 may send one or more RAS in the service pool 810, eg, RAS2 814 and RAS3 816, to a customer (eg, customer 1) for one or more requested services. It may be determined whether it can be used for allocation. The TAS module 204 performs operations 824 for assigning a first RAS (eg, RAS2 814) to customer 1 for the first service 822 and assigning a second RAS (eg, RAS3 816) to customer 1 for the second service. It can be realized. Subscriptions assigned to a customer, such as subscription 830 (“customer 1 subscription”), may be held in storage associated with this customer. In some embodiments, specific customer data associated with a service accessed using RAS may be stored in association with data associated with that service (eg, specific service data). An example of a data structure for storing a subscription will be described with reference to FIG. 8B.

  The RAS may return it to the service pool when the customer has finished using this RAS. In some embodiments, a RAS may be associated with one or more requirements associated with the use of this RAS. For example, this requirement may relate to the use of resources enabled for RAS or to a period for allowing access to a service. The RAS may be returned to the service pool when the RAS requirements are met. For example, RAS 3 816 may return 826 to service pool 810. Data for specific services associated with RAS3 816 may be stored in the storage area, while data for specific customers generated by customer 1 using RAS3 816 may be discarded. Returning the RAS may include assigning this RAS to a service pool. In some embodiments, the RAS may be returned to the service pool that acquired the RAS. However, the RAS may be returned to a different service pool based on the allocation of the RAS to the service pool.

  The cloud infrastructure system 100 may convert the assigned RAS into a regular subscription (RS). The RAS may not be returned to the service pool when this RAS is converted to RS. The RAS may be converted to RS based on the input received from the client device operated by the customer. In some embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system 100 may send information to the client device to allow the client device to give priority to the client device to prompt the customer to convert RAS to RS. The RS may allow the customer to continue using services accessed using RAS. In one example shown in FIG. 8A, RAS2 814 may be converted to RS1 838 based on input received from a client device operated by customer 1. The conversion of assigned RAS to RS is further described below with reference to FIGS. 8B and 8C.

  The RAS assigned to the customer and returned to the service pool may be assigned to the customer for the requested service. The customer may be the same as or different from the customer previously assigned RAS. In the previous example described with reference to FIG. 8A, once RAS3 816 has been returned to the service pool 810, RAS3 816 can be assigned 828 to another customer (eg, customer 2). The subscription assigned to customer 2 such as subscription 850 (“customer 2 subscription”) may be held in a storage area associated with this customer. The data for a specific service associated with RAS3 816 is: RAS3 816 may be retained after being returned to service pool 810 and assigned to customer 2. The customer specific data generated based on access to the service using RAS3 816 is associated with RAS3 816. The RAS3 816 may be returned to the service pool 816 or converted to RS in the example of Fig. 8A, or the RAS3 816 may be converted to RS1 856. Good 854. In this case, RAS3 816 is returned to the service pool 810. RAS3 816 cannot be used to re-assign to customers because by converting RAS3 816 to RS1 856, customer specific data generated by Customer 2 is retained for use with RS1 856. Also good.

  Now referring to FIG. 8B, an example of a data structure for implementing a reusable anonymous subscription according to some embodiments of the present invention is shown. One or more data structures may be implemented by the cloud infrastructure system 100 to store data associated with the subscription. Examples of data structures include, but are not limited to, linked lists, tables, arrays, hash tables, graphs, and the like.

  The RAS 870 is an example of a data structure that can store RAS-related information. The RAS 870 may be stored in memory allocated for the service pool. In the example of FIG. 8B, RAS 870 is shown with data for one RAS. However, RAS 870 can store information regarding one or more RASes. Implementing one or more data structures for RAS in a modular fashion may facilitate a lightweight conversion process that allows multiple customers to use RAS.

  The RAS 870 may include data (eg, service specific data 872) corresponding to services provisioned for the RAS. Specific service specific data 872 may include data related to providing services enabled for RAS. The service specific data 872 may be customer neutral so that various customers can reuse it. For example, the service specific data 872 may include product specific metadata related to a product (eg, service or component) provided by the RAS corresponding to the RAS 870.

  In some embodiments, the service specific data 872 may indicate the configuration of a service provided for the subscription (eg, the physical configuration of the resource). The configuration may indicate resource constraints such as one or more components (eg, features) that are enabled or disabled for the service. The configuration may be determined based on a template for a service or a product type associated with the service. In some embodiments, this configuration may be based on a comprehensive product template, unlike regular subscription configurations (eg, purchased configurations) that may be based on customer preferences.

  In some embodiments, service specific data 872 may include information related to RAS. Among other information, the service specific data 872 may identify a subscription, such as a subscription name and / or a subscription identifier. The service specific data 872 may include customer information related to anonymous users. For example, service specific data 872 may include a reference to a data structure (eg, guest customer identity object 864) that includes information about a guest to which RAS 870 has been assigned. The service specific data 872 may include contract information. The RAS may not have a valid start date and / or end date so that multiple customers can reuse it. In contrast, a regular subscription may be assigned a valid start date and / or end date when the customer purchased the regular subscription.

  The customer-specific data 872 may indicate the type of support for RAS. Since RAS may be used with limited capacity until converted to a regular subscription, RAS may enable a different level of support than a regular subscription. For example, customers assigned RAS may be provided with a comprehensive level of support, while customers who have purchased regular subscriptions may be provided with a premium level of support.

  In some embodiments, service specific data 872 may indicate operations that may be performed using RAS. For example, the service specific data 872 may indicate that a service provided by the RAS can determine whether the service provided by the RAS can support the customer workflow by executing a test using the RAS. In addition or alternatively, RAS may have other uses such as allowing a customer to demonstrate a service and / or allow a customer to compare the service with a similar service provided by one or more competitors. May be provided.

  Once the RAS 870 is assigned to the customer 840, the cloud infrastructure system 100 may maintain the data structure 874 (assigned RAS). RAS 870 may be stored as assigned RAS 874. Assigning the RAS may include moving the location of the RAS 870 to a new location in storage associated with the customer. Alternatively, the assigned RAS 874 may include a reference to RAS 870 in storage. In some embodiments, the assigned RAS 874 may be implemented as a different data structure that includes the data in RAS 870. In some embodiments, a reference to each assigned RAS 874 associated with a customer may be stored by implementing a data structure (eg, a mapping table or hash table) in addition to RAS 874.

  Although assigned to a customer, the customer specific data 872 in the assigned RAS 870 may include an anonymous customer identity since the RAS subscription has not yet been converted. For example, service specific data 872 may indicate a reference (guest customer identity object) to a data structure 864 that stores identity information about the guest. In some embodiments, the guest customer identity object 864 may include information about the guest such as the guest's name, contact information, and the like.

  The assigned RAS 874 may be modified to store customer specific data 876 for the customer to which the RAS 870 has been assigned. Customer specific data 876 may include data corresponding to use of services accessed using RAS corresponding to RAS 870. Customer specific data 876 may be based on the application used to access the service. For example, customer specific data 876 may include a customer mailbox corresponding to a sales cloud service accessed by a subscription to a service. In another example, customer specific data 876 may include a table generated through the use of a database service. In another example, customer specific data 876 may include storage objects for an object storage service accessed using RAS. In some embodiments, the actual customer-specific data may be stored in another customer-specific repository, and customer-specific data 876 stores a reference to customer-specific data stored in the service-specific repository. May be.

  The cloud infrastructure system 100 may implement a conversion process 842 (eg, a lightweight personality injection process) that converts RAS to regular subscriptions (RS). For example, a RAS corresponding to RAS 874 may be converted to an RS represented by data structure 878. The conversion process 842 may include changing the subscription type corresponding to the assigned RAS 874. For example, RS878 indicates access to the same services that the assigned RAS 874 provides except for a period as a regular subscription that is different from the period of the RAS corresponding to the assigned RAS 874 (eg, an extended period). It may be. The conversion process 842 may store the information in the assigned RAS 874 in the RS 878. In some embodiments, the assigned RAS 874 storage may be updated to indicate that the assigned RAS 874 is an RS, eg, RS878.

  The conversion process 842 may include determining account information (eg, account footprint) for a subscription (eg, regular subscription) that converted the subscription assigned to the customer. For example, the order management module 214 of the cloud infrastructure system 100 may determine customer account information. Determining account information may include creating a customer account. An account may be created when no existing account is found based on customer identity information. When an existing account is discovered, the existing account may be updated to allow access to the converted subscription. Therefore, the data 872 for the specific service in the RS878 may be updated using the account information corresponding to the converted subscription.

  The conversion process 842 may include storing customer information in association with RS878 (eg, injecting personality information). RS878 may be associated with or referenced to customer identity information of the customer associated with the assigned RAS874. In the cloud infrastructure system 100, information regarding customer identities may be stored in a data structure 866 (customer identity object). In the example shown in FIG. 8B, RS878 may indicate a reference to a customer identity object 866 that identifies the customer associated with the assigned RAS874. Other subscriptions associated with the customer (eg, other RAS) may store a reference to the customer identity object 866. A customer identity object (eg, customer identity object 866) may include data that indicates information about the customer. This data may indicate a customer identity (eg, name or user identifier), customer contact information, customer billing information, other customer related information, or a combination thereof.

  In some embodiments, the conversion process 842 may include updating the guest customer identity object 864 with information in the customer identity object 866. By using a reference to the object, information regarding the customer's identity may be stored symbolically to reduce the processing time required for the conversion from RAS to RS. Alternatively, the reference to the customer identity object 866 may be indicated by updating the reference to the guest customer identity object 864 from the service specific data 872.

  Conversion process 842 may include determining a contract for a regular subscription (eg, RS878) converted from a RAS (eg, assigned RAS874) for the customer. For example, the order management module 214 may determine a contract for the type of subscription provided by RS878 by performing the process. Determining a contract may include determining credentials regarding a subscription period and one or more entitlements provided by RS878. This contract may subject the customer to terms and conditions that can be associated with a regular subscription, such as entitle the customer to regular product support. The above conditions may indicate the usage period of the service that matches the paid subscription. Regular subscriptions converted from RAS may provide a customer with a usage quota that is greater than the quota provided by RAS.

  The conversion process 842 may further include building support information within the support system 217 of the cloud infrastructure system 100. By providing the support system with account information regarding a regular subscription (eg, RS878) assigned to the customer, the customer may receive support provided by the regular subscription (eg, regular product support).

  In some embodiments, the conversion process 842 may include injecting customer account information into the TAS 204 and physical provisioning layer. For example, RAS 204 tags a customer account number to the subscription footprint and identity domain.

  FIG. 8C is a flowchart 880 of a process for managing the lifecycle of a reusable anonymous subscription according to various embodiments. In some embodiments, the process illustrated by flowchart 880 may be implemented by all or part of a service infrastructure system (eg, cloud infrastructure system 100).

  The processing described with reference to FIG. 8C may be implemented by software (eg, code, instructions, program) executed by one or more processors, hardware, or a combination thereof. The software may be stored in memory (eg, on a memory device, non-transitory computer readable storage medium). The particular series of processing steps shown in FIG. 8C is not intended to be limiting. Other sequences of steps may be performed in accordance with alternative embodiments. For example, alternative embodiments of the invention may perform the steps outlined above in other orders. In addition, the individual steps shown in FIG. 8C may include multiple sub-steps that may be performed in various sequences as appropriate depending on the individual steps. Furthermore, other steps may be added or deleted depending on the specific application. Those skilled in the art will recognize numerous variations, modifications, and alternatives. The process shown in flowchart 880 begins at block 882.

  At block 882, one or more services are provided to the service infrastructure system (eg, cloud infrastructure system 100 of FIG. 1). A service infrastructure system may include or implement a multi-tenant environment. Examples of services may include CRM services, HCM services, Java services, or other computing services.

  Data for a specific service (for example, data 872 for a specific service in FIG. 8B) may be associated with each of the provisioned services. Data for a specific service corresponding to a certain service may indicate the configuration of this service. This configuration may include one or more resources allocated to provide the service.

  In some embodiments, providing one or more services provisions one or more of the services in a service infrastructure system prior to receiving a request for access to one of the services from a customer. Including that. A service may be provisioned based on one or more criteria. For example, a service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with the operation of a service infrastructure system. In another example, a service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with demand for the service. In other examples, a service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with a service type.

