WO2024067672A1

WO2024067672A1 - Cloud resource charging method, cloud management platform, computing device, and storage medium

Info

Publication number: WO2024067672A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/121921
Authority: WO
Inventors: 王楠楠
Original assignee: 华为云计算技术有限公司
Priority date: 2022-09-30
Filing date: 2023-09-27
Publication date: 2024-04-04
Also published as: CN117857228A

Abstract

Disclosed in the present application are a cloud resource charging method, a cloud management platform, a computing device, and a storage medium. The cloud resource charging method comprises: a cloud management platform determining configuration information which is selected or input by a tenant and is related to one or more services to be deployed; then according to the configuration information, determining requirements of the one or more services for cloud resources; and then generating a corresponding cloud resource charging policy according to the requirements of the one or more services for the cloud resources, such that the cloud management platform charges for the cloud resources required by the one or more services. By means of the cloud resource charging policy determined by means of the method, the requirement of a service for cloud resources can be matched, such that the charging policy can reduce the costs of the tenant for using the cloud resources.

Description

Cloud resource billing method, cloud management platform, computing equipment and storage medium

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on September 30, 2022, with application number 202211206059.7 and application name “Billing method for cloud resources, cloud management platform, computing device and storage medium”, all contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of cloud computing technology, and in particular to a cloud resource billing method, a cloud management platform, a computing device, and a storage medium.

Background technique

With the emergence of cloud computing technology, cloud services have been widely used. In specific implementations, some cloud services are provided to tenants only after they purchase the corresponding cloud resources. At present, there are two main billing strategies (also called billing modes) for cloud resources: on-demand billing (i.e., settlement based on the usage of cloud resources) and package period (such as annual or monthly packages). The billing rules of the above two billing strategies are relatively simple, so they cannot provide tenants with more favorable purchase prices.

Summary of the invention

The present application provides a cloud resource billing method, a cloud management platform, a computing device, and a storage medium, which can provide tenants with a more favorable cloud resource purchasing strategy, thereby reducing the cost of tenants using cloud resources.

In the first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a cloud resource billing method, the method comprising: a cloud management platform determines the configuration information selected or input by the tenant and related to one or more services to be deployed, and then determines the demand for cloud resources of the one or more services based on the configuration information, and then generates a corresponding cloud resource billing policy based on the demand for cloud resources of the one or more services, so that the cloud management platform bills the cloud resources required by the one or more services. It should be understood that since the cloud resource billing policy determined by the method can match the demand for cloud resources of the service, compared with on-demand billing and package period billing, the billing policy can reduce the cost of tenants using cloud resources.

In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the cloud management platform determines the demand for cloud resources of the one or more services according to the configuration information, including: the cloud management platform obtains the historical usage of cloud resources of the one or more services according to the configuration information, and then determines the minimum amount of cloud resources that can meet the demand of the one or more services according to the historical usage of cloud resources. It should be understood that the historical usage of cloud resources by the service can reflect the load of the service in the historical time period and the demand for cloud resources. Then, the demand for cloud resources by the service in the future time period determined by analyzing the historical usage of cloud resources by the service is accurate, so that the billing strategy of cloud resources determined subsequently is more suitable for the actual situation.

In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the above-mentioned billing strategy includes a package period billing strategy and an on-demand billing strategy, a portion of the cloud resources required for the above-mentioned one or more services are billed according to the package period billing strategy, and another portion of the cloud resources required for the above-mentioned one or more services are billed according to the on-demand billing strategy. It should be understood that for the same cloud resources, package period billing is more favorable than on-demand billing. Therefore, compared with the on-demand billing strategy in the prior art, the billing strategy provided by the embodiment of the present application is more favorable. In addition, if billing is performed according to the package period billing strategy in the prior art, then in general, in order to ensure the normal execution of the business, the tenant needs to pay a package period fee that exceeds the actual usage of the cloud resources. Therefore, compared with the package period billing strategy in the prior art, the billing strategy provided by the embodiment of the present application is more favorable.

