JP5320771B2 - Billing amount determination device, billing amount determination program, and computer-readable recording medium recording the program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To determine a charging amount achieving profit adjustment between an administrator of a data center and a customer. <P>SOLUTION: In a system 1-1 for allocating servers 2-1 to 2-n to each customer and providing network service to the customer, an apparatus for determining a charging amount of the customer includes: a resource management part 11 for managing the allocation amount of the servers 2-1 to 2-n to the customer in a prescribed period; an operation cost management part 12-1 for managing an operation cost of the servers 2-1 to 2-n allocated to the customer in the prescribed period; a profit amount estimation part 14 for estimating a profit amount of the customer in the prescribed period; an estimated charging amount calculation part 15 for calculating an estimated charging amount of the customer based on the profit amount; and a charging amount determination part 17-1 for determining the charging amount of the customer in the prescribed period. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for determining a charge amount for hosting operation of a network service in a data center.

Conventionally, there are various techniques for determining a billing amount for hosting operation of a network service related to a plurality of customers in an Internet Data Center (IDC).
For example, when a center contractor charges a fee for the operation of a customer's network service at regular intervals, the billing amount for each customer is automatically determined based on the operation results of the customer network service. .

More specifically, with regard to service operation within the billing target period, a technique for determining a billing amount in proportion to the amount of server resources allocated to the service (see, for example, Patent Document 1 below) There is a technique (for example, refer to Patent Document 2 below) that determines a charge amount depending on an actually achieved SLA (Service Level Agreement) level for service operation within a period.
JP 2005-31776 A JP 2006-227952 A

  However, when the charge amount is determined in proportion to the amount of server resources allocated to the service within the chargeable period as in the technique of Patent Document 1, the customer service operation is actually within the chargeable period. Regardless of whether the achieved SLA is good or bad, a charge proportional to the amount of allocated resources is charged uniformly, so the customer is dissatisfied when the cost performance of the charge per service performance deteriorates.

In order to solve this problem, as the SLA actually achieved in the service operation within the chargeable period as in the technique of the above-mentioned Patent Document 2, for example, HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) request response time, HTTP request throughput, A method of determining the charge amount depending on the transaction error occurrence rate is conceivable.
However, when determining the billing amount according to the SLA level, it is possible to appropriately determine the billing policy that defines how much the SLA level should be achieved and how much the billing amount should be. Have difficulty. In addition, there is a problem of how to accurately measure the service operation SLA within the billing period. Furthermore, if the billing amount is simply determined based on the SLA level, the achieved SLA level is high even if the network service operation within the billing period does not contribute to the customer's profit as a result. If so, the billing amount will be high and the customer will be dissatisfied.

Therefore, a success-reward-type billing method that determines the hosting billing amount according to the amount of revenue that the customer has obtained through the operation of the network service within the billing target period is promising.
In addition, when charging based on estimated revenue, if the customer's service with extremely low estimated revenue is consuming most of the center resources, simply charge the amount corresponding to the estimated revenue. However, there is a risk that the center contractor may not be able to get a fee corresponding to the operation and maintenance cost of the center and the depreciation of the server equipment, that is, the operating cost, and a deficit may appear.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to make it possible to determine a charge amount in which a profit adjustment between a data center operator and a customer can be adjusted.

To achieve the above Symbol object, the charge amount determining apparatus allocates the server for each of a plurality of customers, in a system for providing a network service of the customer, the apparatus that determine the billing amount for each customer there have been obtained based on the allocated amount of the server for each client in Jo Tokoro period and a resource management unit having a holding portion that holds, the server log assigned to each customer, are held in the holding portion based on the investment performance you are, the and earnings estimation unit that estimates the earnings of each customer within a predetermined period, and the planned charge amount calculating unit for calculating the scheduled billing amount of each customer in accordance with the previous Symbol earnings, before based on the quota held in the serial holding portion and said expected charge amount, and scheduled charging unit price calculation unit for calculating a scheduled charging unit price is expected charge amount per unit server resources for each customer, before Kisho regular Wherein the operational costs management unit for managing, based on allocation amount held operational costs of the server to the holding portion of the inner, of said predetermined charging unit price of each customer to the sum of said predetermined charging unit price of the plurality of customers A minimum payment amount calculation unit that calculates a value obtained by multiplying the operational cost by the ratio as a minimum payment amount of each customer, and determines a charge amount within the predetermined period of each customer according to the minimum payment amount of the customer It is a requirement to include a billing amount determination unit.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, the billing amount determination program includes the resource management unit, the operation cost management unit, the revenue amount estimation unit, the scheduled billing amount calculation unit , the scheduled billing unit price calculation unit, and the minimum payment amount calculation unit. , And the billing amount determining unit is required to function as a computer.
In order to achieve the above object, this computer-readable recording medium records the above-described charging amount determination program.

  As described above, according to the above-described charging amount determination apparatus, charging amount determination program, and computer-readable recording medium storing the program, the charging amount determination unit estimates the operating cost of the server managed and the estimated revenue amount. The billing amount within the predetermined period of the customer is determined based on the scheduled billing amount based on the profit amount estimated by the department. Therefore, it is possible to charge the customer according to the estimated revenue while reliably determining the amount that does not fall below the operator's operating cost, and the mutual benefit that both the operator and the customer are not dissatisfied with. You can determine the adjusted billing amount.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[1] First Embodiment of the Present Invention First, the configuration of a billing amount determining apparatus (hereinafter referred to as the present billing amount determining apparatus) 10-1 as a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. To do. As shown in FIG. 1, billing amount determination apparatus 10-1 assigns servers 2-1 to n (where n is an integer of 3 or more) to a customer, and provides a network system 1- 1, the billing amount relating to the provision of the network service to the customer is determined.

  In the network system 1-1, a plurality of servers 2-1 to n (where n is an integer greater than or equal to 3) and user terminals 3-1 to m (where m is an integer greater than or equal to 3) are, for example, the Internet Can be connected via a communication network 4 including In the following description, the server 2 is referred to as the server 2 when the plurality of servers 2-1 to n are not distinguished, and the user terminal 3 is referred to when the user terminals 3-1 to m are not distinguished.

The server 2 and the billing amount determination device 10-1 function as the data center 5-1. The data center 5-1 provides the customer with, for example, the operation of an e-commerce site as a customer network service. The server 2 includes a plurality of recording media for recording data, such as an optical disk and a magnetic tape.
The billing amount determination apparatus 10-1 includes a resource management unit 11, an operation cost management unit 12-1, an operation cost unit price calculation unit 13, a revenue amount estimation unit 14, a scheduled billing amount calculation unit 15, and a scheduled billing unit price calculation unit 16. , And a billing amount determination unit 17-1.

  The resource management unit 11, the operation cost management unit 12-1, the operation cost unit price calculation unit 13, the revenue amount estimation unit 14, the scheduled charge amount calculation unit 15, the scheduled charge unit price calculation unit 16, and the charge amount determination unit 17- 1 is realized by an arithmetic unit (for example, CPU: Central Processing Unit) executing a predetermined program (for example, a charge amount determination program described later).