  In some embodiments, creating one or more service pools may provide access to already provisioned services. As explained above, the service infrastructure system may maintain multiple service pools. One service pool may contain multiple subscriptions. Each of the plurality of subscriptions may be associated with at least one service provided by the service infrastructure system. In one example, a service pool may provide multiple RAS subscriptions. In some embodiments, service pools may be associated or classified based on service type, resources provisioned for services made available by the service pool, subscription type, etc. Also good. The service corresponding to the subscription in the service pool may have already been provisioned by the service infrastructure system before the request for this service is made.

  A customer access request for service is received at block 884. For example, request 802 may be received from client device 224. The request may indicate a requirement for the service being requested. For example, the request may include information indicating the type of service usage being requested. The service infrastructure system may determine the service requested by the customer using the type of usage.

  In various aspects, when a customer requests service, various options can be presented to the client at the user interface of the client device. One option may include the choice of whether to provision all or part of the requested service. Another option may include the type of subscription desired for the requested service (eg, RAS subscription or production subscription).

  At block 886, processing is performed to determine whether the requested service is provisioned for a subscription in a service infrastructure system service pool (eg, service pool 810). By performing processing, analyze available subscriptions (eg, RAS) in one or more service pools and determine whether the available subscriptions provide access to the requested service. Also good. As described above, a service pool can include multiple RASes. Each RAS can be assigned to a customer when this RAS is available. By examining each RAS, the resources and / or services provided by this RAS may be determined. A subscription such as RAS is information that is determined from the request (eg, the type of subscription requested by the customer, the type of use of the requested service, the duration of the requested service, or a combination thereof). Can be identified within the service pool based in part. By processing the service specific data corresponding to each subscription in the service pool, a subscription type (eg, RAS subscription) subscription for the service requested by the customer may be identified.

  Determining that a requested service has been provisioned may include determining a service pool from a subscription for a service, such as a requested service, and a plurality of service pools to provide. In some embodiments, specifying a service pool may provide one or more subscriptions (eg, one or more RAS) for a type of service. Thus, determining a service pool can include identifying a service pool that can provide a RAS to access the requested service. By examining the identified service pools, any RAS in these service pools may determine whether to enable access to the requested service.

  In some embodiments, determining one service pool from a plurality of service pools may be based on the availability within the at least one service pool of subscriptions for services requested by the user. For example, one service pool may be determined from a plurality of service pools based on the type of service pool. The type of service pool may be determined based on information indicated by a request from the customer (eg, the request received at block 884). For example, determining the type of service pool based on the requested service, the type of subscription requested by the customer (eg, RAS subscription), the type of usage of the requested service, or a combination thereof The request may indicate any or all of these.

  At block 888, a subscription for access to the requested service may be assigned to the customer from the service pool (eg, the service pool determined at block 886). For example, RAS3 816 in FIG. 8A may be assigned 824 to customer 1. When a subscription such as an RAS subscription is assigned to a customer, data related to the subscription, for example, data for a specific service included in the RAS, is stored in association with information related to the subscription assigned to the customer. May be. For example, RAS 870 of FIG. 8B may be assigned to a customer who has been assigned RAS 874. In this example, service specific data 872 may be stored with the assigned RAS 874 stored for the assigned RAS subscription. Assigning a subscription for a requested service from a service pool to a customer may include deleting the subscription from the service pool.

  In some embodiments, the availability of subscriptions within a service pool (eg, RAS subscriptions) may be changed based on customer demand. Thus, a subscription for access to a requested service (eg, a RAS subscription) may not be available when a request is received. In some embodiments, a service requested by a customer is reassigned from the customer to the service pool when the subscription for access to the service is returned to the service pool (eg, the subscription for the service is reassigned from the customer to the service pool). When assigned, customers may be assigned from the determined service pool.

  At block 890, the specific customer data corresponding to the customer (eg, the customer who requested the service) may be associated with the specific service data corresponding to the requested service. As described above, customer specific data includes data generated through the use of a service (eg, a service provided by a subscription). When generated, the customer-specific data may be stored in association with the service-specific data for the subscription that provides access to the service used to generate the data. In at least one example, customer specific data 876 related to the use of services provided by a subscription corresponding to the assigned RAS 874 may be stored in association with the specific service specific data in the assigned RAS 874. .

  By storing the data for specific customers in association with the data for specific services for RAS, the data for specific customers is stored for the services provided by RAS when the RAS is converted into a regular subscription. Also good. Furthermore, the loss of the data for specific customers when the access to the RAS service is corrected may be prevented by associating the data for specific customers with the data for specific services. Customer specific data may be maintained from a RAS subscription to a regular subscription (eg, a production subscription) if this RAS subscription is converted to extend access to different subscriptions.

  By performing the process, it is determined whether or not to convert a subscription for the customer (eg, RAS subscription). The subscription may be converted by a conversion process (eg, a lightweight personality injection process), such as the conversion process 842 described with reference to FIG. 8B. This conversion process may include changing the type of subscription assigned to the customer to access the service previously provided by the subscription (eg, the subscription assigned at block 888). For example, a subscription may be converted to a regular subscription. A regular subscription is a subscription that can provide access to a service under conditions that are different from the terms of the subscription allocated from the service pool.

  There may be many reasons to convert a subscription. For example, a customer may indicate that they wish to purchase a subscription to use the service for a period of time. In another example, a customer may state that he wants more support for a service than a comprehensive level of service support. Thus, in this case, the customer may convert the subscription to one that provides premium support for the service.

  In some embodiments, determining whether to convert a subscription for a customer may be based on input received from the customer. For example, the cloud infrastructure system 100 may require input from a customer indicating a decision as to whether to convert the subscription. The customer may provide an input stating whether or not to convert the subscription. This input may indicate one or more criteria for converting the subscription. This criterion may indicate the duration of the subscription after converting the subscription. The criteria may indicate other choices for subscriptions, such as fees, service types, support types, or other criteria related to subscription types. In some embodiments, the customer may have entered the request received at block 884. In this request, the customer may indicate when and how to convert the subscription.

  In some embodiments, the service infrastructure system may make a decision whether to convert a subscription for a customer. The service infrastructure system may determine whether to convert the subscription to another type of subscription based on information determined by the service infrastructure system. In some embodiments, the customer may provide one or more rules that indicate when and how to convert the subscription. For example, this determination can be made based on various factors. These factors can be metrics related to the operation of the service infrastructure system for the service, one or more metrics associated with the demand for the service, one or more metrics associated with the service type, or Including, but not limited to, combinations of these. Metrics may be defined by rules provided by the customer.

  If it is determined that the subscription for the customer is to be converted, the process may proceed to 894. If it is determined not to convert the subscription for the customer, the process may proceed to 896.

  At block 894, the subscription for the customer (eg, the subscription assigned to the customer at block 888) may be converted. At block 898, the process illustrated by flowchart 888 ends.

  In at least one embodiment, a subscription for a customer may be converted by changing the type of subscription assigned to the customer for access to services previously provided by the subscription. For example, if the subscription is a RAS subscription with a period of service (eg, a trial period), the subscription type for this service is a different type of subscription with a different service period than the subscription assigned at block 888. (For example, regular subscription). By converting subscriptions to different types of subscriptions, customers can access longer or shorter periods of service, depending on their service needs. In one example, when the subscription is a RAS subscription defined by a trial period, the customer may wish to convert from a RAS subscription to a regular subscription (eg, a production subscription). Regular subscriptions will allow customers to create a production environment.

  As explained above, the subscription may be converted by a conversion process. If given input by the customer, the subscription may be converted using criteria provided by the customer. For example, the subscription type may be selected based on customer input. In some embodiments, the subscription type may be selected based on information determined by the service infrastructure system.

  When the conversion process is complete, the subscription assigned from the service pool is deleted from the service pool. By removing a subscription from the service pool, the subscription will not be assigned to another customer.

  Returning to block 892, if it is decided not to convert the subscription for the customer, at block 896 the subscription (eg, the subscription assigned to the customer at block 888) may be returned to the service pool. The subscription may be returned to the service pool by assigning a subscription from the customer to the service pool. For example, the subscription assigned to the customer at block 888 may now be returned to the service pool by assigning it to the service pool. For example, RAS3 816 of FIG. 8A may be assigned 826 from customer 1 to service pool 810 as RAS3 816. When the subscription is returned to the service pool, the subscription may again be assigned to one or more other customers (eg, the same customer or another customer).

  Returning the subscription to the service pool may include breaking the correspondence between the customer specific data and the service specific data corresponding to the services accessible by the subscription. In one illustrative example, if the customer decides not to purchase the service provided by the assigned subscription, the customer specific data is removed from the subscription before assigning the subscription to the service pool. By removing the customer specific data from this subscription before assigning the subscription to the service pool, this subscription can be reassigned and therefore reused by other customers. In some embodiments, customer specific data may be stored in association with the customer identity. By storing the specific customer data in association with the customer identity, the specific customer data can be easily deleted before returning the RAS to the service pool.

  Returning the subscription to the service pool may include implementing a deallocation process. The deallocation process may be performed based on the type of service provided by the subscription. In one example, the deallocation process for a provided service that is a database as a service (DBAAS) may include deleting one or more users created by a customer of the service provided by the subscription assigned at block 888. In another example, a service deallocation process that is an object storage service may include deleting a storage object created by a customer when the subscription is a RAS subscription. In some embodiments, the deallocation process re-initializes resource usage statistics for a subscription (eg, a RAS subscription) so that another customer to whom the subscription is assigned is offered for this subscription. Making available a resource of a quota.

At block 898, the process illustrated by flowchart 880 ends.
Subscription Cloning In certain embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system 100 may allow other instance provisioning. Other instance provisioning may build services that provide other environments for use by customers. Examples of service types include software as a service (SaaS) category, platform as a service (PaaS) category, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) category, or other service categories including hybrid services, It is not limited to.

  In one aspect, the cloud infrastructure system 100 can provide users with access to services based on existing services (eg, cloning existing services). Services based on existing services may be provided by creating subscriptions (eg, “clone subscriptions”) based on existing subscriptions (eg, base subscriptions) for existing services. A clone subscription is one that a customer can use as an additional environment ("clone environment"). In another aspect, multiple clone subscriptions may be created based on the base subscription, each clone subscription providing a subscription for a service based on an existing service of the base subscription. Services provided by clone subscriptions may provide additional computing environments for customers that are separate from those provided by base subscriptions.

  A clone subscription can be designated or intended for a type of use that can differ from the type of use corresponding to the service provided by the base subscription. Customers can enjoy many benefits by having the ability to use a cloned environment for a purpose that is different from the purpose of the environment associated with the base subscription. For example, clone subscriptions may be used for testing, customer / employee training, customer / employee demonstrations, customer / development prototyping, development, load balancing, base subscriptions for production, etc. May be used for other purposes. The types of uses disclosed herein are described for purposes of illustration. The type of use of clone subscriptions and base subscriptions can vary depending on customer needs.

  In one example, a customer may require a clone subscription to implement a production environment clone environment to test or prototyping a new feature in a clone environment before deploying the feature to the production environment. . The ability to test or prototype new features in a clone environment before applying them to production will allow customers to test and implement the product. Prototyping allows customers to provide feedback on proposed products / features using the services provided by the base subscription by hosting them using the environment provided for the clone subscription. It will be possible to receive without affecting the production environment. Features that are prototyped and tested in a clonal environment may differ from those in a production environment. This is because customers will not want to realize these features in a production environment until they are ready.

  In another example, clone subscriptions may be used for load balancing. Non-mission critical workflows can be offloaded to the clone environment and only mission critical workflows can be executed in the production environment. As a result, the load on the production environment is reduced, and the performance of the mission critical workflow can be improved.

  In another example, the environment provided by the clone subscription allows the customer to perform tasks such as demonstrations and training, and the environment provided by the base subscription can be used as a production environment. For example, using clone subscriptions can train internal employees (eg, marketing and sales representatives) or demonstrate product characteristics to customers. It would be desirable to perform such tasks in an environment different from the production environment. The production environment can be affected by such applications. In this way, the clone environment provides the customer with additional environments that are automatically configured for different purposes without having to configure and implement a completely new environment from the beginning.

  The ability to create one or more clone subscriptions based on existing subscriptions allows customers to reduce the cost of creating a similar environment without being replicated. In some embodiments, the cost of obtaining a clone subscription will be much less than the cost of the base subscription. Clone subscriptions can be provisioned based on existing services, reducing the cost of implementing a clone service. In this way, customers enjoy the benefit of reducing the cost of clone subscriptions. However, at the cost of cost savings, the features provided for clone subscriptions may differ from base subscriptions. For example, the level of recovery service (eg, high availability and disaster recovery) provided to a customer for a clone subscription may be different from the service provided to this customer for a base subscription. In another example, clone subscription replication latency would be greater than the base subscription.