In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the cloud management platform preferentially deploys the above one or more services to cloud resources charged according to the package period billing policy according to the billing policy of cloud resources. Furthermore, when the cloud resources charged according to the package period billing policy are exhausted, the cloud management platform deploys the remaining services to the cloud resources charged according to the on-demand billing policy for execution. In this way, the services can occupy more cloud resources charged according to the package period billing policy and less cloud resources charged according to the on-demand billing policy, that is, the cloud resources required by the services are more charged according to the package period billing policy, thereby reducing the cost of tenants using cloud resources.

In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the above-mentioned multiple services include a first service and a second service, and the above-mentioned cloud management platform preferentially deploys the above-mentioned one or more services to cloud resources charged according to the package period charging policy according to the billing policy of cloud resources, including: when the first service or the second service does not support the reuse of cloud resources, the cloud management platform preferentially deploys the first service and the second service to different cloud resources charged according to the package period charging policy. It should be understood that in actual applications, in order to ensure the security of the first service and the second service, the first service and the second service need to be isolated, that is, the first service and the second service do not support the reuse of cloud resources. Through the above implementation, the first service and the second service can occupy more cloud resources charged according to the package period charging policy, thereby reducing the cost of tenants using cloud resources while ensuring the security of the first service and the second service.

In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: when the business volume of the second business decreases, the cloud management platform releases the cloud resources on which part of the second business is deployed, and deploys part of the first business to the released cloud resources for execution. In this way, the first business can occupy less cloud resources that are billed on demand, thereby reducing the cost of using cloud resources for tenants.

In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the configuration information includes a minimum number of instances and a maximum number of instances in an auto scaling (AS) group, and the method further includes: the cloud management platform deploys instances corresponding to the minimum number of instances to cloud resources billed according to a package period billing policy. In this way, the instances corresponding to the minimum number of instances do not occupy cloud resources billed according to on-demand billing, thereby ensuring that the cost of using these instances by tenants is the lowest.

In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the cloud management platform provides the tenant with a cloud resource billing policy for the tenant to choose from, so that the tenant can choose a suitable cloud resource billing policy according to business needs.

In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the cloud resources may include one or more computing instances such as virtual machines (VM), containers, bare metal servers (BMS), and function graphs; may also include one or more storage instances such as object storage services (OBS) and elastic volume services (EVS); may also include one or more network instances such as elastic internet protocol (EIP) and network address translation (NAT) gateways.

In the second aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a cloud management platform, which includes a determination module and a billing module. The determination module is used to determine the configuration information selected or input by the tenant and related to one or more services to be deployed, and determine the demand for cloud resources of the one or more services based on the configuration information; the billing module is used to generate a corresponding cloud resource billing policy based on the demand for cloud resources of the one or more services, so that the cloud management platform bills the cloud resources required by the one or more services.

In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the determination module is used to obtain historical usage of cloud resources for the one or more services based on configuration information, and then determine the minimum amount of cloud resources that can meet the one or more service requirements based on the historical usage of cloud resources.

In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the above-mentioned billing policy includes a package period billing policy and an on-demand billing policy, a part of the cloud resources required for the above-mentioned one or more services are billed according to the package period billing policy, and another part of the cloud resources required for the above-mentioned one or more services are billed according to the on-demand billing policy.

In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the cloud management platform further includes a service scheduling module, wherein the service scheduling module is used to preferentially deploy the one or more services to cloud resources charged according to a packet period billing policy according to a billing policy of cloud resources.

In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the multiple services include a first service and a second service, and the service scheduling module is used to preferentially deploy the first service and the second service on different cloud resources that are billed according to a packet period billing policy when the first service or the second service does not support reuse of cloud resources.

In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the service scheduling module is further configured to release cloud resources on which part of the second service is deployed when the service volume of the second service decreases, and deploy part of the first service to the released cloud resources for execution.