The resource management unit 11 manages the allocation amount of the server 2 to the customer, that is, the resource amount allocated to the customer. The resource management unit 11 manages the resource amount for each customer when servers are assigned to a plurality of customers.
Further, the resource management unit 11 manages the number of accesses to the customer's site, the number of settlements, and the like for each customer as an operation result.

Specifically, the resource management unit 11 includes an allocation amount acquisition unit 11a, an allocation amount holding unit 11b, an operation result acquisition unit 11c, and an operation result holding unit 11d.
The quota acquisition unit 11a acquires the quota of server resources of each customer. For example, the allocation amount acquisition unit 11 a may acquire the allocation amount from a control device (not shown) that controls allocation of the server 2 to the customer, or may acquire the allocation amount directly from the server 2.

The quota holding unit 11b holds the quota acquired by the quota acquisition unit 11a in units of a predetermined time for each customer. For example, the quota holding unit 11b holds the daily quota of each customer on a monthly basis.
The operation result acquisition unit 11c acquires the operation result by reading a log held in each server 2 or a management server (not shown) of the server 2 as the operation result of each customer's server. The operation result acquisition unit 11c collects, for example, logs related to purchase settlement for products and services of each customer performed by the user terminal 3.

In other words, the operation result acquisition unit 11c acquires the log (log file) relating to the settlement held in the server 2 or the like, and thereby the number or type of products sold by each customer by the provided network service, or the amount thereof. Is acquired as an operational record.
Further, the operation result acquisition unit 11c acquires an SLA (Service Level Agreement) average value, an average value of the resource allocation satisfaction rate, and the like as an operation result.

Here, the operator of the data center 5-1, that is, the provider of the network service and the customer, with respect to the HTTP request response time of how many seconds it responds to the access (HTTP request) from the user terminal 3 as the SLA. It is assumed that there is an agreement with
At this time, the SLA average value is an average value of the HTTP request response time within a predetermined period (for example, one month).

In addition, when the throughput of an HTTP request, the occurrence rate of a transaction error, or the like is used as an index as an SLA, the operation result acquisition unit 11c responds to the average value of the throughput of an HTTP request as an SLA average value. Also, obtain the average value of transaction error occurrence rate.
By comparing the SLA average value with the value of the SLA contracted with the customer (hereinafter referred to as the minimum guaranteed SLA), it is possible to quantitatively determine whether or not the SLA is satisfied.

Further, the resource allocation satisfaction rate is the ratio of the server resource amount actually allocated to the server resource amount necessary for guaranteeing the SLA related to the contract with the customer, that is, the allocation amount of the server 2.
For example, when the server resource unit is one server, and it is necessary to allocate 10 servers 2 within a predetermined period (within the billing period) to guarantee SLA, if only 8 servers 2 are allocated The resource allocation satisfaction rate is 80%.

That is, the operation result acquisition unit 11c acquires the response time for each HTTP request from each server 2 or the management server of the server 2, and calculates the average value of the response times of each request within a predetermined period.
Further, the operation result acquisition unit 11c calculates a ratio of the allocation amount to the target server resource amount based on the minimum guaranteed SLA, and obtains a resource allocation satisfaction rate.

The operation result holding unit 11d holds the operation results of each customer acquired by the operation result acquisition unit 11c in units of a predetermined time. For example, the operation result holding unit 11d manages and holds the daily operation results of each customer in units of one month or half a year.
The operation cost management unit 12-1 manages the operation cost related to the server allocation amount in units of one month held in the allocation amount holding unit 11b. The operation costs include electricity costs and labor costs as maintenance costs, and expenses for depreciation of server equipment.

  The operation cost management unit 12-1 acquires those operation costs from an operator (operator) input or the server for management of the server 2. For example, the operation cost management unit 12-1 acquires the labor cost by input from the operator. In addition, the operation cost management unit 12-1 acquires the operating time and the power consumption of the data center 5-1 from the management server, and calculates the electricity bill based on them. Furthermore, the operation cost management unit 12-1 holds in advance expenses for depreciation.

  The operation cost unit price calculation unit 13 is based on the operation cost managed by the operation cost management unit 12-1, and is charged for each server resource related to the server assigned to each customer (for example, one month, six months, The unit cost of operation cost for one year is calculated for each customer. Here, the unit server resource may be one of the servers 2 or a recording medium of a predetermined unit held by the server 2.

The revenue amount estimation unit 14 estimates the amount of revenue that each customer has obtained through the network service during the billing period. Specifically, the profit amount estimation unit 14 estimates the profit amount according to the business type of the customer based on the operation results held by the operation result holding unit 11d.
Note that a more specific estimation method of the revenue amount by the revenue amount estimation unit 14 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. In addition, the revenue estimation unit 14, that is, the operator of the data center 5-1 obtains constants, variables, model formulas, etc. according to the business type necessary for estimating the revenue from the customer in advance. The amount of revenue is estimated based on these constants, variables, and model formulas. Specific examples of constants, variables, model formulas, and the like acquired from the customer by the revenue amount estimation unit 14 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

The scheduled billing amount calculation unit 15 calculates the customer's scheduled billing amount based on the revenue amount estimated by the revenue amount estimation unit 14.
In the network system 1-1, the operator of the server 2 and each customer have contracted that each customer pays the provider a charge amount based on the revenue estimated by the provider. For example, when a predetermined percentage of the amount of revenue estimated by the operator is used as a billing amount, an amount obtained by adding a correction based on operation results such as SLA and resource allocation satisfaction rate to the predetermined proportion of the amount of revenue is the billing amount. To do. The predetermined ratio may be the same throughout the year, or may vary according to the season, the month, or the estimated earnings.

Further, as a specific example of correcting the predetermined amount of the revenue amount, a method of multiplying the ratio of the average SLA value to the minimum guaranteed SLA value by the predetermined portion of the revenue amount, or a resource amount to the predetermined proportion of the revenue amount A method of multiplying the allocation satisfaction rate can be considered.
Then, the scheduled billing amount calculation unit 15 calculates, as the scheduled billing amount, the amount of a predetermined rate based on the contract among the revenue amount estimated by the revenue amount estimation unit 14.

The scheduled billing unit price calculation unit 16 assigns each server's server quota within the billing target period held in the quota amount holding unit 11 b and the schedule within the billing target period for each customer calculated by the scheduled billing amount calculation unit 15. Based on the billing amount, a scheduled billing unit price that is a scheduled billing amount per unit server resource is calculated for each customer.
The billing amount determining unit 17-1 determines the billing amount within the billing target period of the customer based on the operation cost and the scheduled billing amount.

  Specifically, the charge amount determination unit 17-1 compares the operation cost unit price calculated by the operation cost unit price calculation unit 13 with the planned charge unit price calculated by the planned charge unit price calculation unit 16, and determines the operation cost. If the unit price is higher than the planned charging unit price, it is determined as a charging amount according to the operation cost managed by the operation cost management unit 12-1. For example, the billing amount determination unit 17-1 determines, as the billing amount, an amount in consideration of a predetermined profit rate for the operation cost related to the server 2 assigned to the customer.