  The clone subscription may be associated with the subscription from which the clone subscription was created. When a clone subscription is associated with the subscription from which the clone subscription was created, the life cycle of the subscription and the life cycle of the clone subscription may be associated with each other. In some embodiments, when a clone subscription is associated with a base subscription, changes made to the base subscription may be reflected in the associated clone subscription. This change may be applied based on one or more rules. An example of managing a clone subscription will be described below with reference to FIGS. 9A to 9C and FIG.

  The configuration of the service provided by the clone subscription may be adjusted separately from the service provided by the base subscription. Examples of adjusting the configuration of a clone subscription include adjusting the user count, which is the number of users that can be accessed using this clone subscription, adjusting the components that are enabled / disabled for this service, and / or clone subscription Adjustment of the period of time. Clone configuration changes may be requested at the time of clone creation or later through operations on the clone subscription configuration. An example of changing the clone configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 9C and 10.

  Referring now to FIGS. 9A-9C, various embodiments for providing clone subscriptions according to some embodiments of the present embodiment are shown. FIG. 9A shows a simplified block diagram of a system environment for providing a clone subscription in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 9B illustrates an example of a subscription data structure in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 9C shows an example of rules for managing clone subscriptions accordingly. The clone subscription may be managed based on the correspondence with the subscription according to the rules.

  FIG. 9A illustrates several customers, such as customer 1, customer 2, and customer 3, that are associated with client device 224, client device 226, and client device 228, respectively, for communication with cloud infrastructure system 100. In addition, a system environment 900 is shown. Cloud infrastructure system 100 may manage one or more subscriptions (eg, subscription 910) for a customer. Subscription 910 may include data corresponding to one or more subscriptions created for access to one or more services provided by cloud infrastructure system 100. Subscription 910 may include a base subscription. For example, subscription 910 may include subscription 912 (“S1”), subscription 914 (“S2”), and subscription 916 (“S3”). The cloud infrastructure system 100 may have assigned one of the subscriptions 910 to one or more customers. In the example shown in FIG. 9A, S2 914 and S3 916 are assigned to customer 1 as subscription S2 932 and subscription S3 934, respectively. Thus, S2 932 and S3 934 are existing base subscriptions. Subscriptions assigned to a customer, such as subscription 930 (“customer 1 subscription”), may be maintained in storage associated with the customer. An example of a data structure for storing a subscription will be described with reference to FIG. 9B.

  In at least one example, a customer (“Customer 1”) may obtain a service 904 from the cloud infrastructure system 100. Service 904 may include a clone service. Access to a clone service (eg, service 904) may be provided by a clone subscription established by the cloud infrastructure system 100. Service 904 may be provided to customer 1 based on request 902 by customer 1 operating client device 224. In various aspects, customers can be presented with various options when ordering services. The customer may choose to fully or partially provision each part of the order. The customer may select one or more clone subscriptions to gain access to the service. The following further describes the process of providing a clone subscription.

  As described above, the TAS module 204 of the cloud infrastructure system 100 manages the business process associated with each subscription order and applies business logic to determine whether to advance the subscription order to provisioning. Act as an orchestration component to determine. The TAS module 204 handles the process of processing a subscription order based on a request for service from a customer. In some embodiments, the TAS module 204 can determine whether a request for a clone service (eg, request 902) has been made based on an existing subscription. The TAS module 204 may build a clone environment for the clone service based on the type of use indicated by the customer request. The TAS module 204 can determine that a clone subscription has been requested based on a request explicitly made for the clone subscription.

  A request for a service (eg, request 902) from a customer to the cloud infrastructure system 100 may include information that may be used to provide the service. Specifically, the request may include information (eg, order information) that enables the cloud infrastructure system 100 to determine a clone subscription to provide to the customer for the requested service. In some embodiments, the request may indicate the type of service or the type of use intended for the requested service. Examples of types of use include, but are not limited to, development, testing, training, prototyping, load balancing, marketing, sales, design, production, and the like. In some embodiments, the request for cloud infrastructure system 100 may indicate the type of subscription desired by the customer, such as a clone subscription or a regular subscription. In some embodiments, the request may indicate one or more requirements for the requested service. This requirement includes rate constraints (eg minimum and / or maximum fees), time limit for using requested service, amount of users using this service, desired type of service support, other related to use of service Or a combination thereof. The cloud infrastructure system 100 may determine a clone subscription to provide to the customer to allow access to the requested service based on the customer's terms. Subscriptions may be provided based on existing subscriptions (eg, base subscriptions).

  If it is determined that a request for a clone subscription has been received, the TAS module 204 may establish an operation for the clone process to establish a clone subscription. In the example shown in FIG. 9A, cloud infrastructure system 100 may provision one or more clone services associated with a clone subscription order based on request 902 from customer 1. For example, clone subscription 940 (“C1”) and clone subscription 942 (“C2”) may each be established by implementing cloning process 936 and cloning process 938 using base subscription S3 934.

  Operations for the cloning process may include processing the subscription order to establish C1 940 and C2 942 by performing the steps described with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B. Processing the subscription order may include determining a fee associated with the clone subscription. Clone subscription fees can be based on various criteria. These criteria include, but are not limited to, the type of use intended for the clone service provided with respect to the clone subscription and the duration of the base subscription. In some embodiments, the fee may depend on the additional type of service requested in connection with the clone subscription. In some embodiments, the fee for the clone subscription may be based on the configuration of the clone subscription, and the fee may be adjusted based on changes in the clone subscription. In the example shown in FIG. 9A, C1 940 and C2 942 may be established based on information included in request 902.

  Once the clone subscription is established, the TAS module 204 may send a request to the SDI module 206 to provision a clone service for each of the clone subscriptions C1 940 and C2 942. Provisioning a clone service can include allocating resources and providing the clone service by configuring these resources as needed to satisfy a subscription order. The cloning process may include replicating resources provisioned for services enabled for the base subscription. The cloning process may include configuring the clone service to be similar (eg, clone) to the configuration of the service provided for the base subscription. For the example of FIG. 9A, the clone service for C1 940 and C2 942 may be provisioned as a clone based on the service provisioned for base subscription S3 934.

  FIG. 9B shows an example of a subscription data structure in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. The cloud infrastructure system 100 may store data related to a subscription by implementing one or more data structures. Examples of data structures include, but are not limited to, linked lists, tables, arrays, hash tables, graphs, and the like.

  The subscription 944 is an example of a data structure for storing information related to a subscription established by the cloud infrastructure system 100 (“base subscription”). In the example of FIG. 9B, subscription 944 is shown with data corresponding to one subscription for the customer. However, the subscription data structure may store information about one or more subscriptions corresponding to any number of customers.

  Subscription 944 may include data corresponding to the customer (eg, customer specific data 952). Customer specific data 952 may include data corresponding to the use of services accessed using a base subscription corresponding to subscription 944. For example, customer specific data 952 may include a customer mailbox corresponding to a sales cloud service accessed by a subscription to the service. In another example, customer specific data 952 may include a table generated through the use of a database service.

  Subscription 944 may include data (eg, service specific data 954) corresponding to a service that a base subscription corresponding to subscription 944 can access. Service specific data 954 may include data related to providing services enabled for a subscription. For example, product specific data 954 may include product specific metadata associated with a product (eg, service or component) provided by a base subscription corresponding to subscription 944. In some embodiments, service specific data 954 may indicate the configuration of a service (eg, physical configuration of resources) provided for a base subscription. The configuration may indicate resource constraints such as one or more components (eg, features) that are enabled or disabled for the service.

  Subscription 944 may include subscription data 956 associated with one or more subscriptions provided to the customer. In some embodiments, all or part of the subscription data 956 may be included in the service specific data 954. Subscription data 956 may include account information for an account established for a subscription corresponding to subscription 944. The account information may be associated with the customer identity. Information about customer identity (eg, user identity, password, contact information, etc.) may be stored in a customer identity data structure (eg, customer identity object). Subscription data 944 may include subscription contract information regarding the contract associated with the subscription and the qualifications granted by this contract. Subscription data 944 may include subscription support information associated with the subscription.

  Subscription data 944 may include clone subscription data 958 that indicates information regarding one or more clone subscriptions associated with the subscription identified by subscription data 956. The clone subscription data 958 may include information indicating a correspondence relationship between a base subscription corresponding to the subscription 944 and one or more clone subscriptions. For example, clone subscription 958 may show a correspondence 982 between a base subscription and a clone subscription corresponding to data structure 960 (eg, “clone subscription 1”. In another example, clone subscription 958 may include: A base subscription corresponding to subscription 944 and a clone subscription corresponding to data structure 970 (“clone subscription 2”) may occupy 984. Both clone subscriptions 1 and 2 are subscriptions 944. Can be established based on a base subscription corresponding to.

  The life cycle of a base subscription (eg, a base subscription corresponding to subscription 944) and the life cycle of a clone subscription (eg, clone subscription 1 or clone subscription 2) may be associated with each other. If the base subscription and clone subscription lifecycles are associated with each other, any configuration or operation changes or updates to the services provided for the base subscription are propagated to the clone services provided by the clone subscription. Also good. For example, the configuration change stored in the service specific data 954 may be applied to the configurations of the clone subscription 1 and the clone subscription 2 associated with the base subscription.

  In some embodiments, the correspondence between the life cycle of the base subscription and the life cycle of the clone subscription may be based on one or more rules. Rules may be established on the basis of a base subscription. Subscription 944 may include rule data 972 indicating one or more rules for managing the life cycle of correspondences 982 and 984 with clone subscription 1 and clone subscription 2 respectively. Hereinafter, an example of the rules will be described with reference to FIG. 9C. In some embodiments, access to services provided by a clone subscription and access to services provided by a base subscription may be governed by rules based on the correspondence between the clone subscription and the base subscription. Good.

  The clone subscription 960 and the clone subscription 970 are examples of data structures for storing information related to the clone subscription established by the cloud infrastructure system 100. In the example of FIG. 9B, clone subscription 960 and clone subscription 970 are each one clone subscription for the customer, clone subscription 1 (eg, C1 940 in FIG. 9A) and clone subscription 2 (eg, C2 942). With corresponding data. A data structure for a clone subscription may store information about one or more clone subscriptions corresponding to any number of customers.

  The clone subscription data structure (eg, clone subscription 960 or clone subscription 970) may include customer specific data (eg customer specific data 962). Customer specific data for a clone subscription may include data corresponding to the use of a service accessed using the clone subscription.

  The clone subscription data structure may include service specific data (eg, service specific data 964). The service specific data for the clone subscription may indicate information about the clone subscription, such as one or more attributes of the service provided for the clone subscription. Specific service specific data may include specific product specific metadata for a product (eg, service or component). The service specific data may indicate the configuration of a clone service (eg, physical configuration of resources) provided for a clone subscription. The configuration may indicate resource constraints such as one or more components (eg, features) that are enabled or disabled for the clone service. Clone subscription customers established based on a base subscription may not be provided with all features or components of the base subscription.

  The customer may choose to change the configuration of the clone subscription (eg, clone configuration) from the configuration of the base subscription (eg, base configuration). The customer can define a clone configuration when a clone subscription is requested or after a clone subscription is provisioned. The cloning process can be implemented using a base configuration and a clone configuration. If the clone configuration is different from the base configuration, the cloning process may configure a clone subscription according to the clone configuration for differences from the base configuration. Thus, the clone service may be provisioned differently than the service for the base subscription when the clone configuration is different from the base configuration.

  In some embodiments, the clone configuration for a clone subscription indicates that one or more components are enabled / disabled for this clone subscription, unlike the configuration of the base subscription. Also good. In one example, security or storage related infrastructure service components may be disabled. In another example, a service component that is enabled for a base subscription (eg, activity stream cloud component or sales forecast component) may be enabled for a clone subscription. In another example, performance features such as large indexes may not be enabled for clone subscriptions.

  In some embodiments, the clone configuration can be adjusted to a different amount than the base subscription according to a size metric such as a user count. The size metric may be adjusted for different uses of the clone subscription.

  In some embodiments, the clone subscription may be configured such that its duration is shorter than the duration of the base subscription. For example, a base subscription may require a period of three years and a clone subscription may require a period of one year. Customers may choose to support development / testing activities that are expected to be only one year.