In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the above-mentioned configuration information includes the minimum number of instances and the maximum number of instances in the AS group, and the above-mentioned service scheduling module is also used to deploy instances corresponding to the minimum number of instances to cloud resources charged according to the package period billing policy.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the billing module is further used to provide billing policies for cloud resources to tenants for selection.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the cloud resources include one or more of VM, container, BMS, and function workflow.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computing device, which includes a processor and a memory, and the processor executes computer program code in the memory to implement part or all of the method described in the first aspect and any implementation method of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program code. When the computer program code is executed by a computing device, the computing device executes part or all of the method described in the first aspect and any one of the implementations of the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, which may be software or a program product containing instructions and capable of running on a computing device or stored in any available medium. When the computer program product is run on at least one computing device, the at least one computing device executes part or all of the method described in the first aspect and any implementation of the first aspect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a method in which a cloud service provider provides cloud services to tenants according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG2 is a flow chart of a cloud resource billing method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

3 is a schematic diagram of an interface for a cloud management platform provided in an embodiment of the present application to display purchasable cloud resources to tenants;

4 is a schematic diagram of an interface of an optional cloud resource billing strategy displayed to a tenant by a cloud management platform provided in an embodiment of the present application;

5 is a schematic diagram of an interface of a recommended cloud resource billing strategy displayed to a tenant by a cloud management platform provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a method for purchasing a VM provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG7 is a schematic diagram of a method for purchasing CCI provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG8 is a schematic diagram of a method for purchasing an AS provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG9 is a schematic diagram of a method for purchasing VM, CCE, and function workflow provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG10 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a cloud management platform provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG11 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a computing device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG12 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a computing device cluster provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of the structure of another computing device cluster provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

In order to make the technical solution provided by the present application clearer, the terms and application scenarios involved in the following embodiments of the present application are first described in detail below.

Cloud computing: is a delivery and use model of Internet technology (IT) infrastructure. In this model, cloud service providers build cloud data centers, which include a large number of infrastructures, such as computing resources, storage resources, and network resources. Computing resources can be a large number of computing devices (such as servers), storage resources can be a large number of storage devices (such as disks), and network resources can be a large number of network devices (such as routers and network cards). Cloud computing is centralized and far away from terminal devices, which include terminal servers, smartphones, laptops, tablets, personal desktop computers, cameras, sensors, etc. Therefore, for services with high real-time requirements (such as live broadcasting), deploying services in cloud data centers will cause problems such as longer network delays, network congestion, and reduced service quality; and terminal devices usually have insufficient computing power and cannot be compared with the cloud. In this case, edge computing is born.

Edge computing: is a supplement to the cloud computing model. In this model, cloud service providers extend the computing power of the cloud to edge node clusters close to terminal devices by establishing edge node clusters in areas close to terminal devices, thereby effectively responding to services with high real-time requirements. Among them, edge node clusters also include many infrastructures, but compared with cloud data centers, edge node clusters include fewer infrastructures.

In actual applications, a cloud service provider can provide cloud services to tenants through one or more cloud resources on a cloud data center or an edge node cluster, wherein the cloud resources on the cloud data center are provided by the infrastructure on the cloud data center, and the cloud resources on the edge node cluster are provided by the infrastructure on the edge node cluster. In an embodiment of the present application, the cloud resources on the cloud data center and the cloud resources on the edge node cluster can be collectively referred to as cloud resources owned by the cloud service provider, and the cloud resources owned by the cloud service provider may include one or more of the following: VM, BMS, containers (such as cloud container engine (CCE), cloud container instance (CCI)), computing instances such as function workflows, storage instances such as OBS and EVS, and network instances such as EIP and NAT gateways.

It is worth noting that the above cloud resources can have different names. For example, different standards, different versions of the same standard, or different cloud service providers can have different names for the above cloud resources. For example, "VM" can also be called a cloud server (elastic compute service, ECS) or an elastic instance.