On the other hand, the billing amount determination unit 17-1 determines the billing amount according to the scheduled billing amount if the planned billing unit price is higher than the operation cost unit price. For example, the billing amount determination unit 17-1 determines the scheduled billing amount as the billing amount as it is.
Therefore, according to the billing amount determination unit 17-1, basically, the amount corresponding to the planned billing amount according to the customer's profit is set as the billing amount, while the operation cost unit price is higher than the planned billing unit price. Can determine the billing amount according to the operation cost. For this reason, customers are basically billed according to the amount of revenue, and are billed regardless of revenue, regardless of the amount of server resources allocated to them or SLA. Disappears. Furthermore, for the operator, based on the billing amount according to the customer's profit, it is possible to reliably prevent the deficit due to the low customer's profit while obtaining the customer's satisfaction.

Here, with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5, an example of calculating the customer's profit amount by the profit amount estimation unit 14 will be described.
The business type and target customer market behavior characteristics, product characteristics, market changes, and seasonal variations of revenue patterns vary widely among customers. Therefore, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 classifies each customer into a corresponding business type among a plurality of business types, and calculates the revenue amount according to the type.

For example, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 classifies the business type of the customer into a product providing type for selling products and a service providing type for providing services.
Here, the estimation method of the profit amount estimation unit 14 will be described by taking as an example a case where the data center 5-1 provides network services to four customers A to D.
Customers A to C are a business type of product provision type. Among them, customers A to C conduct mass production based on expected demand.

Customer D is a service-providing business type. Among them, the customer D performs an advance reservation type business in which the user needs to make an advance reservation for providing services.
Here, in order to estimate the profit amount of the product provision type business of the customers A to C, it is necessary to consider the sales unit price of the product, the purchase cost, the number of sales, the inventory maintenance cost, the manufacturing cost, and the like. Among these considerations, the stock maintenance cost varies greatly depending on the type of product.

Each of FIGS. 2A to 2C shows a temporal change in the inventory maintenance cost per product sold by the customers A to C. FIG. 2A is a diagram related to the product of customer A, FIG. 2B is a diagram related to the product of customer B, and FIG. 2C is a diagram related to the product of customer C.
The product of customer A is a machine part, for example, and can be stored for a long time. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2 (a), the product A's product can be kept substantially constant in inventory maintenance cost per product even if the inventory time has elapsed.

  The product of the customer B is, for example, a fresh food product and has a strict shelf life. Therefore, as for the product of customer B, the stock product whose stock period has exceeded a certain period must be discarded. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2B, for the product of customer B, the inventory maintenance cost per product within the storage period is proportional to the inventory time within the initial predetermined period, that is, within the quality assurance period. Then increase. Then, after the quality guarantee period has expired, the inventory product must be disposed of, and therefore a loss corresponding to the cost of the product discarded due to the product disposal occurs as an inventory maintenance cost.

The product of customer C is, for example, precision equipment, and requires a cost to maintain a specific warehouse environment in order to maintain the quality of the inventory. Depending on the length of the inventory period of the product, the inventory per hour at each time point Maintenance costs change.
In other words, the storage location and storage method of the product of customer C changes according to the length of the inventory period, and as a result, the inventory management cost per unit time changes according to the length of the inventory period. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 2C, the inventory maintenance cost per product changes nonlinearly with respect to time.

Further, the product of customer A is a product purchased from the producer without any processing or the like, and there is no production cost other than a certain amount of purchase cost.
Further, it is assumed that the product of the customer B is purchased from the subcontractor company at a fixed amount and is not processed, and no manufacturing cost is generated.
Therefore, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 estimates the revenue amounts of the customers A and B based on the following equation (1).
Revenue = (Sales unit price-Purchase cost) x Number of units sold-Inventory maintenance cost (1)

  Here, the sales unit price and the purchase cost are provided from the customers A and B at the time of the network service operation contract between the operator and the customers A and B, and the revenue estimation unit 14 determines the names of the customers A and B. The business type, the sales unit price, and the purchase cost are stored in a memory (not shown) in association with each other.

Further, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 acquires the number of sales based on a log relating to purchase settlement held in the operation result holding unit 11d.
Further, the customers A and B obtain the graph curve of the time change of the inventory maintenance cost per product as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B by the benchmark, and the information is obtained in the contract of the operation with the operator. provide. Then, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 stores the information in the memory in association with the customers A and B, and calculates the inventory maintenance cost according to the estimated number of inventory.

  That is, the profit amount estimation unit 14 predicts the estimated production amount based on the prior product demand fluctuation, and calculates the inventory maintenance cost based on the predicted estimated production amount. For example, the profit amount estimation unit 14 directly uses the past annual sales performance (for example, the performance for one year every day) as the estimated production amount. In addition, the profit amount estimation part 14 is good also considering an average value as an estimated production amount, when the past track record exists for several years. Further, if there is no past sales record, the profit amount estimation unit 14 acquires the estimated production amount from the customers A and B in advance.

  Then, the profit amount estimation unit 14 allocates the shortage from the inventory when the actual number of sales is larger than the estimated production amount. On the contrary, the profit amount estimation unit 14 adds the unsold product to the inventory when the actual sales quantity is smaller than the estimated production volume. After the inventory is updated every predetermined time in this way (for example, every day, every week, every month), the revenue amount estimation unit 14 starts from the beginning of the inventory to the present time for each product in the inventory. 2 is obtained as the X-axis value in FIGS. 2A and 2B, and the inventory maintenance cost (Y-axis value) is obtained. Calculate inventory maintenance costs.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the profit amount estimation unit 14 treats a portion where the estimated production amount exceeds the sales volume (shaded portion in the figure) as an inventory accumulation portion, and a portion where the sales volume exceeds the estimated production volume. (The shaded area in the figure) is treated as inventory reduction.
Then, as described above, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 calculates the inventory maintenance cost Cost (t) by the following equation (2).

Here, in the above formula (2), F _cost (t) represents the stock maintenance cost per product when the length of the stock period is t, and T _i is the time when the product _i is brought into the stock. N represents the number of in-stock items at time t.
Then, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 calculates the above formula (for each day) for each time slot (for example, one day) corresponding to each day from the first day to the last day of the billing target period (for example, six months or one year) for the customers A and B. 1) Estimate the amount of revenue by (2) and sum the estimated amount of revenue for each time slot over the entire billing period for each customer A, B to obtain the estimated amount of revenue for each customer A, B . Note that the timeslot refers to the delimiter of the time axis in this embodiment.

Similarly, for the customers C and D, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 also calculates the revenue amount for each time slot corresponding to each day from the first day to the last day of the billing target period according to equations (3) and (4) described later. And the estimated revenue for each time slot is totaled over the entire billing period for each customer C and D to obtain the estimated revenue for each customer C and D.
Next, it is assumed that the product of customer C is produced at its own factory, and a manufacturing cost is generated for each product. In this case, when the number of products produced is increased in accordance with the increase in product demand, the production cost increases as the production line is increased as shown in FIG. 4, for example.

  In the example shown in FIG. 4, when the demand for merchandise increases, it is necessary to increase the number of production lines by one for every fixed increase in the process of increasing the number of products produced per day. Each time the production line is increased, the fixed cost portion of the product manufacturing cost is increased stepwise. If it is not enough to increase the production line in order to cope with the increase in daily production, it will be necessary to construct a new factory, which will result in an increase in fixed production costs that is greater than the increase in production lines. To do.