  The clone subscription may be provisioned based on the adjustment of the clone configuration in comparison with the base configuration. The clone configuration may be adjusted after provisioning based on the changing needs of the customer to whom the clone subscription is assigned.

  In some embodiments, clone subscriptions may be configured based on one or more rules that indicate clone configurations. This rule can be determined based on the rule data stored for the clone subscription (eg, rule data 966) or stored for the base subscription from which the clone subscription was established Can be determined based on the rule data (for example, rule data 972).

  The clone configurations corresponding to each of multiple clone subscriptions (eg, C1 940 and C2 942) may be modified independently of each other. Clone subscriptions may be configured in different ways. The configuration for a clone subscription can be changed when the customer intends to use each clone subscription for a different purpose. For example, the C1 940 clone configuration may be modified for testing. The C2 942 clone configuration is left unmodified and the base configuration of the base subscription S3 934 to implement features in a production environment similar to the product environment implemented using the base subscription. (For example, a clone of the base configuration).

  In some embodiments, a schema may be created to build a clone configuration for a clone subscription from a base subscription. Schemas can be defined for service types, specific services, specific product products, other types of categories for service subscriptions, or combinations thereof. Thus, the schema may indicate a rule, such as rule 990, that can be used to determine a clone subscription based on this schema.

  The clone subscription data structure includes rule data 966 indicating one or more rules for managing the life cycle of the correspondence (eg, correspondence 982) between the clone subscription (eg, clone subscription 1) and the base subscription. May be included. An example of rule data will be described below with reference to FIG. 9C.

  Subscription data (eg, subscription data 968) included in the clone subscription data structure may include subscription information for a clone subscription (eg, clone subscription 1). The subscription data may indicate identification information about the subscription (eg, subscription identifier or subscription name), subscription duration, and user identity information (eg, administrators and non-administrators). In some embodiments, subscription data for a clone subscription may include a parent subscription identifier that identifies the base subscription from which the clone subscription was established. For example, the subscription data 968 may include a parent subscription ID that identifies the base subscription corresponding to the base subscription 944 from which the clone subscription 1 was established. The parent subscription ID may indicate a reference to a base subscription data structure (eg, base subscription 944) corresponding to the base subscription from which the clone subscription (eg, clone subscription 1) was created. Data corresponding to the clone subscription generated based on the base subscription can be identified using the reference.

  FIG. 9C shows an example of a rule 990 for managing clone subscriptions according to various embodiments. Rule 990 may include information corresponding to one or more rules, such as a set of rules. Rule 990 may be predetermined by the cloud infrastructure system, may be determined by the customer, or may be a combination thereof. The rules 990 may be defined in a data file (eg, an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file) or may be based on input received from a customer via a client device.

  The customer may define the rules at the customer level or at the subscription level. Customer level rules may be defined on the basis of subscriptions created by the customer (eg, clone subscriptions). In some embodiments, customer level rules may be defined based on a clone of a specific product created by the customer. Subscription level rules may be defined such that, with respect to the base subscription, the subscription level rules apply to clone subscriptions established from the base subscription for which the rule is defined. These types of rules may be applied at the start of the subscription or may be applied later when the subscription is changed.

  Rule 990 may be used to manage the correspondence between a base subscription and one or more clone subscriptions (eg, clone subscription 1 and clone subscription 2). Changes to a base subscription (eg, base subscription 944) may be applied to clone subscriptions under rule 990. For example, a change in the configuration of the base subscription may be applied as a change in the clone configuration of a clone subscription created based on the base subscription. As explained above, the clone configuration may be changed from the base configuration.

The following are some examples of such rules.
A clone created from a base subscription must initially have the same configuration as the base subscription, but the duration of the clone may be shorter than the duration of the base subscription.

  All functional changes made to the base subscription, such as enabling / disabling components, can be applied to the clone associated with the base subscription, but increase / decrease the user count Size changes such as should not be applied to clones.

  When renewing a base subscription, all clones currently associated with the base subscription must also be renewed over their current period.

  • When terminating a base subscription, all clones associated with the base subscription must also be terminated.

  In at least one example, rule 990 may be based on one or more conditions 992. Condition 992 can be defined based on one or more criteria. For example, the condition 992 is based on one or more metrics (eg, metrics related to operations within the cloud infrastructure system 100). Examples of metrics include, but are not limited to system metrics, product metrics, component metrics, customer metrics, and the like. The condition may also be based on the operation being performed on the base subscription. Examples of base subscription operations are “onboard clone” (eg clone subscription created based on base subscription), “add component”, “delete component”, “increase user count”, and “user count” Reduction ”may be included, but is not limited to these. In some embodiments, the condition is a logical relationship with logical operators such as logical sum, logical product, negation (eg, “user clone subscription count” <100 AND base subscription operation = “add component”). Can be expressed as A rule can be satisfied when each condition of the rule is satisfied.

  In another example, the rules 990 may include one or more procedures 994. For example, procedure 994 may be based on one or more classes 996. Class 996 may be a kind of operand that applies to clone subscriptions. Examples of operand types are those described above for direct operations performed on a base subscription. In another example, operands may correspond to operations such as “onboard clone” (ie, clone based on parent subscription). Other operands may include “extend”, “update”, “end” and “extend”. Expansion may include operations such as increasing and decreasing user counts. Termination can include operations such as termination of a clone subscription. An update may include operations such as adding or deleting one or more components to a clone subscription. Extending may include operations such as extending the duration of a clone subscription. If the rule is met, the clone configuration may be modified based on this rule.

  In another example, procedure 994 may be based on one or more actions. Action 998 may be defined based on one or more operations that can be performed on the clone subscription (“clone subscription operation”). Some examples of clone subscription operations are: "Clone all data", "Don't clone data", "Clone selected data", "Add components", "If in specified list" “Add component”, “Delete component”, and “Delete component if specified”. The clone subscription may be modified based on the class 966 operand type and the specified operation of action 998.

  In some embodiments, the rules may be defined by one or more conditions 992, one or more procedures 994, one or more actions 998, or a combination thereof. A rule may be satisfied if one or more criteria defined for that rule are satisfied. Once the rules are met, the clone configuration may be changed based on the changes indicated by the rules.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a process for managing the life cycle of a clone subscription according to various embodiments. Specifically, the process illustrated by flowchart 1000 can provide a clone subscription for a service to a customer and manage the life cycle of the clone subscription based on a set of rules (eg, rule 990). Can do. In some embodiments, the process illustrated by flowchart 1000 may be implemented by all or part of a service infrastructure system (eg, cloud infrastructure system 100).

  The processing described with reference to FIG. 19 may be implemented by software (eg, code, instructions, program) executed by one or more processors, hardware, or a combination thereof. The software may be stored in memory (eg, on a memory device, non-transitory computer readable storage medium). The particular series of processing steps shown in FIG. 10 is not intended to be limiting. Other sequences of steps may be performed in accordance with alternative embodiments. For example, alternative embodiments of the invention may perform the steps outlined above in other orders. In addition, the individual steps shown in FIG. 10 may include a plurality of sub-steps that may be performed in various sequences as appropriate depending on the individual steps. Furthermore, other steps may be added or deleted depending on the specific application. Those skilled in the art will recognize numerous variations, modifications, and alternatives. The process shown in flowchart 1000 begins at block 1002.

  At block 1002, one or more services are provided to a service infrastructure system (eg, cloud infrastructure system 100 of FIG. 1). A service infrastructure system may include or implement a multi-tenant environment. Examples of services may include CRM services, HCM services, Java services, or other computing services.

  In some embodiments, providing one or more services provisions one or more of the services in a service infrastructure system prior to receiving a request for access to one of the services from a customer. Including that. A service may be provisioned based on one or more criteria. For example, a service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with the operation of a service infrastructure system. In another example, a service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with demand for the service. In other examples, a service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with a service type.

  At block 1004, the customer may be allowed access to the service. Providing access to a service may include providing a subscription (eg, a base subscription) to a user. For example, referring to FIG. 9A, a customer (“customer 1”) may be provided with subscription S2 932 and subscription S3 934. The subscription may indicate access granted to the service. In some embodiments, a client device (eg, any one of client devices 224, 226, 228) may allow a user to access a service by providing a user interface. Information about the subscription that allows access to the service may be shown to the customer via the user interface.

  A customer request is received at block 1006. For example, request 902 may be received from client device 224. The request may be to access another service as a clone (eg, a clone service) based on the service enabled for the customer at block 1004. In some embodiments, the other services may be requested by a customer for an application that differs from the service application enabled in block 1004. For example, using the other services described above, a new feature may be tested before enabling this feature on the production system. On the other hand, the services enabled in block 904 may be used for the realization of the production system. The other service may be similar to or related to the service enabled for the customer at block 1004, or the other service may be different from this service.

  At block 1008, the other service may be constructed as a clone of the service enabled at block 1004. Building a clone of the service may include determining a subscription (eg, a clone subscription) for the clone service. The clone subscription may be determined based on the cloning of the subscription corresponding to the service. The other services may be provided to the customer by subscription as a clone of a subscription corresponding to the service enabled at block 1004 (“clone subscription”). For example, subscription C1 940 may be generated 936 as a clone based on subscription S3 934 of FIG. 9A. In this example, C1 940 may provide a clone service based on the service provided by S3 934. Thus, a clone subscription may be created to construct a clone of the service. Clone subscriptions may provide access to “cloned” services.

  At block 1010, the service enabled at block 1004 may be associated with the service enabled at block 1008 ("clone service"). Two services may be associated with each other based on the correspondence between subscriptions corresponding to these services. For example, clone subscription 1 960 for a clone service may be associated with a subscription 944 for a service (eg, a base subscription) (eg, correspondence 982).

  In some embodiments, associating a base subscription corresponding to a service with a clone subscription corresponding to a clone service may include associating a life cycle of the subscription with a life cycle of the clone subscription. In this way, the life cycle of the base subscription is associated with the life cycle of the clone subscription. In some embodiments, associating services enabled for base subscriptions with clone services built for clone subscriptions may include associating the lifecycles of these services. As explained above, when two subscriptions are associated with each other, changes to the base subscription may be reflected in the clone subscription. For example, when the service corresponding to the base subscription is terminated, the customer's access to the clone service is terminated. In another example, when access to the service corresponding to the base subscription is updated, access to the clone service may be updated based on the updated access for the base subscription.

  In some embodiments, the correspondence between subscriptions (eg, base subscriptions and clone subscriptions) may be based on a set of rules (eg, rule 990 in FIG. 9C). All or part of the set of rules may be predetermined or based on a default according to the subscription. For example, the set of rules may be based on a product (eg, service) provided by the base subscription. The customer gives input and modifies a predetermined set of rules or creates a new set of rules.

  At block 1012, access to other or clone services may be managed based on a set of rules. For example, access to the clone service provided for clone subscription 1 960 of FIG. 9B may be managed based on a set of rules, eg, 990 of FIG. 9C. The flowchart 100 ends at block 1014.

  In various embodiments, the rules used to manage the clone service define one or more conditions and one or more actions. If one or more conditions are met, one or more actions are performed on the associated clone subscription. The one or more actions may correspond to direct actions that a customer may take on a clone subscription as described above.

  In some embodiments, when a clone service is associated with a base service, access to the clone service may be managed by a set of rules (eg, rule 990). Access to the clone service may be managed using rules according to changes to the base service. As described above with reference to FIG. 9C, one or more rules may be used to manage the life cycle of a clone subscription and thus access to the clone service provided for the clone subscription. Good. For example, access to the clone service may end when the base service associated with the clone service ends.

  In some embodiments, access to a clone service may be managed by performing one or more actions associated with a type of procedure performed on the clone service. The one type of procedure may be determined based on one or more criteria. For example, one type of procedure may be determined based on one or more metrics (eg, performance of this service) of the base service associated with the clone service. Another criterion may be an operation performed on the base service based on changes to the base service. In some embodiments, one type of procedure can be associated with an action, and some of these actions may belong to other rules. For example, in one rule, one type of procedure may be "update" and the action may be "add component", and in another rule, one type of procedure is "update" but the action is "delete component" It may be.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart 1100 of a process for cloning a subscription according to various embodiments. In some embodiments, all or part of a service infrastructure system (eg, cloud infrastructure system 100 of FIG. 1) may implement the process shown in FIG.