The cloud service provider can provide cloud services to tenants in the manner shown in FIG1 . As shown in FIG1 , the cloud management platform 100 provides an access interface (such as a user interface (UI) or an application programming interface (API)), and the tenant 200 can operate a client (such as a browser) to remotely access the above access interface to register a cloud account and password on the cloud management platform 100, and log in to the cloud management platform 100 through the cloud account and password. After the cloud management platform 100 successfully authenticates the cloud account and password, the tenant 200 can further input or select information related to the cloud service to be implemented in the above access interface, and then the cloud management platform 100 configures the cloud service providing node 300 according to the above information, and provides the corresponding cloud service to the tenant 200 through the configured cloud service providing node 300. Among them, the cloud service providing node 300 includes at least one of cloud resources on the cloud data center and cloud resources on the edge node cluster.

In specific implementations, cloud service providers usually provide cloud services to tenants for free or for a fee. For paid cloud services, since tenants obtain cloud services by renting cloud resources owned by cloud service providers, tenants need to pay the cloud service providers for the use of cloud resources.

The embodiment of the present application provides a cloud resource billing method, which analyzes the historical usage of cloud resources required by tenants' businesses and provides tenants with a more favorable cloud resource purchase strategy, thereby reducing the cost of using cloud resources for tenants. Specifically, the method is implemented based on the following principles:

Businesses fluctuate. For example, the volume of a business increases dramatically during period A, while the volume of a business decreases dramatically during period B. The amount of cloud resources required to execute a business in different time periods (i.e., the amount of cloud resources required for a business in different time periods) is different. For example, more cloud resources are required to execute the business in time period A, while fewer cloud resources are required to execute the business in time period B. Based on this phenomenon, the cloud resources required for a business can be divided into two parts: basic cloud resources and fluctuating cloud resources. Basic cloud resources refer to the minimum cloud resources required to execute a business; fluctuating cloud resources refer to the cloud resources required to execute a business in addition to basic cloud resources in actual situations. For example, in the past month, at least 100 VMs and at most 150 VMs were required to execute a business. In this case, the basic cloud resources are 100 VMs and the fluctuating cloud resources are 50 VMs.

After research, it was found that for the same cloud resources, package billing is more favorable than on-demand billing (for example, it can be discounted by 30%-50%), and annual payment is more favorable than monthly payment. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application proposes: based on the historical usage of cloud resources required by the business, the amount of basic cloud resources required for future business is estimated, and then the billing strategy of this part of the estimated basic cloud resources is configured as package billing, and the billing strategy of the fluctuating cloud resources required by the business during the actual execution process is configured as on-demand billing. Compared with the "on-demand billing" strategy and the "package billing" strategy in the prior art, the "package + on-demand billing" strategy proposed in the embodiment of the present application is more favorable for the following reasons: The "on-demand billing" strategy is a post-paid strategy, that is, billing according to the actual usage time of cloud resources, for example, second-level billing and hourly settlement. The "package billing" strategy is a prepaid strategy, that is, billing according to the purchase cycle (month or year) of cloud resources. The "package + pay-as-you-go" strategy is a combined billing strategy, which is equivalent to paying for part of the cloud resources required by the business according to the "package billing" strategy, and paying for the other part of the cloud resources according to the "pay-as-you-go" strategy. Compared with the "pay-as-you-go" strategy, which charges all cloud resources required by the business according to the "pay-as-you-go" strategy, the price of the above combined billing strategy is more favorable. In order to ensure the normal execution of the business in the "package billing" strategy, tenants generally need to pay a package fee that exceeds the actual usage of cloud resources, which may not only increase the cost of tenants using cloud resources, but also cause waste of resources. Therefore, the above combined billing strategy is more favorable than the "package billing" strategy and will not cause waste of resources.

The above cloud resource billing method is described in detail below in conjunction with Figure 2. In order to facilitate understanding of the method, the embodiment of the present application will describe it based on the application scenario shown in Figure 1.

S101: The cloud management platform 100 determines the configuration information input or selected by the tenant 200.