The recorded loss amount shown in FIG. 4, that is, the manufacturing cost, is calculated based on the capital investment cost on the assumption that the production equipment expansion is performed while the capital investment cost is higher than the sales opportunity loss cost. When the investment cost exceeds the sales opportunity loss, the calculation is made based on the sales opportunity loss cost on the assumption that the production facility is not expanded.
The revenue estimation unit 14, based on the following equation (3), to estimate the earnings of the customer C of each timeslot.
Revenue = (Sales unit price-Purchase cost) x Number of units sold-Inventory maintenance cost-Manufacturing cost
... (3)

  Here, as with the customers A and B, the sales unit price and the purchase cost are provided from the customer C at the time of the network service operation contract between the operator and the customer C. The name, the business type, the sales unit price, and the purchase cost are associated with each other and stored in the memory.

Further, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 acquires the number of sales based on a log relating to purchase settlement held in the operation result holding unit 11d.
Furthermore, the customer C obtains a graph curve of the time change of the inventory maintenance cost per product shown in FIG. 2C by the benchmark, and provides the information in the operation contract with the operator. Then, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 stores the information in the memory in association with the customer C name, and calculates the inventory maintenance cost according to the estimated number of inventory.

  Furthermore, customer C calculates an increase graph curve (Fig. 4) of the product production cost due to an increase in the production line and the establishment of a factory due to an increase in the production capacity of the product's daily production, and provides it to the operator in the subcontracting contract. To do. Then, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 holds the information in association with the customer C, and estimates the manufacturing cost based on the information and the number of sales based on the log (here, the number of sales per day).

  In this way, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 calculates the revenue amount and the inventory maintenance cost corresponding to the number of products sold in the same manner as in the case of the customers A and B for the revenue amount of the customer C. When the production line needs to be expanded due to increased production, the equipment cost (ie, manufacturing cost) required for the expansion of the production line from the graph of FIG. Calculate Thereafter, the profit amount estimation unit 14 obtains the estimated profit amount in the time slot of the customer C by subtracting the inventory maintenance cost and the facility expansion cost from the profit amount according to the number of products sold.

Next, it is assumed that the service of customer D is an industry provided by advance reservation, and for example, Web reservation of passenger aircraft seats and Web sales of boarding tickets are operated by a network service. In this case, the seats on the aircraft are divided into three types: first class, business class, and economy class. As shown in FIG. 5, the unit price of seat reservation is different for each type, and the unit price of seat reservation is seasonal. Since the balance between supply and demand changes depending on the season, the time will vary depending on the season.
The revenue estimation unit 14, based on the following equation (4), to estimate the revenue per seat type customer D for each timeslot.
Revenue = number of operating flights x (vacant seat turnover rate x seat unit price-fixed cost) (4)

  Here, the record log (graph curve) of the seasonal fluctuation of the seat unit price for each seat type in the cabin shown in FIG. 5 is obtained by the customer D by benchmark and provided to the operator in the operation contract with the operator. And the profit amount estimation part 14 matches the information provided from the customer D with the customer D, and hold | maintains it in a memory.

  The customer D also provides the operator with a model formula for calculating the seat vacancy rate based on the change in the number of seat reservations and the flight schedule of the aircraft. The revenue amount estimation unit 14 stores the model formula in the memory in association with the customer D, and estimates the purchase amount based on the log, that is, the number of seat reservations, when the revenue amount is estimated. And the vacant seat turnover rate is calculated using this model formula.

In addition, about the number of service flights, the profit amount estimation part 14 acquires and obtains the flight schedule information of an aircraft from the server 2 or the resource management part 11.
Further, the customer D provides in advance a fuel cost, an airframe maintenance cost, etc. as fixed costs at the time of the operation contract. The revenue amount estimation unit 14 stores the fixed cost in the memory in association with the customer D.

As described above, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 first obtains the vacant seat turnover rate for each seat type based on the number of seat reservations based on the log and the operation schedule information of the owned aircraft in the time slot.
Further, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 obtains the seat unit price for each seat type, which is the value of the Y axis, with the date of the time slot as the value of the X axis from the graph curve (here, the broken line) of FIG.

And the profit amount estimation part 14 calculates | requires the number of service flights for every seat classification in a time slot from the operation schedule information of an aircraft, and calculates | requires the estimated amount for every seat classification by said Formula (4).
Finally, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 estimates the revenue amount of the customer D by totaling the revenue amounts of all seat types.
As described above, according to the billing amount determination apparatus 10-1 as the first embodiment of the present invention, the resource management unit 11 that manages the allocation amount of the server 2 to the customers A to D within a predetermined period, and the predetermined period Operation cost management unit 12-1 for managing operation costs related to servers assigned to customers A to D, a revenue amount estimation unit 14 for estimating a revenue amount of customers A to D within a predetermined period, and based on the revenue amount A scheduled billing amount calculation unit 15 for calculating a scheduled billing amount for the customers A to D, and a billing amount determination unit 17 for determining a billing amount for the customers A to D within a predetermined period based on the operation cost and the scheduled billing amount. -1. Therefore, the operator can reliably determine a charge amount that does not fall below the operation cost, while the customers A to D can be charged a charge amount according to the estimated revenue amount, and the operator of the data center 5-1 And the customers A to D can determine the charge amount with which the mutual profit adjustment can be made without dissatisfaction.

  In other words, depending on the management situation, business model, profit structure, etc. of individual customers, if a large number of requests are made with high service quality, the profit may not be increased accordingly. For example, let us consider a case where there has been a rapid increase in user requests for ordering merchandise at mass-produced e-commerce sites. In this case, it seems that if a large amount of user requests are made by increasing the allocation amount of server resources and a large amount of orders are received in a short period of time, the customer's profit will increase accordingly. However, if the amount of orders exceeds the current production capacity, if you want to produce products in a short period of time and deliver them by the delivery date, the production line will be expanded or the production facilities will be expanded. It is considered that capital investment is required, and it will pull the bottom of profits. Then, making a large number of user requests does not necessarily lead to an increase in customer profits. Therefore, when the customer is simply charged based on the allocated amount of server resources, customer dissatisfaction may be raised.

  In order to solve such problems, the present invention estimates the amount of revenue within the billing period of the customer from the service operation results in consideration of the customer's business model, management circumstances, revenue structure, etc. Can charge a bill that is directly dependent on the amount of revenue expected to be earned. As a result, the customer is charged a high billing amount only when the service performance is really profitable, and the customer's satisfaction with billing increases.

  Further, according to the charge amount determination unit 17-1, a high charge amount can be requested from the customer only when the customer is really profitable without directly depending on the operation results such as the SLA and the resource allocation amount. However, if there is a customer service that consumes most of the resources of the server 2 even though the amount of revenue estimated by the revenue amount estimation unit 14 is extremely low, the operator can The operating costs commensurate with the charges and server equipment depreciation cannot be recovered, leading to a deficit. Accordingly, the billing amount determination unit 17-1 needs to prevent the operation cost such as the power charge of the data center 5-1 and the depreciation of the server facility from being less than the total billing amount of all customers. Therefore, when the operating cost for each customer is lower than the charging amount based on the revenue amount of the customer, the charging amount determination unit 17-1 determines whether the amount is based on the operating cost or the amount charged to the customer. As a result, the operator can obtain an effect of not making a deficit while charging a high billing amount only when the customer is really profitable.