  The process described with reference to FIG. 11 allows a customer to modify a clone subscription based on the subscription from which the clone subscription was established. The modification may be requested at the time of creation of the clone subscription or may be requested later by direct operation on the clone subscription. As explained earlier, modification of a clone subscription may include configuration modifications related to services provided for the clone subscription, and may also include modification of the subscription configuration. Good.

  The processing illustrated in FIG. 11 may be implemented by software (eg, code, instructions, program) executed by one or more processors, hardware, or a combination thereof. The software may be stored in memory (eg, on a memory device, non-transitory computer readable storage medium). The particular series of processing steps shown in FIG. 11 is not intended to be limiting. Other sequences of steps may be performed in accordance with alternative embodiments. For example, alternative embodiments of the invention may perform the steps outlined above in other orders. In addition, the individual steps shown in FIG. 11 may include a plurality of sub-steps that may be performed in various sequences as appropriate depending on the individual steps. Furthermore, other steps may be added or deleted depending on the specific application. Those skilled in the art will recognize numerous variations, modifications, and alternatives. The process shown in flowchart 1100 begins at block 1102.

  At block 1102, a subscription to the service (eg, a base subscription) may be provided to the customer. For example, service 904 may be provided to customer 1 of client device 224. Providing a service may include provisioning the service. The service may be provisioned according to the configuration indicated by the customer. Providing a service may include determining a subscription for the service and enabling access to the service based on the subscription. In various embodiments, a list of valid subscriptions may be provided to the client device. The customer can select one of these subscriptions.

  At block 1104, a configuration (eg, a clone configuration) for cloning a subscription (eg, the subscription provided at block 1102) may be determined. As explained above, a clone configuration may indicate one or more criteria for configuring a subscription to be cloned based on an existing subscription. For example, the clone configuration may indicate the usage period of the clone service (eg, shorter than the period of service corresponding to the base subscription). In another example, a clone configuration may indicate a component that is enabled / disabled for services provided for clone subscriptions.

  The clone configuration can be determined using various methods. In some embodiments, the clone configuration may be determined based on input received from a customer. This input may indicate the intended use or requirement of the clone subscription. The clone configuration may be determined based on customer input. For example, a customer operating a client device may provide information to a service infrastructure system (eg, cloud infrastructure system 110). This information may indicate a clone configuration (for example, clone variation).

  In some embodiments, the clone configuration may be determined based on analysis information determined by the service infrastructure system. The analysis information may include metric information related to operations performed by the service infrastructure system for the customer. The analysis information may include information regarding operations performed by the customer using services provided by the service infrastructure system.

  At block 1106, a clone subscription may be created based on the clone configuration (eg, the configuration determined at block 1104). A clone subscription may be created based on the subscription (eg, the subscription provided at block 1102) and the clone configuration. Clone subscriptions may be created based on customer preferences, predetermined rules, and other criteria described with reference to FIG. 9C, as described above.

  At block 1108, clone subscriptions (eg, clone subscriptions created at block 1106) may be managed by performing one or more operations. This (these) operations may be performed during the life cycle of the clone subscription. By performing the operations directly on the clone subscription, the clone service provided for the clone subscription can be modified. The flowchart 1100 ends at block 1110.

  In some embodiments, the direct operation may include modifying the clone configuration corresponding to the clone subscription. The clone configuration may be modified based on input received from the customer, or may be modified based on information determined by the service infrastructure system. It would be useful to allow a customer to modify a clone subscription based on the customer's needs. Direct operations may include, but are not limited to, operations performed on a clone service corresponding to a clone subscription. This operation enables / disables components provided for the clone service, or adjusts the resizing of users authorized to access the clone service (eg, increasing / decreasing user count) ).

Providing Subscriptions Based on Existing Services In certain embodiments, the cloud infrastructure system 100 uses various techniques described herein to provide users with access to services based on existing services. be able to. Such technology can reduce processing time when provisioning resources for the requested service, thereby improving processing efficiency when providing access to the service to the customer. . The cloud infrastructure system 100 can determine a type of service based on a request from a user and provide a subscription that allows access to the service using provisioning based on an existing service. it can.

  In one aspect, the cloud infrastructure system 100 can enable resources (eg, hardware and service instances) provisioned for services shared between customers. The cloud infrastructure system 100 will not need to re-provision these resources for each customer accessing the service. For example, by defining RAS, customers can share access to services. This RAS can be assigned to a customer when the RAS is in the service pool and available. Resources for services accessible using RAS may remain provisioned for this RAS so that customers assigned to this RAS can reuse it.

  Services accessible using RAS allow customers to try this service before purchasing a regular subscription for the service. Thus, customers can avoid delays in provisioning resources for subscription to services. The RAS may convert to a regular subscription if the customer decides to purchase a subscription to the RAS. It can improve the efficiency of regular subscriptions and the process to offer. This is because RAS can be converted using a process that reduces the time required to provision resources for subscription. Resources and data for RAS can be retained for regular subscriptions.

  In another aspect, the cloud infrastructure system 100 can provide customers with access to cloud services based on existing services. Services based on existing services may be provided by creating subscriptions (eg, “clone subscriptions”) based on existing subscriptions (eg, base subscriptions) for existing services. The cloud infrastructure system 100 can prepare a cloud service based on the configuration of the service provided by the base subscription. In this way, the processing period required to establish a subscription for the requested service can be shortened by configuring the clone service according to the base subscription configuration. The customer may use the clone service as an additional environment, separate from the computing environment provided by the base subscription. As explained above, a clone subscription can be specified or intended for a type of use that can differ from the type of use corresponding to the service provided by the base subscription.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart 1200 of a process for providing a subscription for a service using an existing subscription according to various embodiments. In particular, the process illustrated by flowchart 1200 may provide subscriptions to customers based on services that have already been provisioned. The subscription may be either a reusable anonymous subscription or a clone subscription to access the service requested by the customer. In some embodiments, the process illustrated by flowchart 1200 may be implemented by all or part of a service infrastructure system (eg, cloud infrastructure system 100).

  The processing described with reference to FIG. 12 may be implemented by software (eg, code, instructions, program) executed by one or more processors, hardware, or a combination thereof. The software may be stored in memory (eg, on a memory device, non-transitory computer readable storage medium). The particular series of processing steps shown in FIG. 12 is not intended to be limiting. Other sequences of steps may be performed in accordance with alternative embodiments. For example, alternative embodiments of the invention may perform the steps outlined above in other orders. In addition, the individual steps shown in FIG. 12 may include a plurality of sub-steps that may be performed in various sequences as appropriate depending on the individual steps. Furthermore, other steps may be added or deleted depending on the specific application. Those skilled in the art will recognize numerous variations, modifications, and alternatives. The process shown in flowchart 1200 begins at block 1202.

  At block 1202, one or more services are provided to a service infrastructure system (eg, cloud infrastructure system 100 of FIG. 1). A service infrastructure system may include or implement a multi-tenant environment. Examples of services may include CRM services, HCM services, Java services, or other computing services.

  In some embodiments, providing one or more services may include one of these services in the service infrastructure system before receiving a request for access to one of these services from a customer. Including provisioning of the above. A service may be provisioned based on one or more criteria. For example, a service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with the operation of a service infrastructure system. In another example, a service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with demand for the service. In other examples, a service may be provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with a service type.

  At block 1204, a request for access to a service provided by the service infrastructure system is received from a customer. For example, request 802 or request 902 may be received from client device 224. The customer request may indicate the type of service usage that the customer requests. Examples of types of use include, but are not limited to, testing, development, load balancing, production, training, marketing, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the customer request may indicate the type of subscription that the customer desires. The subscription type may indicate a reusable subscription (eg, RAS) or a clone subscription.

  In some embodiments, the request may indicate one or more requirements for the requested service. This requirement includes rate constraints (eg minimum and / or maximum fees), time limit for using requested service, amount of users using this service, desired type of service support, other related to use of service Or a combination thereof.

  At block 1206, a process is performed to determine a subscription type based on the service requested by the customer. The subscription type is one of a clone subscription or a reusable subscription (eg, RAS). The type of subscription may be determined based on information in the request, such as the type of subscription, the type of usage, and / or one or more requirements. The subscription type determined for the requested service can be used to determine the subscription to provide to the customer to allow access to the requested service.

  At 1208, the customer is provided with a subscription to access a first service (eg, the service requested at 1204). This subscription is provided based on the type of subscription determined in 1206. The first service may be provided using one of the services provided by the service infrastructure system (eg, the service provided at block 1202).

  In one example, a clone subscription to access the first service may be provided to the customer when the request indicates a type of use, such as testing or developing a new feature of the production environment. In this example, a clone subscription may be chosen because the base subscription used to establish the clone subscription may already be configured according to customer specifications, and the clone subscription This is because cloning is performed based on the application. Reusable subscriptions may not be offered. This is because additional configurations may be required for services provided by reusable subscriptions. Clone subscriptions can reduce the processing time required to build the requested service. This is because the customer does not have to provide information for configuring a clone subscription. By selecting a clone subscription rather than a reusable subscription, additional processing performed for managing clone subscriptions may be reduced. For example, you can associate a clone subscription life cycle with a base subscription life cycle to automatically manage (for example, renew or terminate) a clone subscription based on the operations performed to manage the base subscription. May be.

  In another example, a reusable subscription may be provided to the customer when the request for the first service indicates a test as the type of use and indicates a time limit for the use of the requested service. In this example, the reason that a reusable subscription can be provided instead of a clone subscription may be that the customer does not yet have a base subscription that can be the basis for creating a clone subscription . A reusable subscription would be desirable to provide to customers. This is because resources for reusable subscriptions will already be provisioned. Further, reusable subscriptions may be reassigned to other customers when the current customer has finished using the reusable subscription. A reusable subscription may be provided to the customer when the customer does not require additional configuration.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, providing the subscription to the customer is based on a first subscription to a first service (eg, an existing service). Establishing a clone subscription and associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription based on a set of rules. The first clone subscription may provide access to the second service. The first clone subscription may be provided to the customer as a subscription.

  Associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription may include associating the life cycle of the first clone subscription with the life cycle of the first subscription. The access to the second service may be terminated when the access to the first service is terminated based on the correspondence relationship between the first clone subscription and the life cycle of the first subscription. In some embodiments, when the life cycle of the first clone subscription and the life cycle of the first subscription are correlated, access to the second service is based on a request from the customer. Modifications may be made based on an update of access to one service.

  In some embodiments, a set of rules may be used to manage the correspondence between the first clone subscription and the first subscription. The set of rules may indicate the use of the second service as a clone of the first service. The set of rules may indicate a period of access to the second service. A set of rules may indicate the number of users allowed to access the second service. The number of users permitted to access the second service may be different from the number of users permitted to access the first service. The set of rules may indicate a configuration for the second service. The configuration of the second service may be different from the configuration of the first service.

  In some embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer means that the first service is provisioned in a service pool within the service infrastructure system. And determining that the first subscription for the first service is assigned to the customer as a subscription for the service. Assigning a first subscription may include assigning a first service from a service pool to a customer. Assigning the first service to the customer can include deleting the first service from the service pool. For the first service, data for a specific customer may be associated with the customer. The data for specific customers may be associated with the data for specific services corresponding to the first service.

  At block 1210, the subscription provided to the first customer may be managed. When the subscription type is a clone subscription, managing the subscription may include determining access to the requested service by the subscription in response to a change in the first service. Access to the service may be determined using a set of rules. When the subscription type is a reusable subscription, managing the subscription may include assigning a first service from the customer to the service pool when the subscription is terminated. Assigning the first service to the service pool may include eliminating the correspondence between the specific customer data and the specific service data corresponding to the first service. When the first service is returned to the service pool, the first service may be reassigned from the service pool to one or more other customers.

The flowchart 1200 ends at block 1212.
FIG. 13 shows a high-level overview of the various interactions involved in providing a tenant environment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In (1), a tenant request for the Java service is sent from the TAS 204 to the SDI 206. The SDI 206 provisions the requested Java service from a pool of anonymous subscriptions that can be reused. The SDI 206 includes an SDI connector 612. The SDI connector 612 includes a Nuviaq connector 620, an IDM connector 622, a DB connector 614, and an assembly builder 624.

  As described above, before receiving a tenant request, the SDI 206 provisions one or more pools of one or more reusable anonymous subscriptions. For example, when SDI 206 needs to provision a new Java subscription, a request for an anonymous assembly is sent from assembly builder connector 624 of SDI connector 612 to assembly builder 502 at (2). At (3), the anonymous assembly is deployed by the assembly builder 502 through the virtual machine OVM 1302. At (4), assembly builder 502 returns the result of the anonymous assembly to assembly builder connector 624.