Specifically, the tenant 200 remotely accesses the access interface (such as UI or API) provided by the cloud management platform 100 by operating the client (such as a browser), and then operates on the cloud management platform 100 through the access interface (including inputting or selecting configuration information), so that the cloud management platform 100 can determine the configuration information input or selected by the tenant 200. Among them, the configuration information input or selected by the tenant includes relevant information of the tenant's business, such as: tenant identification (such as the tenant's cloud account and password), the name of the tenant's business, and the configuration information of the cloud resources required for the tenant's business. Tenant business refers to one or more businesses that the tenant 200 wants to deploy. The cloud resources required for the tenant's business refer to one or more cloud resources needed to run the tenant's business, which may specifically include computing instances such as VM, containers (such as CCE, CCI), BMS, function workflows, storage instances such as OBS, EVS, and one or more network instances such as EIP and NAT gateway. The configuration information of the cloud resources required for the tenant's business may include, for example, the type and specifications of the cloud resources. It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application do not limit what the above configuration information specifically includes, and the actual content included may be adaptively changed according to the type and specifications of the cloud resources used and the needs of the tenant's business. For example, when the cloud resource required for the tenant's business is a VM, the configuration information of the cloud resource may include the virtual private cloud (VPC), subnet and host machine to which the VM belongs; when the cloud resource required for the tenant's business is an EIP, the configuration information of the cloud resource may include the instance bound to the EIP (such as VM, BMS or VPC), the bandwidth size of the EIP, the network address of the EIP, etc.

Taking VM as an example, the above configuration information is explained as follows:

First, tenant 200 logs in to cloud management platform 100 using the registered cloud account and password through the access interface provided by cloud management platform 100. Afterwards, as shown in FIG3 , cloud management platform 100 displays to tenant 200 through UI 400 a variety of cloud resources provided by cloud service providers and available to tenants, such as VM, BMS, OBS, EIP, AS, container, function workflow, etc. Tenants can select appropriate cloud resources (here is VM) from them according to their own business needs. As can be seen from the figure, after the tenant clicks the "VM" option, it jumps to the VM purchase interface (i.e., UI 500). In addition, UI 400 also provides a "cloud resource search" box, in which tenants can directly enter the cloud resources (such as VM) they want to use, and in this way, they can also enter UI 500.

UI 500 includes multiple columns such as "billing strategy", "service name", "region", "availability zones (AZ)", "specifications", "network", and "VM name". The tenant can perform the following operations according to the prompts of UI 500: select a suitable billing strategy from the various cloud resource billing strategies provided by the cloud management platform 100, that is, when the tenant clicks the "yearly/monthly" strategy, the cloud management platform 100 will charge according to the purchase cycle of the VM; when the tenant clicks the "on-demand billing" strategy, the cloud management platform 100 will charge according to the actual usage time of the VM; when the tenant clicks the "recommended billing" strategy, the cloud management platform 100 will execute the cloud resource billing method provided in the embodiment of the present application (i.e., S101-S104) to recommend a more favorable billing strategy to the tenant. Tenants can also select the location of the data center to which the VM belongs in the "Region" and "Availability Zone" columns, select the specific specifications of the VM in the "Specifications" column (such as the number of VM processor cores (i.e. the number of vCPU cores), memory size, and the specification name of the VM (such as general computing s7 series, general computing enhanced c6 series)), and select the "Network" column. The VPC and subnet to which the VM belongs, so that the cloud management platform 100 can select a server that supports this specification in the subnet on the VPC of the corresponding data center, and create a VM with this specification on the server. The tenant can also fill in the name of the business that the VM is used to implement in the "Business Name" column, and fill in the name of the VM after the "VM Name" column. Afterwards, if the tenant clicks the "OK" option, the cloud management platform 100 will receive the above configuration information; if the tenant clicks the "Cancel" option, the cloud management platform 100 will return to the previous menu (such as UI 400), so that the cloud management platform 100 will not receive the above configuration information.

It should be understood that FIG. 3 is only an exemplary display of a UI for purchasing a VM, thereby exemplarily describing the contents of the configuration information of the VM when the cloud resource required by the tenant's business is a VM. In actual applications, the UI for purchasing a VM may not include columns such as "Specifications", and the configuration information of the VM will not include information such as the specifications of the VM; or, the UI for purchasing a VM includes other configuration items in addition to the above configuration items, and the configuration information of the VM may also include other configuration information, for example: UI 500 may also include a "Purchase Quantity" option, and the tenant 200 may select the number of VMs to be purchased in this column, and the configuration information of the VM may also include the purchase quantity of the VM.