The charging amount determination unit 17-1 determines the charging amount based on the operating cost unit price calculated by the operating cost unit price calculation unit 13 and the scheduled charging unit price calculated by the scheduled charging unit price calculation unit 16. Therefore, the billing amount can be determined without error, and the above-described effects can be obtained more reliably.
Further, the charge amount determination unit 17-1 compares the operation cost unit price with the planned charge unit price. If the operation cost unit price is higher, the charge amount determination unit 17-1 determines the charge amount according to the operation cost, and the planned charge unit price is higher. For example, the billing amount corresponding to the planned billing amount is determined. Therefore, the billing amount determination unit 17-1 determines the billing amount according to the scheduled billing amount unless the planned billing unit price is lower than the operation cost unit price. That is, since the billing amount determination unit 17-1 determines the billing amount according to the revenue amount, the customer is charged for the large amount of billing according to the server resource amount and SLA allocated to the customer regardless of the revenue. This will improve customer satisfaction.

Moreover, since the billing amount determination unit 17-1 determines the billing amount according to the operation cost if the planned billing unit price is lower than the operation cost unit price, it is possible to reliably prevent the customer from having a deficit due to low revenue.
Thus, according to the charge amount determination part 17-1, the charge amount which adjusted the interest of the operator and the interest of the customer can be determined.

Further, since the revenue amount estimation unit 14 estimates the revenue amount of the customers A to D according to the business type of the customers A to D based on the operation results of the server within a predetermined period, the revenue amount is accurately estimated. can do. As a result, customer satisfaction with the billing amount is also improved.
The revenue amount estimation unit 14 is a constant or variable corresponding to the business type necessary for estimating the revenue amount (that is, the above-described unit price, purchase cost, inventory maintenance cost, manufacturing cost, vacant seat turnover rate, fixed cost). Etc., or constants, variables, and model formulas) obtained from customers A to D in advance, and the amount of revenue is estimated based on those constants and variables. Can be estimated accurately.

  Here, since the acquisition routes of the constants and variables related to the revenue estimated by the revenue amount estimation unit 14 are the customers A to D themselves, the customers A to D can set the constants and variables themselves to keep the billing amount low. Can be provided in an advantageous manner. That is, the case where the revenue amount estimated by the revenue amount estimation unit 14 is lower than the revenue actually obtained by the customers A to D can be considered. However, if the estimated amount of revenue is lower than the operating cost, the charging amount determination unit 17-1 determines the charging amount according to the operation cost so that the operator never becomes in the red. Even so, there is no loss in the operator, and the interest between the operator and the customers A to D is maintained.

[2] Second Embodiment of the Present Invention Next, with reference to FIG. 6, the configuration of a billing amount determination device (hereinafter referred to as the present billing amount determination device) 10-2 as a second embodiment of the present invention. explain. In FIG. 6, the same reference numerals as those described above indicate the same or substantially the same parts.
As shown in FIG. 6, the billing amount determination device 10-2 is different from the billing amount determination device 10-1 of the first embodiment described above in that the operation cost management unit 12-2 and the billing amount determination unit 17-2. And a minimum payment amount calculation unit 18 is newly provided. In addition, the resource management unit 11, the revenue amount estimation unit 14, the scheduled charging amount calculation unit 15, and the scheduled charging unit price calculation unit 16 of the present charging amount determination apparatus 10-2 are the same as those in the first embodiment described above. It is. Therefore, detailed description of these components is omitted here.

The operation cost management unit 12-2, billing amount determination unit 17-1, and minimum payment amount calculation unit 18 also execute a predetermined program (for example, billing amount determination program described later) by the arithmetic unit (for example, CPU). Is realized.
The operation cost management unit 12-2 manages the operation costs of the servers 2 assigned to all the servers 2 or the plurality of customers A to D. The operation cost managed by the operation cost management unit 12-2 is the same as that of the operation cost management unit 12-1 of the first embodiment described above, and only the unit to be managed is different. That is, the operation cost management unit 12-2 manages the total operation cost of the server 2.

The minimum payment amount calculation unit 18 calculates the ratio of the planned billing unit price of each customer A to D with respect to the sum of the scheduled billing unit prices of all customers A to D, and the ratio is managed by the operation cost management unit 12-2. By multiplying the operation cost, the minimum payment amount of each customer A to D is calculated.
In other words, the minimum payment amount calculation unit 18, which is calculated by the scheduled charging unit price calculation unit 16, the scheduled charging unit price r _i as a profit efficiency of each customer _A~D, operating costs C, the minimum payment amount of the customer i If c _i , the minimum payment amount of each of the customers A to D is calculated by the following equation (5).

In this way, the minimum payment amount calculation unit 18 multiplies the operation cost required for the center operation by the data center 5-2 within the billing target period by the cost sharing ratio of each customer A to D, and thereby calculates the customer A to D. Define the minimum payment amount.
The billing amount determination unit 17-2 determines the billing amount for each customer A to D within a predetermined period based on the scheduled billing unit price of each customer A to D and the operation cost. That is, the billing amount determination unit 17-2 compares the minimum payment amount and the scheduled billing amount for each of the customers A to D, and determines the billing amount of the customer based on the higher amount.

More specifically, the billing amount determination unit 17-2 determines the billing amounts for the customers A to D according to the minimum payment amount if the minimum payment amount is higher. On the other hand, the billing amount determination unit 17-2 determines the billing amounts of the customers A to D according to the scheduled billing amount if the planned billing amount is higher.
The billing amount determination unit 17-2 determines the billing amount according to the minimum payment amount as in the billing amount determination unit 17-1 of the first embodiment described above. A charge amount is set, or an amount obtained by multiplying the minimum payment charge amount by a predetermined profit rate is set as a charge amount.

  For example, assuming that only the customers A and C provide the network service for the sake of simplicity, the customer A sets the total number of servers 2 for 20 minutes within a predetermined period (chargeable period) of one month. Suppose customer C uses 100 minutes of server resources for server 2 in total. Further, it is assumed that the revenue amount within a predetermined period estimated by the revenue amount estimation unit 14 is 80,000 yen for the customer A and 40,000 yen for the customer C.

In this case, if the scheduled billing amount calculation unit 15 calculates 10% of the revenue amount as the billing amount based on the operation contract, the planned billing amount for the customer A is 8000 yen and the scheduled billing amount for the customer C is 4000 yen.
Also, assume that the operation cost for 120 servers 2 managed by the operation cost management unit 12-2 and assigned to the customers A and C is 33,000 yen.

In this case, the scheduled billing unit price calculated by the scheduled billing unit price calculation unit 16, that is, profit efficiency, is 4000 (yen / unit) for the customer A at 80,000 yen / 20 units, and 40,000 yen / 100 for the customer C. It will be 400 (yen / unit).
Therefore, minimum payment amount calculating section 18, based on the equation (5), the following formula to the customer A (6), the following formula to the customer C by (7), each of the minimum payment amount _C A, _{C C} Is calculated.