  In (5), an IDM slice creation command is sent from the IDM connector 622 to the IDM 200. In (6), the IDM coordinates are returned from the IDM 200 to the IDM connector 622. In (7), the DB connector 614 commands the creation of a DB slice through the DB 504. At (8), the DB coordinate is returned from the DB 504 to the DB connector 614.

  At (9), a request for configuration of a Java service with a given IDM, DB, and EM agent (if applicable) coordination is sent from Nuviaq connector 620 to Nuviaq database application 1304. In (10), the Nuviaq database application 1304 stores all service instance data. In (11), a Java service instance including EM agent activation is configured. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) ATN credentials, node manager password, and embedded LDAP password are configurable in the next generation encryption standard (AES) that OVM 1302 can use. Stored in .xml file. Other services other than the Java service, including different types of services, can be created using the SDI module.

  A computer network cloud infrastructure system can provide multiple services. Such services may include simple, infrastructure as a service (IAAS) service, platform as a service (PAAS) service, and software as a service (SAAS) service. The IAAS, PAAS, and SAAS services are different types of services.

  The IAAS service may include a simple storage solution. A storage solution may include a remote set of disk drives or other memory devices accessible from the Internet. These may also include file transfer protocol (FTP), virtual private network (VPN), or other services for uploading, downloading, and tracking data stored on disk drives. An IAAS storage solution may include functions beyond simple storage, such as redundancy and backup services. An IAAS service may also include processing power, bandwidth to other parts of the earth, and other computer resources.

  PAAS services may include database cloud services, middleware cloud services, Java cloud services, and other services typically provided as software platforms. A database service may include access to a relational database engine, such as an SQL database engine. Tables and other database schemas can be designed and implemented by the user on the cloud, and the database management engine can be used by the user to enter and export data from the database. Similarly, a user can create a custom application on the cloud system using Java or other programming language and then execute it on the cloud system. Users away from the cloud server can design and run other middleware applications that support custom user interfaces and data structures.

  SAAS services may include customer relationship management (CRM) services. These services can help salespeople track leads, help employees maintain customer accounts, and help customers see their own accounts. can do. Human resource management (HCM) and human resources services can help employers store information about employees and independent contractors. Such services can provide working time tracking, asset inspection, and employee directory tracking and payment.

  Provisioning cloud resources for services can occur asynchronously. For example, a method or function can be invoked through an application programming interface (API) using an argument variable that includes a callback address. Rather than waiting for the called method to finish before the called method continues, the called method can send a message to the module upon completion. The called method can also send status updates to the module. Because provisioning for some services, such as SAAS services, can take hours or days, and provisioning for other services, such as IAAS services, can take minutes. Asynchronous API calls can help ensure that the shortest startup period service is provisioned first, not later, even when provisioned with other services with longer startup times.

CONCLUSION FIG. 14 shows a simplified diagram of a distributed system 1400 for implementing an embodiment. In the illustrated embodiment, distributed system 1400 includes one or more clients configured to run and operate client applications such as web browsers, proprietary clients (eg, Oracle Forms) on one or more networks 1410. Computing devices 1402, 1404, 1406, and 1408 are included. Server 1412 may be communicatively coupled to remote client computing devices 1402, 1404, 1406, and 1408 via network 1410.

  In various embodiments, the server 1412 executes one or more services or software applications such as services and applications for providing users with access to services using existing services provisioned by the cloud infrastructure system. Can be configured to. In certain embodiments, the server 1412 may also provide other services or software applications that may include non-virtual and virtual environments. In some embodiments, these services are provided to users of client computing devices 1402, 1404, 1406, and / or 1408 under a software (SaaS) model as a web-based or cloud service or as a service. Can be offered at. A user operating client computing devices 1402, 1404, 1406, and / or 1408 may utilize services provided by these components by interacting with server 1412 using one or more client applications.

  In the configuration shown in FIG. 14, software components 1418, 1420, and 1422 of system 1400 are shown as being implemented on server 1412. In other embodiments, one or more of the above components of system 1400 and / or services provided by these components are implemented by one or more of client computing devices 1402, 1404, 1406, and / or 1408. May be. Then, a user who operates the client computing device can use services provided by these components by using one or more of the client applications. These components may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. Note that a wide variety of system configurations that can be different from the distributed system 1400 are possible. The embodiment shown in FIG. 14 is therefore a distributed system for implementing the system of an embodiment and is not intended to be limiting.

  Client computing devices 1402, 1404, 1406, and / or 1408 may include various types of computing systems. For example, the client device runs software such as Microsoft Windows Mobile® and / or various mobile operating systems such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android®, BlackBerry® 10, Palm OS, etc. , Portable handheld devices (eg, iPhone®, mobile phone, iPad®, computing tablet, personal digital assistant (PDA)) or wearable devices (eg, Google Glass® head mounted display). These devices can support various applications such as various Internet related applications, electronic mail, short message service (SMS) applications, and can use various other communication protocols. Client computing devices also include, by way of example, personal computers and / or laptop computers running various versions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh® and / or Linux® operating systems. A general purpose personal computer may be included. The client computing device runs any of a variety of commercially available UNIX or UNIX-like operating systems, including but not limited to various GNU / Linux operating systems such as Google Chrome OS. It may be a workstation computer. The client computing device may also be a thin client computer, an internet connectable game system (eg, a Microsoft Xbox game machine with or without a Kinect® gesture input device), and / or a communicable on the network 1410, and / or Or it may include an electronic device such as a personal messaging device.

  Although the distributed system 1400 of FIG. 14 is shown with four client computing devices, it can support any number of client computing devices. Other devices, such as devices having sensors or the like, may interact with the server 1412.

  The network 1410 in the distributed system 1400 may be a variety of available including, but not limited to, TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol), SNA (System Network Architecture), IPX (Internet Packet Exchange), Apple Talk, etc. Any type of network well known to those skilled in the art that can support data communication using any of the various protocols. By way of example only, network 1410 may be a local area network (LAN), an Ethernet-based network, a token ring, a wide area network, the Internet, a virtual network, a virtual private network (VPN), an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone. Network (PSTN), infrared network, wireless network (eg, any of the American Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 protocol suite, Bluetooth®, and / or any other wireless protocol) And / or combinations thereof, and / or other networks.

  The server 1412 includes one or more general-purpose computers, dedicated server computers (including, for example, PC (personal computer) servers, UNIX (registered trademark) servers, mid-range servers, mainframe computers, rack mount servers, etc.), servers It may be configured in a farm, server cluster, or any other suitable configuration and / or combination. Server 1412 may include one or more virtual machines running a virtual operating system or other computing architecture with virtualization. By virtualizing one or more flexible pools of logical storage devices, a virtual storage device for the server can be maintained. The virtual network can be controlled by server 1412 using software-defined networking. In various embodiments, the server 1412 may be configured to execute one or more services or software applications described in the previous disclosure. For example, the server 1412 may correspond to a server for executing the above process according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

  Server 1412 may execute an operating system including any of the above and any commercially available server operating system. Server 1412 also includes various other server applications including HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol) server, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server, CGI (Common Gateway Interface) server, JAVA server, database server, etc. And / or any of the mid-tier applications may be executed. Typical database servers include, but are not limited to, those commercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, IBM (International Business Machines) and the like.

  In some implementations, the server 1412 may include one or more applications for analyzing and integrating data feeds and / or event updates received from users of the client computing devices 1402, 1404, 1406, and 1408. As an example, data feeds and / or event updates may include real-time events related to sensor data applications, stock quotes, network performance measurement tools (eg, network monitoring and traffic management applications), clickstream analysis tools, vehicle traffic monitoring, etc. Including, but not limited to, Twitter feeds, Facebook updates or real-time updates received from one or more third-party sources and continuous data streams. Server 1412 may also include one or more applications for displaying data feeds and / or real-time events via one or more display devices of client computing devices 1402, 1404, 1406, and 1408.

  Distributed system 1400 may also include one or more databases 1414 and 1416. These databases may provide a mechanism for storing information such as user interaction information, usage pattern information, matching rule information, and other information used by embodiments of the present invention. Databases 1414 and 1416 may exist at various locations. By way of example, one or more of databases 1414 and 1416 may be on a non-transitory storage medium that is local to (and / or resides on) server 1412. Alternatively, databases 1414 and 1416 may be remote from server 1412 and communicate with server 1412 via a network-based or dedicated connection. In one set of embodiments, the databases 1414 and 1416 may be in a storage area network (SAN). Similarly, files necessary to perform functions originating from server 1412 may be stored locally on server 1412 and / or stored remotely as appropriate. In one set of embodiments, the databases 1414 and 1416 may include a relational database, such as an Oracle provided database, configured to store, update, and retrieve data in response to SQL format commands.

  FIG. 15 illustrates a typical computer system 1500 that can be used to implement embodiments of the present invention. In some embodiments, the computer system 1500 may be used to implement any of the various servers and computer systems described above. As shown in FIG. 15, computer system 1500 includes various subsystems including a processing unit 1504 that communicates with a number of peripheral subsystems via a bus subsystem 1502. These peripheral subsystems may include a processing acceleration unit 1506, an I / O subsystem 1508, a storage subsystem 1518, and a communications subsystem 1524. Storage subsystem 1518 may include a tangible computer readable storage medium 1522 and system memory 1510.

  Bus subsystem 1502 provides a mechanism for causing the various components and subsystems of computer system 1500 to communicate with one another as desired. Although the bus subsystem 1502 is shown schematically as a single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilize multiple buses. Bus subsystem 1502 may be any of a variety of types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. For example, such an architecture can be implemented as a mezzanine bus manufactured according to the IEEE P1386.1 standard, etc., an industry standard architecture (ISA) bus, a microchannel architecture (MCA) bus, an enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, It may include Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus.

  The processing subsystem 1504 controls the operation of the computer system 1500 and may include one or more processing units 1532, 1534, etc. The processing unit may include one or more processors including a single core or multi-core processor, one or more cores of the processor, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the processing subsystem 1504 may include one or more dedicated coprocessors such as a graphics processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), and the like. In some embodiments, some or all of the processing units of processing subsystem 1504 are implemented using customized circuitry such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). May be.

  In some embodiments, processing units within processing subsystem 1504 may execute instructions stored in system memory 1510 or on computer readable storage medium 1522. In various embodiments, a processing unit can execute various programs or code instructions and can maintain multiple programs or processes that are executed simultaneously. At any given time, some or all of the program code to be executed may reside in system memory 1510 and / or on computer-readable storage medium 1522, possibly including one or more storage devices. Through appropriate programming, the processing subsystem 1504 can provide the various functions described above for providing users access to services using existing services provisioned by the cloud infrastructure system.

  In certain embodiments, in order to accelerate the overall processing performed by computer system 1500, to perform customized processing or to offload some of the processing performed by processing subsystem 1504 A processing acceleration unit 1506 may be provided.

  The I / O subsystem 1508 may include devices and mechanisms for inputting information into the computer system 1500 and / or outputting information from or through the computer system 1500. In general, use of the term “input device” is intended to include all possible types of devices and mechanisms for entering information into computer system 1500. User interface input devices include, for example, keyboards, pointing devices such as mice or trackballs, touch pads or touch screens built into displays, scroll wheels, click wheels, dials, buttons, switches, keypads, voice command recognition systems It may include voice input devices, microphones, and other types of input devices. The user interface input device also provides input using Microsoft Kinect (R) motion sensors, Microsoft Xbox (R) 360 game controllers, gestures and speech commands that allow the user to control and interact with the input device. It may include a motion detection and / or gesture recognition device, such as a device that provides an interface for receiving. The user interface input device also receives an eye movement from the user (eg, “blinks” when taking a picture and / or menu selection) and uses the eye gesture as an input to the input device (eg, Google Glass®). It may include an eye gesture recognition device such as Google Glass® blink detector to convert. In addition, the user interface input device may include a voice recognition detection device that allows a user to interact with a voice recognition system (eg, a Siri® navigator) through voice commands.

  Other examples of user interface input devices include three-dimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointing sticks, game pads and graphic tablets, and speakers, digital cameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams, image scanners, fingerprint scanners Audio / visual devices such as, but not limited to, barcode reader 3D scanners, 3D printers, laser range finders, and eye tracking devices. In addition, user interface input devices can include medical imaging input devices such as, for example, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron tomography, and ultrasound examination devices. User interface input devices may also include voice input devices such as, for example, MIDI keyboards, digital music devices, and the like.