S102: The cloud management platform 100 determines the demand of the tenant business for cloud resources according to the above configuration information.

Specifically, the cloud management platform 100 obtains the historical usage of cloud resources of the tenant business according to the above configuration information, and then determines the minimum amount of cloud resources that can meet the tenant business needs according to the historical usage of the cloud resources. Among them, the historical usage of cloud resources of the tenant business is used to characterize the demand of the tenant business for cloud resources in historical time, and may specifically include the amount of cloud resources required to run the tenant business in historical time (including the number and specifications of used cloud resources). The above minimum amount of cloud resources that can meet the tenant's needs refers to the amount of basic cloud resources, and the amount of basic cloud resources includes the number of basic cloud resources and the specifications of basic cloud resources.

In some embodiments, the cloud management platform 100 has the function of monitoring the usage of cloud resources. Specifically, when using cloud resources to run tenant services, the cloud management platform 100 will collect and record the usage data of cloud resources in real time or periodically (1 hour), wherein the usage data of cloud resources includes the amount of cloud resources used, the specifications of cloud resources, and the utilization rate of cloud resources, etc., which can characterize the usage of cloud resources. This is equivalent to the cloud management platform 100 collecting and recording the usage of relevant cloud resources during the operation of tenant services. Since a tenant service may include at least one service, the following will take one service (i.e., the first service) in the tenant service as an example to describe the specific implementation method in which the cloud management platform 100 obtains the usage of cloud resources of the tenant service according to the above configuration information:

Method 1: This is not the first purchase of cloud resources, that is, it is the Nth time (N is a positive integer greater than 1) that the tenant 200 purchases cloud resources on the cloud management platform 100 to run the first business.

In this case, it means that cloud resources have been used to run the first service at a historical time. In other words, the cloud management platform 100 will record the usage data of the relevant cloud resources when running the first service at the above historical time (i.e., the historical usage of the cloud resources of the first service). Then, when the tenant purchases cloud resources for the Nth time to run the first service, the cloud management platform 100 can obtain the tenant identifier and the identifier of the tenant service (here, the identifier of the first service) according to the configuration information in S101 above, and then obtain the historical usage of the cloud resources of the first service according to the tenant identifier and the identifier of the first service.

Method 2: This cloud resource purchase is the first purchase, that is, the tenant 200 purchases cloud resources on the cloud management platform 100 for the first time to run the first business.

In this case, the cloud management platform 100 may allow the cloud resources to be used to run the first service first, collect and record the usage of the cloud resources during the operation, and after a period of operation, use the recorded usage of the cloud resources as the historical usage of the cloud resources of the first service. In this way, the cloud management platform 100 will generate the billing policy for the cloud resources after the first service has been running for a period of time, and accordingly, the tenant 200 can pay for the use of the cloud resources after the first service has been running for a period of time. In this way, even though the tenant 200 is purchasing cloud resources on the cloud management platform 100 for the first time to run the first service, he can still enjoy a preferential price for purchasing cloud resources.

Method 3: The above configuration information includes the historical usage of cloud resources of the first business, that is, the tenant 200 uploads the historical usage of cloud resources of the first business to the cloud management platform 100 through the access interface provided by the cloud management platform 100. In this way, the cloud management platform 100 can also obtain the historical usage of cloud resources of the first business.

It should be understood that, in addition to the above three methods, the cloud management platform 100 may also use other methods to obtain the usage of cloud resources of the first business according to the above configuration information, and this embodiment of the present application is not limited to this. Moreover, in addition to the first business, for other businesses included in the tenant business, the cloud management platform 100 may also use the above methods 1-3 or other methods to obtain the usage of its cloud resources.