C _A = 33000 × 4000 / (4000 + 400) = 30000 (6)
C _C = 33000 × 400 / (4000 + 400) = 3000 (7)
Then, for the customer A, the billing amount determination unit 17-2 compares the scheduled billing amount of 8000 yen with the minimum payment amount of 30000 yen, and sets the billing amount as the minimum payment amount of 30000 yen with a high amount.
In addition, for the customer C, the billing amount determination unit 17-2 compares the planned billing amount of 4000 yen and the minimum payment amount of 3000 yen, and sets the billing amount as the scheduled billing amount of 4000 yen having a high amount.

Thus, according to the billing amount determination apparatus 10-2 as the second embodiment of the present invention, the billing amount determination unit 17-2 is based on the scheduled billing unit price and the operation cost of each customer A to D. Since the billing amount for each customer A to D within a predetermined period is determined, the same effect as the first embodiment described above can be obtained.
In addition, by calculating the ratio of the planned billing unit price of each customer A to D to the sum of the planned billing unit prices of all customers A to D, and multiplying that ratio by the operating cost, the minimum payment amount of each customer A to D is calculated. The minimum payment amount calculation unit 18 to be calculated is provided, and the charge amount determination unit 17-2 compares the minimum payment amount and the scheduled charge amount for each of the customers A to D, and the charge amount of the customer based on the higher amount Therefore, the operation cost of the data center 5-2 can be surely distributed according to the profit efficiency of each customer A to D, and the charge amount that the operator and each customer A to D can be satisfied is determined.

  In other words, according to the billing amount determination unit 17-2, when determining the ratio of allocating the operation cost of the data center 5-2 to each of the customers A to D, a relatively large amount of revenue was obtained with a small server resource allocation amount. A high ratio can be set for the estimated customers A to D, and a low ratio can be set for the customers A to D that are estimated to have made relatively small profits with many server resource allocations. You can charge a high billing amount only if you are.

[3] Others The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
For example, in the embodiment described above, the case where the revenue estimation unit 14 estimates the manufacturing cost if the business type of the customer generates the manufacturing cost has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the manufacturing cost corresponding to the number of sales is acquired from the customer at the time of the outsourcing contract, and the amount of profit is estimated using the manufacturing cost held in advance by the profit estimation unit 14. May be.

In the above-described embodiment, the business types of the customers A to D have been described as examples. However, the business types of customers for which the revenue amount estimation unit 14 of the present invention estimates the revenue amount are not limited thereto. .
For example, in the service provision type, the user needs to make a reservation in advance to provide the service (advance reservation type), the service is provided in response to the user's request as needed (provisional supply type), ASP (Application Service) Providers) and video streaming delivery, and the SLA as viewed from the user is important (SLA-oriented type).

In addition, the product provision type is a made-to-order production type that receives orders, mass production type based on expected demand (mass production type), and products that require immediate response to fluctuations in demand such as electricity, gas, and water There are three types (resource supply type).
In the case of the advance reservation type business model, typical business types may be passenger airlines and hotels. In this case, as in the above-described embodiment, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 uses the turnover rate of vacant rooms and vacant seats. The model that affects the amount of revenue recorded is calculated from the customer and the amount of revenue is estimated.

  In the order-to-order type, the revenue estimation unit 14 records the impact model on the revenue recorded by the discount system for bulk mass orders and long-lasting orders, and records seasonal fluctuations in service unit prices due to fluctuations in demand during busy and quiet periods. Estimate the amount of revenue by obtaining from the customer the model for the impact on revenue, the cost impact on the revenue for the expansion of production capacity and shortening the delivery time throughout the supply chain.

In the mass production type, the profit amount estimation unit 14 is caused by the model of the effect of the inventory maintenance cost fluctuation due to the deviation of the production plan and the fluctuation of the order quantity on the recorded revenue, the seasonal fluctuation of the demand for seasonal goods. Estimate the amount of revenue by obtaining from the customer a model model for the impact of seasonal fluctuations in the unit price of the product to be recorded and a model for the impact of the decline in manufacturing costs due to an increase in cumulative production.
Further, as common to all types, the revenue amount estimation unit 14 estimates the amount of revenue by acquiring from the customer an evaluation model for the impact on the recorded revenue of the discount strategy for the share competition with the competitors. Good.

  The resource management unit 11 (allocation amount acquisition unit 11a and operation result acquisition unit 11c), operation cost management units 12-1 and 12-2, operation cost unit price calculation unit 13, revenue amount estimation unit 14, and scheduled charge amount The computer (including a CPU, an information processing device, and various terminals) functions as the calculation unit 15, the scheduled charge unit price calculation unit 16, the charge amount determination units 17-1 and 17-2, and the minimum payment amount calculation unit 18. It may be realized by executing a predetermined application program (billing amount determination program).

  The program is, for example, a computer such as a flexible disk, CD (CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, etc.), DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD + R, DVD + RW, etc.). It is provided in a form recorded on a readable recording medium. In this case, the computer reads the charge amount determination program from the recording medium, transfers it to the internal storage device or the external storage device, and uses it. Further, the program may be recorded in a storage device (recording medium) such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or a magneto-optical disk, and provided from the storage device to a computer via a communication line.

  Here, the computer is a concept including hardware and an OS (operating system) and means hardware that operates under the control of the OS. Further, when the OS is unnecessary and the hardware is operated by the application program alone, the hardware itself corresponds to the computer. The hardware includes at least a microprocessor such as a CPU and means for reading a computer program recorded on a recording medium.

  The application program as the billing amount determination program includes a resource management unit 11 (allocation acquisition unit 11a and operation result acquisition unit 11c), operation cost management units 12-1 and 12-2, operation cost, and the like on the computer described above. Functions as the unit price calculation unit 13, the revenue amount estimation unit 14, the scheduled charge amount calculation unit 15, the scheduled charge unit price calculation unit 16, the charge amount determination units 17-1 and 17-2, and the minimum payment amount calculation unit 18 are realized. Contains program code to make Also, some of the functions may be realized by the OS instead of the application program.

  In addition to the above-described flexible disk, CD, DVD, magnetic disk, optical disk, and magneto-optical disk, the recording medium according to this embodiment includes an IC card, ROM cartridge, magnetic tape, punch card, and internal storage device of a computer ( It is also possible to use various computer-readable media such as a memory such as a RAM or a ROM, an external storage device, or a printed matter on which a code such as a barcode is printed.

[4] Appendix (Appendix 1)
An apparatus for allocating a server to a customer and determining a billing amount for the customer in a system for providing the customer's network service,
A resource management unit for managing the allocated amount of the server to the customer within a predetermined period;
An operational cost management unit for managing operational costs related to the server allocated to the customer within the predetermined period;
A revenue amount estimation unit for estimating a revenue amount of the customer within the predetermined period;
A scheduled billing amount calculation unit for calculating a planned billing amount for the customer based on the revenue amount;
A billing amount determination device comprising: a billing amount determination unit that determines a billing amount for the customer within the predetermined period based on the operation cost and the scheduled billing amount.