  User interface output devices may include non-visual displays such as display subsystems, indicator lights, or audio output devices. The display subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), such as a flat panel device using a liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma display, a projection device, a touch screen, or the like. In general, use of the term “output device” is intended to include all possible types of devices and mechanisms for outputting information from computer system 1500 to a user or other computer. For example, user interface output devices include various display devices that visually convey text, graphics, and audio / video information such as monitors, printers, speakers, headphones, car navigation systems, plotters, audio output devices, and modems. However, it is not limited to these.

  Storage subsystem 1518 provides a repository or data storage device for storing information used by computer system 1500. Storage subsystem 1518 provides a tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage medium for storing basic programming and data structures that provide the functionality of some embodiments. Software (programs, code modules, instructions) that provide the above functions when executed by the processing subsystem 1504 may be stored in the storage subsystem 1518. The software may be executed by one or more processing units of processing subsystem 1504. Storage subsystem 1518 may also provide a repository for storing data used in accordance with the present invention.

  Storage subsystem 1518 may include one or more non-transitory memory devices including volatile and non-volatile memory devices. As shown in FIG. 15, the storage subsystem 1518 includes a system memory 1510 and a computer readable storage medium 1522. The system memory 1510 includes a number of volatile main random access memories (RAM) for storing instructions and data during program execution, and non-volatile read only memory (ROM) or flash memory in which fixed instructions are stored. Memory may be included. In some implementations, for example, a basic input / output system (BIOS) that includes basic routines that assist in transferring information between elements within a running computer system 1500 is typically stored in ROM. The The RAM typically contains data and / or program modules that the processing subsystem 1504 is currently operating and executing. In some implementations, the system memory 1510 may include multiple different types of memory, such as static random access memory (SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (DRAM).

  By way of example and not limitation, as shown in FIG. 15, system memory 1510 includes application programs 1512 that may include client applications, web browsers, mid-tier applications, relational agent-based management systems (RDBMSs), and program data 1514. Operating system 1516. By way of example, operating system 1516 may be a variety of versions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and / or Linux® operating systems, such as various commercially available UNIX® or UNIX. Operating systems (including but not limited to various GNU / Linux operating systems, Google Chrome (R) OS, etc.) and / or iOS, Windows (R) Phone, Android (R) Various mobile operating systems may be included such as an OS, a BlackBerry® 10 OS, and a Palm® OS operating system.

  Computer readable storage media 1522 may store programming and data structures that provide the functionality of some embodiments. Software (programs, code modules, instructions) that provide the above functions when executed by the processor of the processing subsystem 1504 may be stored in the storage subsystem 1518. By way of example, computer readable storage medium 1522 may include non-volatile memory, such as an optical disk drive such as a hard disk drive, magnetic disk drive, CD ROM, DVD, Blu-Ray® disk, or other optical medium. . Computer readable storage media 1522 may include, but are not limited to, Zip® drives, flash memory cards, universal serial bus (USB) flash drives, secure digital (SD) cards, DVD disks, digital video tapes, and the like. Is not to be done. The computer readable storage medium 1522 also includes volatile memory such as solid state drive (SSD) based on non-volatile memory such as flash memory based SSD, enterprise flash drive, solid state ROM, etc., solid state RAM, dynamic RAM, static RAM, etc. SSD based on DRAM, DRAM based SSD, magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSD, and hybrid SSD using a combination of DRAM and flash memory based SSD. Computer readable media 1522 may provide storage for computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data for computer system 1500.

  In certain embodiments, the storage subsystem 1500 may also include a computer readable storage media reader 1520 that may be further connected to a computer readable storage medium 1522. Along with system memory 1510, and optionally in combination with system memory 1510, computer readable storage medium 1522 provides remote, local, fixed, and / or removable storage plus storage for storing computer readable information. The medium can be represented generically.

  In certain embodiments, the computer system 1500 may provide support for running one or more virtual machines. Computer system 1500 may execute programs such as a hypervisor to facilitate configuration and management of virtual machines. Each virtual machine may be allocated memory, computation (eg, processor, core), I / O, and networking resources. Each virtual machine typically runs its own operating system, which may be the same as or different from the operating system executed by other virtual machines that the computer system 1500 executes. Thus, in some cases, multiple operating systems will be executed simultaneously by computer system 1500. Generally, each virtual machine is executed independently of other virtual machines.

  Communication subsystem 1524 provides an interface to other computer systems and networks. The communication subsystem 1524 serves as an interface for receiving data from a system other than the computer system 1500 and transmitting data to a system other than the computer system 1500. For example, the communication subsystem 1524 allows the computer system 1500 to establish a communication channel over the Internet to one or more client devices to receive information from the client devices and send information to the client devices. Will.

  Communication subsystem 1524 may support both wired and / or wireless communication protocols. For example, in certain embodiments, the communication subsystem 1524 may include advanced data network technologies such as mobile phone technology, 3G, 4G or EDGE (Global Evolution High Speed Data Rate), WiFi (IEEE 802.11 family standards, or others). Radio frequency (RF) transceiver component, global positioning system (GPS) receiver component, and / or other) for accessing a wireless voice and / or data network (using any mobile communication technology, or any combination thereof) Of components. The communication subsystem 1524 of some embodiments may provide a wired network connection (eg, Ethernet) in addition to or instead of the wireless interface.

  Communication subsystem 1524 can receive and transmit various forms of data. For example, in some embodiments, the communication subsystem 1524 may receive input communications in the form of structured and / or unstructured data feeds 1526, event streams 1528, event updates 1530, and the like. For example, the communication subsystem 1524 may receive web feeds such as Twitter® feeds, Facebook® updates, rich site summary (RSS) feeds, etc. in real time from users of social media networks and / or other communication services. And / or may be configured to receive (or transmit) a data feed 1526, such as a real-time update from one or more third-party information sources.

  In certain embodiments, the communication subsystem 1524 may include continuous data that may include an event stream 1528 and / or an event update 1530 of real-time events that may be essentially continuous or endless and without a clear end. It may be configured to receive data in the form of a stream. Examples of applications that generate continuous data may include, for example, sensor data applications, stock quotes, network performance measurement tools (eg, network monitoring and traffic management applications), clickstream analysis tools, vehicle traffic monitoring, and the like.

  Communication subsystem 1524 may also include structured and / or unstructured data feed 1526, event stream 1528, event update 1530, etc. with one or more streaming data source computers coupled to computer system 1500. It may be configured to output to one or more databases that can communicate.

  The computer system 1500 includes handheld portable devices (eg, iPhone® mobile phones, iPad® computing tablets, PDAs), wearable devices (eg, Google Glass® head mounted displays), personal computers, workstations, It may be one of a variety of types including mainframes, kiosks, server racks, or other data processing systems.

  Because computers and networks are constantly changing in nature, the description of computer system 1500 shown in FIG. 15 is intended solely for a specific example. Many other configurations with more or fewer components than the system shown in FIG. 15 are possible. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate other ways and / or methods to implement various embodiments.

FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary service infrastructure system 1600 that may be used to implement embodiments of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 16, the service infrastructure system 1600 includes a processing subsystem 1602 and a communication subsystem 1604. For example, the processing subsystem 1602 and the communication subsystem 1604 may be the processing subsystem 1504 and the communication subsystem 1524 shown in FIG. 15, respectively. The processing subsystem 1602 is configured to provide a plurality of services to the service infrastructure system, and the communication subsystem 1604 receives a request by the first customer for access to the services provided by the service infrastructure system. Configured. The processing subsystem 1602 further includes
Configured to determine a subscription type based on the service requested by the first customer, the subscription type being one of a clone subscription or a reusable subscription;
Configured to provide a first customer with a subscription to access the service, wherein the subscription is provided based on a subscription type and provided using the first service of the plurality of services; And
It is configured to manage the subscription provided to the first customer.

  In certain embodiments, the request by the first customer indicates the type of use of the service by the customer, and the type of subscription is determined based on the type of use indicated by the request.

In certain embodiments, when the subscription type is a clone subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer includes:
Establishing a first clone subscription based on a first subscription for a first service, wherein the first clone subscription is provided as a subscription to a first customer;
Associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription based on a set of rules.

  In certain embodiments, associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription includes associating the life cycle of the first clone subscription with the life cycle of the first subscription.

  In certain embodiments, the first clone subscription provides access to the second service, and access to the second service by the customer is when the customer has terminated access to the first service. finish.

  In certain embodiments, the processing subsystem 1602 further updates the access to the first service based on a request from the customer and the second based on the updated access to the first service. Configured to modify access to services.

  In certain embodiments, the first clone subscription provides access to the second service, and the set of rules indicates the use of the second service as a clone of the first service.

In certain embodiments, the set of rules indicates a period of access to the second service.
In certain embodiments, the set of rules indicates the number of users allowed to access the second service, and the number of users allowed to access the second service Different from the number of users allowed to access.

  In certain embodiments, the set of rules indicates a configuration of the second service, and the configuration of the second service is different from the configuration of the first service.

  In certain embodiments, managing the subscription includes determining access to the requested service by the subscription in response to a change in the first service, wherein access to the requested service is: Determined using a set of rules.

In certain embodiments, when the subscription type is a reusable subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer is
Determining that a first service is provisioned in a service pool within a service infrastructure system;
Provisioning the first service for the first subscription in the service pool when determining that the first service for the subscription is not provisioned in the service pool;
Assigning a first subscription for a first service to a customer as a subscription for the service, wherein assigning the first subscription assigns the first service from the service pool to the customer. And assigning the first service to the customer includes deleting the first service from the service pool.

  In certain embodiments, the processing subsystem 1602 is further configured to associate data for specific customers with data for specific services corresponding to the first service, where the data for specific customers is to the customer for the first service. It is associated.

  In certain embodiments, managing a subscription to access a service includes assigning a first service from a customer to a service pool when the subscription ends, and assigning the first service is The first service can be reassigned from the service pool to one or more other customers, including releasing the correspondence between the data for the specific customer and the data for the specific service corresponding to the first service. .

In certain embodiments, the communication subsystem 1604 is further configured to receive a request by a second customer to access a second service of the plurality of services, and the processing subsystem 1602 further includes
Configured to determine that the second service is available in the service pool based on a determination that the second service is similar to the first service;
The first subscription in the service pool is configured to be assigned to the second customer, and assigning the first subscription to the second customer includes deleting the first subscription from the service pool. ,
The specific customer data corresponding to the second customer is configured to be associated with the specific service data corresponding to the first service.

  In certain embodiments, the customer specific data associated with the first customer includes data related to the use of the first service by the customer.

  In a specific embodiment, each service of a plurality of services is associated with data for a specific service, the data for a specific service corresponding to the service indicates a configuration of the service, and the configuration provides the service One or more resources allocated to do so.

  In certain embodiments, providing the service includes provisioning the service in the cloud infrastructure system prior to receiving a request by the first customer, the service being associated with the operation of the service infrastructure system. Provisioned based on one or more metrics.

  In certain embodiments, providing the service includes provisioning the service prior to receiving a request by the first customer, the service based on one or more metrics associated with demand for the service. Provisioned.

  In certain embodiments, providing the service includes provisioning the service prior to receiving a request by the first customer, the service based on one or more metrics associated with the service type. Provisioned.

  In certain embodiments, service infrastructure system 1600 includes a multi-tenant environment.

  In certain embodiments, the service includes a Java service, a customer relationship management (CRM) service, or a human resource management (HCM) service.

  While specific embodiments of the invention have been described, various modifications, changes, alternative configurations and equivalents are also encompassed within the scope of the invention. Embodiments of the present invention are not limited to operation within a specific specific data processing environment, and can operate freely within a plurality of data processing environments. Further, while embodiments of the present invention have been described using a specific sequence of transactions and steps, it is to be understood that the scope of the present invention is not limited to the set of transactions and steps described. Should be obvious to the contractor.

  Further, although embodiments of the invention have been described using specific combinations of hardware and software, it should be recognized that other combinations of hardware and software are within the scope of the invention. is there. Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in hardware only, software only, or a combination thereof. The various processes described in this specification can be implemented on the same processor or on any combination of processors. Thus, although a component or module is described as being configured to perform a number of operations, such a configuration can be used, for example, by designing an electronic circuit to perform operations. This can be accomplished by programming electronic circuitry (such as a microprocessor) that is programmable to execute, or by combining them. Processes can communicate using a variety of techniques, including but not limited to conventional techniques for inter-process communication, and different pairs of processes may use different techniques, or the same pair of processes The process may use different techniques at different times.