Next, still taking the first service among the tenant services as an example, the specific implementation method of the cloud management platform 100 determining the minimum amount of cloud resources (i.e., the amount of basic cloud resources) that can satisfy the tenant services according to the historical usage of the cloud resources of the tenant services is described:

Method 1: As can be seen from the foregoing, the historical usage of cloud resources for the first business includes the usage quantity and specifications of cloud resources in multiple historical time periods. Therefore, the specifications of the basic cloud resources for the first business are the specifications of the cloud resources in the above-mentioned multiple historical time periods, and the quantity of basic cloud resources for the first business is the minimum usage quantity of cloud resources in the above-mentioned multiple historical time periods.

Method 2: The cloud management platform 100 obtains the usage quantity and specification of cloud resources in multiple historical time periods according to the historical usage of cloud resources of the first business, and then calculates the variance (or mean) of the usage quantity of cloud resources in the above multiple historical time periods. The specifications of the basic cloud resources are the specifications of the cloud resources in the above-mentioned multiple historical time periods, and the number of basic cloud resources of the first business is the variance value (or mean) calculated above.

Method 3: The cloud management platform 100 inputs the historical usage of the cloud resources of the first business into an artificial intelligence (AI) model (for example, a back propagation (BP) neural network model, a random forest model), and predicts the amount of basic cloud resources of the first business through learning of the AI model.

It should be understood that, in addition to the above three methods, the cloud management platform 100 may also use other methods to determine the minimum cloud resource amount that can meet the needs of the first business based on the historical usage of the cloud resources of the first business, and this embodiment of the present application is not limited to this. Moreover, in addition to the first business, with respect to other businesses included in the tenant business, the cloud management platform 100 may also use the above methods 1 to 3 or other methods to determine the minimum cloud resource amount that can meet its needs.

The minimum cloud resource amount corresponding to each business in the tenant business can be determined in the above manner. Then, the minimum cloud resource amount that can meet the tenant business needs is the sum of the minimum cloud resource amounts corresponding to the above-mentioned businesses.

In some embodiments, the tenant business is fluctuating. In some cases (such as an increase in the business volume of the tenant business), the basic cloud resources may not be able to meet the needs of the tenant business. In other words, in addition to basic cloud resources, the tenant business may also need fluctuating cloud resources during operation. Therefore, optionally, the tenant business's demand for cloud resources may include not only the amount of the above-mentioned basic cloud resources, but also the amount of fluctuating cloud resources. Among them, the implementation method of the cloud management platform 100 to determine the amount of fluctuating cloud resources is similar to the implementation method of determining the amount of basic cloud resources described above, so this embodiment of the application will not be described in detail.

S103: The cloud management platform 100 generates a billing policy for cloud resources according to the demand for cloud resources by tenant services.

As can be seen from the foregoing, for the same cloud resources, package period billing is more favorable than on-demand billing. Therefore, the cloud management platform 100 generates a billing strategy for cloud resources based on the demand for cloud resources by tenant services, including: the cloud management platform 100 bills the amount of basic cloud resources according to the "package period billing" strategy.

Furthermore, since "package billing" is generally divided into "annual billing" and "monthly billing", and "annual billing" is more favorable than "monthly billing", the cloud management platform 100 bills the amount of basic cloud resources according to the "package billing" strategy, including: the cloud management platform 100 bills the amount of basic cloud resources according to the "annual billing" strategy.

Optionally, since the tenant service demand for cloud resources also includes the amount of fluctuating cloud resources, the cloud management platform 100 generates a billing strategy for cloud resources based on the tenant service demand for cloud resources, and further includes: the cloud management platform 100 generates a billing strategy for fluctuating cloud resources based on the amount of fluctuating cloud resources. In this regard, the present application embodiment proposes the following billing methods:

Method 1: The cloud management platform 100 charges all fluctuating cloud resource quantities according to the “pay as you need it” policy.

Method 2: The cloud management platform 100 charges a portion of the fluctuating cloud resources according to the "monthly billing" strategy, and charges another portion of the fluctuating cloud resources according to the "on-demand billing" strategy.