(Appendix 2)
Based on the operation cost, an operation cost unit price calculation unit that calculates an operation cost unit price per unit server resource related to the server assigned to the customer;
A scheduled billing unit price calculator for calculating a scheduled billing unit price per unit server resource of the customer based on the allocated amount of the server and the scheduled billing amount;
The billing amount determination apparatus according to appendix 1, wherein the billing amount determination unit determines the billing amount based on the operation cost unit price and the scheduled billing unit price.

(Appendix 3)
The charging amount determination unit compares the operating cost unit price with the scheduled charging unit price, and determines the charging amount according to the operating cost if the operating cost unit price is higher, and the planned charging unit price is more The charge amount determining apparatus according to appendix 2, wherein a charge amount corresponding to the scheduled charge amount is determined if it is higher.

(Appendix 4)
An apparatus for allocating a server to each of a plurality of customers and determining a billing amount for each customer in a system for providing the customer's network service,
A resource management unit for managing the allocated amount of the server to each customer within a predetermined period;
A revenue amount estimation unit for estimating a revenue amount of each customer within the predetermined period;
A scheduled charge amount calculation unit for calculating a planned charge amount for each customer based on the revenue amount;
A scheduled charging unit price calculation unit for calculating a scheduled charging unit price per unit server resource of each customer based on the allocated amount of the server and the scheduled charging amount;
An operational cost management unit for managing operational costs related to the server within the predetermined period;
A billing amount determination device, comprising: a billing amount determination unit that determines a billing amount for each customer within the predetermined period based on the scheduled billing unit price of each customer and the operation cost.

(Appendix 5)
A minimum payment amount calculation unit that calculates a ratio of each scheduled charge unit price of each customer to a total sum of the scheduled charge unit prices of the plurality of customers, and calculates the minimum payment amount of each customer by multiplying the operation cost by the ratio With
The additional charge 4 is characterized in that the charge amount determination unit compares the minimum payment amount and the scheduled charge amount for each customer and determines the charge amount of the customer based on a higher amount. Charge amount determination device.

(Appendix 6)
The charging amount determining unit determines the charging amount of the customer according to the minimum payment amount if the minimum payment amount is higher, and according to the planned charging amount if the planned charging amount is higher. 6. A billing amount determining apparatus according to appendix 5, wherein the billing amount of the customer is determined.
(Appendix 7)
Any one of appendices 1 to 6, wherein the revenue amount estimation unit estimates the revenue amount of the customer according to the business type of the customer based on the operation performance of the server within the predetermined period. The billing amount determination apparatus according to claim 1.

(Appendix 8)
A billing amount determination program for causing a computer to realize a function of determining a billing amount for the customer in a system for allocating a server to the customer and providing the customer's network service,
A resource management unit for managing an allocation amount of the server to the customer within a predetermined period;
An operational cost management unit for managing operational costs related to the server assigned to the customer within the predetermined period;
Revenue amount estimation unit for estimating the revenue amount of the customer within the predetermined period,
A scheduled charge amount calculation unit for calculating a planned charge amount of the customer based on the revenue amount; and
A billing amount determination program that causes the computer to function as a billing amount determination unit that determines a billing amount for a customer within the predetermined period based on the operation cost and the scheduled billing amount.

(Appendix 9)
Based on the operation cost, an operation cost unit price calculation unit for calculating an operation cost unit price per unit server resource related to the server assigned to the customer, and
Based on the allocated amount of the server and the scheduled charge amount, the computer functions as a scheduled charge unit price calculation unit that calculates a scheduled charge unit price per unit server resource of the customer,
9. The charge amount determination program according to appendix 8, wherein the charge amount determination unit causes the computer to function so as to determine the charge amount based on the operation cost unit price and the scheduled charge unit price.

(Appendix 10)
The charging amount determination unit compares the operating cost unit price with the scheduled charging unit price, and determines the charging amount according to the operating cost if the operating cost unit price is higher, and the planned charging unit price is more The charge amount determination program according to appendix 9, wherein the computer is caused to function so as to determine a charge amount corresponding to the scheduled charge amount if it is higher.

(Appendix 11)
A charge amount determination program for causing a computer to realize a function of determining a charge amount for each customer in a system for allocating a server to each of a plurality of customers and providing the customer's network service,
Resource management for managing the allocated amount of the server to each customer within a predetermined period;
Revenue amount estimation unit that estimates the revenue amount of each customer within the predetermined period,
A scheduled billing amount calculation unit for calculating a scheduled billing amount for each customer based on the revenue amount;
A scheduled charging unit price calculation unit for calculating a scheduled charging unit price per unit server resource of each customer based on the allocated amount of the server and the scheduled charging amount;
An operational cost management unit for managing operational costs related to the server within the predetermined period; and
Charging amount determination characterized by causing the computer to function as a charging amount determination unit that determines a charging amount within the predetermined period of each customer based on the scheduled charging unit price of each customer and the operation cost program.

(Appendix 12)
A minimum payment amount calculation unit that calculates a ratio of each scheduled charge unit price of each customer to a total sum of the scheduled charge unit prices of the plurality of customers, and calculates the minimum payment amount of each customer by multiplying the operation cost by the ratio As the computer functions as
The charge amount determination unit compares the minimum payment amount with the scheduled charge amount for each customer and causes the computer to function to determine the charge amount of the customer based on a higher amount. A billing amount determination program according to appendix 11, which is a feature.

(Appendix 13)
The charging amount determining unit determines the charging amount of the customer according to the minimum payment amount if the minimum payment amount is higher, and according to the planned charging amount if the planned charging amount is higher. 13. The charge amount determination program according to appendix 12, wherein the computer is caused to function so as to determine the charge amount of the customer.

(Appendix 14)
A computer-readable recording medium storing a billing amount determination program for causing a computer to realize a function of determining a billing amount for a customer in a system for assigning a server to a customer and providing a network service for the customer. And
The billing amount determination program is
A resource management unit for managing an allocation amount of the server to the customer within a predetermined period;
An operational cost management unit for managing operational costs related to the server assigned to the customer within the predetermined period;
Revenue amount estimation unit for estimating the revenue amount of the customer within the predetermined period,
A scheduled charge amount calculation unit for calculating a planned charge amount of the customer based on the revenue amount; and
A computer recorded with a billing amount determination program, wherein the computer is caused to function as a billing amount determination unit for determining a billing amount for the customer within the predetermined period based on the operation cost and the scheduled billing amount. A readable recording medium.

(Appendix 15)
The billing amount determination program is
Based on the operation cost, an operation cost unit price calculation unit for calculating an operation cost unit price per unit server resource related to the server assigned to the customer, and
Based on the allocated amount of the server and the scheduled charge amount, the computer functions as a scheduled charge unit price calculation unit that calculates a scheduled charge unit price per unit server resource of the customer,
15. The charge amount determination program according to claim 14, wherein the charge amount determination unit causes the computer to function so as to determine the charge amount based on the operation cost unit price and the scheduled charge unit price. A recorded computer-readable recording medium.

(Appendix 16)
The charging amount determination unit compares the operating cost unit price with the scheduled charging unit price, and determines the charging amount according to the operating cost if the operating cost unit price is higher, and the planned charging unit price is more The computer-readable record recording the billing amount determination program according to appendix 15, wherein the billing amount determination program causes the computer to function so as to determine a billing amount according to the scheduled billing amount if it is higher Medium.