  The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense. However, it will be apparent that additions, reductions, deletions and other variations and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope described in the claims. Thus, while specific invention embodiments have been described, they are not intended to be limiting. Various modifications and equivalents are within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (53)

A computer-implemented method comprising:
Providing multiple services to a service infrastructure system;
The service infrastructure system receiving a request by a first customer to access a service provided by the service infrastructure system;
The service infrastructure system determining a subscription type based on the service requested by the first customer, the subscription type being a clone subscription or a reusable subscription On the other hand,
The service infrastructure system providing the first customer with a subscription to access the service, the subscription being provided based on the type of subscription and of the plurality of services Provided with the first service of
A method comprising the service infrastructure system managing the subscription provided to the first customer.   The computer of claim 1, wherein the request by the first customer indicates a type of service usage by the customer, and the subscription type is determined based on a type of usage indicated by the request. The way that is realized. When the subscription type is a clone subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer comprises:
Establishing a first clone subscription based on a first subscription for the first service, the first clone subscription being provided as a subscription to the first customer;
The computer-implemented method of claim 1 or 2, comprising the step of associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription based on a set of rules.   4. The step of associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription comprises associating a life cycle of the first clone subscription with a life cycle of the first subscription. A method realized by a computer.   The first clone subscription provides access to a second service, and access to the second service by the customer ends when access to the first service by the customer ends. A computer-implemented method according to claim 4. Updating access to the first service based on a request from the customer;
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 or 5, further comprising modifying access to the second service based on the updated access to the first service.   4. The first clone subscription provides access to a second service, and the set of rules indicates use of the second service as a clone of the first service. A computer-implemented method as described.   The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the set of rules indicates a period of access to the second service.   The set of rules indicates the number of users authorized to access the second service, and the number of users authorized to access the second service is defined as the number of users authorized to access the second service. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein is different from the number of authorized users.   8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the set of rules indicates a configuration of the second service, and the configuration of the second service is different from a configuration of the first service. .   Managing the subscription includes determining access to the requested service by the subscription in response to a change in the first service, wherein the access to the requested service is the The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the computer-implemented method is determined using a set of rules. When the subscription type is a reusable subscription, providing the subscription to the first customer comprises:
Determining that the first service is provisioned in a service pool in the service infrastructure system;
Assigning a first subscription for the first service to the customer as a subscription for the service, the step of assigning the first subscription comprising assigning the first service to the service 12. The method of any one of claims 1-11, comprising: assigning the customer to a customer from a pool, wherein assigning the first service to the customer comprises deleting the first service from the service pool. A computer-implemented method as described.   13. The method of claim 12, further comprising associating specific customer data with specific service data corresponding to the first service, wherein the specific customer data is associated with the customer of the first service. A method realized by a computer.   Managing the subscription to access the service includes allocating the first service from the customer to the service pool when the subscription is terminated, and allocating the first service. Includes a step of releasing the correspondence between the data for the specific customer and the data for the specific service corresponding to the first service, and the first service is sent to the one or more other customers from the service pool. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the computer-implemented method is reassignable. Receiving a request by a second customer to access a second service of the plurality of services;
Determining that the second service is available in the service pool based on a determination that the second service is similar to the first service;
Assigning the first subscription in the service pool to the second customer, the step of assigning the first subscription to the second customer comprises assigning the first subscription to the service Including removing from the pool,
15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, comprising the step of associating specific customer specific data corresponding to the second customer with specific service specific data corresponding to the first service.   The said customer specific data matched with the said 1st customer is implement | achieved by the computer as described in any one of Claims 13-15 containing the data relevant to use of the said 1st service by the said customer How to be.   Each service of the plurality of services is associated with data for a specific service, the data for the specific service corresponding to the service indicates a configuration of the service, and the configuration is for providing the service. The computer-implemented method of any one of claims 1 to 16, comprising one or more allocated resources.   Providing the service includes provisioning a service in the cloud infrastructure system prior to receiving a request by the first customer, the service associated with an operation of the service infrastructure system. The computer-implemented method of any one of claims 1 to 17, provisioned based on one or more metrics.   Providing the service includes provisioning the service before receiving a request by the first customer, the service being provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with demand for the service. 19. A computer-implemented method according to any one of claims 1-18.   Providing the service includes provisioning the service before receiving a request by the first customer, wherein the service is provisioned based on one or more metrics associated with the type of the service. A computer-implemented method according to any one of the preceding claims.   21. The computer-implemented method of any one of claims 1 to 20, wherein the service infrastructure system includes a multi-tenant environment.   The computer-implemented method of any one of claims 1 to 21, wherein the service comprises a Java service, a customer relationship management (CRM) service, or a human resource management (HCM) service. . A system,
At least one processor;
A memory operatively coupled to the at least one processor, the at least one processor executing computer code stored in the memory,
Providing multiple services to the service infrastructure system,
Receiving a request by a first customer to access a service provided by the service infrastructure system;
Determining a subscription type based on the service requested by the first customer, wherein the subscription type is one of a clone subscription or a reusable subscription;
Providing the first customer with a subscription to access the service, the subscription being provided based on a type of the subscription and using a first service of the plurality of services; And
A system for managing the subscription provided to the first customer.   24. The system of claim 23, wherein the request by the first customer indicates a type of service usage by the customer, and the subscription type is determined based on the type of usage indicated by the request. Providing the first customer with the subscription when the subscription type is a clone subscription;
Establishing a first clone subscription based on a first subscription to the first service, wherein the first clone subscription is provided as a subscription to the first customer;
25. The system of claim 23 or 24, comprising associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription based on a set of rules.   26. The method of claim 25, wherein associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription includes associating a life cycle of the first clone subscription with a life cycle of the first subscription. System.   The first clone subscription provides access to a second service, and access to the second service by the customer ends when access to the first service by the customer ends. 27. The system of claim 26. The at least one processor is further configured to execute computer code stored in the memory,
Updating access to the first service based on a request from the customer;
28. A system according to claim 26 or 27, wherein the system modifies access to the second service based on the updated access to the first service.   The first clone subscription provides access to a second service, and the set of rules indicates use of the second service as a clone of the first service. The described system.   30. The system of claim 29, wherein the set of rules indicates a period of access to the second service.   The set of rules indicates the number of users authorized to access the second service, and the number of users authorized to access the second service is defined as the number of users authorized to access the second service. 30. The system of claim 29, wherein is different from the number of authorized users.   30. The system of claim 29, wherein the set of rules indicates a configuration of the second service, and the configuration of the second service is different from a configuration of the first service.   Managing the subscription includes determining access to the requested service by the subscription in response to a change in the first service, wherein the access to the requested service is the 26. The system of claim 25, determined using a set of rules. Providing the subscription to the first customer when the subscription type is a reusable subscription;
Determining that the first service is provisioned in a service pool in the service infrastructure system;
Assigning the first subscription for the first service to the customer as a subscription for the service, wherein assigning the first subscription comprises assigning the first service to the service Allocating to the customer from a pool, allocating the first service to the customer includes deleting the first service from the service pool;
Including associating specific customer data with specific service data corresponding to the first service, wherein the specific customer data is associated with the customer of the first service, 34. The system according to any one of claims 23 to 33, wherein the associated customer specific data includes data relating to use of the first service by the customer.   Managing the subscription to access the service includes allocating the first service from the customer to the service pool when the subscription is terminated, and allocating the first service. Includes releasing the correspondence between the data for the specific customer and the data for the specific service corresponding to the first service, and the first service is sent to the one or more other customers from the service pool. 35. The system of claim 34, wherein the system is reassignable. The at least one processor is further configured to execute computer code stored in the memory,
Receiving a request by a second customer to access a second service of the plurality of services;
Determining that the second service is available in the service pool based on a determination that the second service is similar to the first service;
Assigning the first subscription in the service pool to the second customer and assigning the first subscription to the second customer removes the first subscription from the service pool. Including
Associating data for a specific customer corresponding to the second customer with data for a specific service corresponding to the first service;
Each service of the plurality of services is associated with data for a specific service, the data for the specific service corresponding to the service indicates a configuration of the service, and the configuration is for providing the service. 36. The system of claim 35, comprising one or more allocated resources.   Providing the service includes provisioning a service in the cloud infrastructure system prior to receiving a request by the first customer, the service associated with an operation of the service infrastructure system. 38. The system of claim 36, provisioned based on one or more metrics. The at least one processor is further configured to execute computer code stored in the memory,
35. The system of claim 34, wherein the first service for the first subscription is provisioned in the service pool when it is determined that the first service for a subscription is not provisioned in the service pool. . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by a processor of a computer system, wherein the instructions are executed by the processor,
Providing multiple services to the service infrastructure system,
The service infrastructure system receives a request by a first customer to access a service provided by the service infrastructure system;
The service infrastructure system determines a subscription type based on the service requested by the first customer, the subscription type being one of a clone subscription or a reusable subscription ,
The service infrastructure system provides the first customer with a subscription to access the service, the subscription being provided based on the type of subscription and a first of the plurality of services. Provided using
A non-transitory computer readable medium in which the service infrastructure system manages the subscription provided to the first customer.   40. The non-temporary of claim 39, wherein the request by the first customer indicates a type of use of service by the customer, and the type of subscription is determined based on a type of use indicated by the request. Computer readable medium. Providing the first customer with the subscription when the subscription type is a clone subscription;
Establishing a first clone subscription based on a first subscription to the first service, wherein the first clone subscription is provided as a subscription to the first customer;
41. A non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 39 or 40, comprising associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription based on a set of rules.   42. Associating the first clone subscription with the first subscription includes associating a life cycle of the first clone subscription with a life cycle of the first subscription. Non-transitory computer readable medium.   The first clone subscription provides access to a second service, and access to the second service by the customer ends when access to the first service by the customer ends. 43. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 42. The instructions are further executed by the processor;
Updating access to the first service based on a request from the customer;
44. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 42 or 43, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium modifies access to the second service based on the updated access to the first service.   43. The first clone subscription provides access to a second service, and the set of rules indicates use of the second service as a clone of the first service. A non-transitory computer readable medium as described.   46. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 45, wherein the set of rules indicates a period of access to the second service.   The set of rules indicates the number of users authorized to access the second service, and the number of users authorized to access the second service is defined as the number of users authorized to access the second service. 46. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 45, wherein is different from the number of authorized users.   46. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 45, wherein the set of rules indicates a configuration of the second service, and the configuration of the second service is different from a configuration of the first service. Possible medium.   Managing the subscription includes determining access to the requested service by the subscription in response to a change in the first service, wherein the access to the requested service is the 42. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 41, determined using a set of rules. Providing the subscription to the first customer when the subscription type is a reusable subscription;
Determining that the first service is provisioned in a service pool in the service infrastructure system;
Assigning the first subscription for the first service to the customer as a subscription for the service, wherein assigning the first subscription comprises assigning the first service to the service Allocating to the customer from a pool, allocating the first service to the customer includes deleting the first service from the service pool;
Including associating specific customer data with specific service data corresponding to the first service, wherein the specific customer data is associated with the customer of the first service, 50. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to any one of claims 39 to 49, wherein the associated customer specific data includes data relating to use of the first service by the customer.   Managing the subscription to access the service includes allocating the first service from the customer to the service pool when the subscription is terminated, and allocating the first service. Includes releasing the correspondence between the data for the specific customer and the data for the specific service corresponding to the first service, and the first service is sent to the one or more other customers from the service pool. 51. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 50, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium is reassignable. The instructions are further executed by the processor;
Receiving a request by a second customer to access a second service of the plurality of services;
Determining that the second service is available in the service pool based on a determination that the second service is similar to the first service;
Assigning the first subscription in the service pool to the second customer and assigning the first subscription to the second customer removes the first subscription from the service pool. Including
Associating data for a specific customer corresponding to the second customer with data for a specific service corresponding to the first service;
Each service of the plurality of services is associated with data for a specific service, the data for the specific service corresponding to the service indicates a configuration of the service, and the configuration is for providing the service. 52. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 51, comprising one or more allocated resources.   Providing the service includes provisioning a service in the cloud infrastructure system prior to receiving a request by the first customer, the service associated with an operation of the service infrastructure system. 53. A non-transitory computer readable medium according to any one of claims 52, provisioned based on one or more metrics.