(Appendix 17)
A charge amount determination program for causing a computer to realize a function of determining a charge amount for each customer in a system for allocating a server to each of a plurality of customers and providing the customer's network service,
Resource management for managing the allocated amount of the server to each customer within a predetermined period;
Revenue amount estimation unit that estimates the revenue amount of each customer within the predetermined period,
A scheduled billing amount calculation unit for calculating a scheduled billing amount for each customer based on the revenue amount;
A scheduled charging unit price calculation unit for calculating a scheduled charging unit price per unit server resource of each customer based on the allocated amount of the server and the scheduled charging amount;
An operational cost management unit for managing operational costs related to the server within the predetermined period; and
Charging amount determination characterized by causing the computer to function as a charging amount determination unit that determines a charging amount within the predetermined period of each customer based on the scheduled charging unit price of each customer and the operation cost A computer-readable recording medium on which a program is recorded.

(Appendix 18)
The billing amount determination program is
A minimum payment amount calculation unit that calculates a ratio of each scheduled charge unit price of each customer to a total sum of the scheduled charge unit prices of the plurality of customers, and calculates the minimum payment amount of each customer by multiplying the operation cost by the ratio As the computer functions as
The charge amount determination unit compares the minimum payment amount with the scheduled charge amount for each customer and causes the computer to function to determine the charge amount of the customer based on a higher amount. A computer-readable recording medium on which the charge amount determination program according to appendix 17 is recorded.

(Appendix 19)
The charging amount determining unit determines the charging amount of the customer according to the minimum payment amount if the minimum payment amount is higher, and according to the planned charging amount if the planned charging amount is higher. The computer-readable recording medium storing the billing amount determination program according to appendix 18, wherein the billing amount determination program causes the computer to function so as to determine the billing amount of the customer.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the charge amount determination apparatus as 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a change of the customer's inventory maintenance cost which the charge amount determination apparatus as 1st Embodiment of this invention determines a charge amount. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the change of the stock quantity of the customer's goods which the charge amount determination apparatus as 1st Embodiment of this invention determines a charge amount. It is a figure for demonstrating the example of the increase in the manufacturing cost of the customer's goods for which the charge amount determination apparatus as 1st Embodiment of this invention determines a charge amount. It is a figure which shows an example of the annual change of the unit price according to the kind of customer's service for which the charge amount determination apparatus as 1st Embodiment of this invention determines a charge amount. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the charge amount determination apparatus as 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1-1, 1-2 Network system 2-1, 2-2, 2-n, 2 Server 3-1, 3-2, 3-m, 3 User terminal 4 Network 5-1, 5-2 Data center 10-1, 10-2 Billing amount determination device 11 Resource management unit 11a Allocation amount acquisition unit 11b Allocation amount holding unit 11c Operation result acquisition unit 11d Operation result storage unit 12-1, 12-2 Operation cost management unit 13 Operation cost unit price Calculation unit 14 Revenue amount estimation unit 15 Scheduled charge amount calculation unit 16 Scheduled charge unit price calculation unit 17-1, 17-2 Charge amount determination unit 18 Minimum payment amount calculation unit

Claims (5)

Assigns a server for each of a plurality of customers, in a system for providing a network service of the customer, a device for determine the billing amount for each customer,
A resource management unit having a holding portion that holds the quota of the server for each client in Jo Tokoro period,
Is obtained based on the log of the server assigned to each customer, based on the operation results held in the holding portion, and earnings estimator for estimating the earnings of each customer within the predetermined period,
And the planned charge amount calculating unit for calculating the scheduled billing amount of each customer in accordance with the previous Symbol earnings,
Based on the said predetermined charge amount and quota held before Symbol holder, the scheduled charging unit price calculation unit for calculating a scheduled charging unit price is expected charge amount per unit server resources for each customer,
And operational costs management unit for managing, based on allocation amount held operational costs of the server to the holding portion before Symbol within a predetermined time period,
A minimum payment amount calculation unit for calculating, as a minimum payment amount of each customer, a value obtained by multiplying the operation cost by a ratio of the planned charging unit price of each customer to the total of the scheduled charging unit prices of the plurality of customers;
A billing amount determining apparatus, comprising: a billing amount determining unit that determines a billing amount of each customer within the predetermined period according to the minimum amount of payment of the customer. Before listen amount determination unit, the comparison a minimum payment amount and said expected charge amount, and determines the charge amount of the customer based on the amount of higher for each of the customer, claim 1 billing amount determination device according. The charging amount determining unit determines the charging amount of the customer according to the minimum payment amount if the minimum payment amount is higher, and according to the planned charging amount if the planned charging amount is higher. 3. The billing amount determination apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the billing amount of the customer is determined. A charge amount determination program for causing a computer to realize a function of determining a charge amount for each customer in a system for allocating a server to each of a plurality of customers and providing the customer's network service,
Resource management unit for holding the hold portion quota of the server for each customer within a predetermined time period,
Each customer is acquired based on the server logs assigned, based on the operation results held in the holding unit, revenue estimator for estimating the earnings of each customer within the predetermined period,
A scheduled billing amount calculation unit for calculating a scheduled billing amount for each customer according to the revenue amount;
A scheduled billing unit price calculation unit that calculates a scheduled billing unit price that is a scheduled billing amount per unit server resource of each customer, based on the allocated amount held in the holding unit and the scheduled billing amount;
An operation cost management unit that manages an operation cost related to the server within the predetermined period based on an allocated amount held in the holding unit;
A minimum payment amount calculation unit for calculating, as a minimum payment amount of each customer, a value obtained by multiplying the operation cost by a ratio of the planned charging unit price of each customer to the total of the scheduled charging unit prices of the plurality of customers; and
A billing amount determination program that causes the computer to function as a billing amount determination unit that determines a billing amount for each customer within the predetermined period in accordance with the minimum payment amount of the customer . A computer readable recording of a billing amount determination program for causing a computer to realize a function of determining a billing amount for each customer in a system for allocating a server to each of a plurality of customers and providing the customer's network service A recording medium,
The billing amount determination program is
Resource management unit for holding the hold portion quota of the server for each customer within a predetermined time period,
Each customer is acquired based on the server logs assigned, based on the operation results held in the holding unit, revenue estimator for estimating the earnings of each customer within the predetermined period,
A scheduled billing amount calculation unit for calculating a scheduled billing amount for each customer according to the revenue amount;
A scheduled billing unit price calculation unit that calculates a scheduled billing unit price that is a scheduled billing amount per unit server resource of each customer, based on the allocated amount held in the holding unit and the scheduled billing amount;
An operation cost management unit that manages an operation cost related to the server within the predetermined period based on an allocated amount held in the holding unit;
A minimum payment amount calculation unit for calculating, as a minimum payment amount of each customer, a value obtained by multiplying the operation cost by a ratio of the planned charging unit price of each customer to the total of the scheduled charging unit prices of the plurality of customers; and
Recording medium storing a billing amount determination program, wherein the computer is caused to function as a billing amount determination unit that determines a billing amount of each customer within the predetermined period according to the minimum payment amount of the customer .

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