It should be understood that in actual applications, the following situation may exist: the amount of cloud resources required by the tenant's business in a specific time period far exceeds the amount of basic cloud resources. At this time, if the fluctuating amount of cloud resources is billed according to Method 2, the fees the tenant needs to pay are far less than the fees charged for the fluctuating amount of cloud resources according to Method 1.

In a specific implementation, the cloud management platform 100 first determines in which months the cloud resource usage of the tenant business is greater than the amount of the basic cloud resources based on the historical usage of the tenant business's cloud resources, thereby determining the amount of fluctuating cloud resources in these months. Then, the amount of fluctuating cloud resources determined above is billed according to the "monthly billing" strategy. If, in the actual operation of the tenant business, the amount of basic cloud resources and fluctuating cloud resources determined above still cannot meet the needs of the tenant business, the amount of the additional fluctuating cloud resources required will be billed according to the "on-demand billing" strategy.

For example, assume that the cloud management platform 100 determines that the amount of cloud resources required by the tenant business in April and October of the next year (at least 150 VMs and at least 200 VMs, respectively) is greater than the amount of basic cloud resources (100 VMs) by analyzing the historical usage of cloud resources of the tenant business. In this case, the cloud management platform 100 can prompt the tenant 200 to purchase 100 VMs according to the "annual billing" strategy, and at the end of March, prompt the tenant 200 to continue to purchase 50 VMs according to the "monthly billing" strategy to meet the requirement of at least 150 VMs required in April, and at the end of September, prompt the tenant 200 to continue to purchase 100 VMs according to the "monthly billing" strategy to meet the requirement of at least 200 VMs required in October. For the amount of additional cloud resources required to run the tenant business, the tenant 200 will be prompted to purchase according to the "on-demand billing" strategy. In this way, the tenant 200 only needs to pay the annual fee for 100 VMs, the monthly fee for 150 (50+100) VMs, and the on-demand purchase fee, thereby reducing the fees paid by the tenant 200.

It should be noted that in order to improve the reliability of the billing strategy described in Method 2, the cloud management platform 100 should accurately determine the amount of fluctuating cloud resources that are billed according to the "monthly billing" strategy, that is, the amount of this part of fluctuating cloud resources should not be caused by occasional business fluctuations. For example: if the tenant's business is the air ticket booking business, then the months with long holidays every year (such as the Spring Festival travel month) should be the peak period of this business. Therefore, if the cloud management platform 100 determines to bill the amount of fluctuating cloud resources corresponding to the months with long holidays in the future according to the "monthly billing" strategy, then This billing strategy is reliable; on the contrary, if the cloud management platform 100 determines to charge the fluctuating cloud resource amount corresponding to the non-long holiday months according to the "monthly billing" strategy, then this billing strategy is unreliable.

Optionally, the cloud management platform 100 further performs the following steps: providing the billing policy of the cloud resources generated by the cloud management platform 100 to the tenant 200, so that the tenant 200 can view the billing policy of the cloud resources.

Optionally, the number of billing policies for cloud resources generated by the cloud management platform 100 may be one or more.

Furthermore, when the cloud management platform 100 generates billing policies for multiple cloud resources, the cloud management platform 100 may provide the billing policies for the above multiple cloud resources to the tenant 200 so that the tenant 200 can select a suitable billing policy therefrom. Alternatively, the cloud management platform 100 may also provide the tenant 200 with the optimal billing policy (such as the most preferential billing policy) among the above multiple billing policies for cloud resources.

Furthermore, the cloud management platform 100 can also provide the tenant 200 with the details of the billing policies of the above-mentioned multiple cloud resources. For example, as shown in FIG4 , the cloud management platform 100 provides the tenant 200 with two billing policies for cloud resources (i.e., billing policy A and billing policy B), as well as the recommended optimal billing policy (i.e., billing policy B) through UI 600. The cloud management platform 100 also provides the tenant 200 with the details of the above-mentioned two billing policies through UI 600, i.e., billing policy A includes: billing 100 VMs with specifications of C6 series (specification name), 32U (VM processor core count is 32 cores), and 64G (VM memory size is 64G) according to the "annual billing" policy, and billing 250-800 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G according to the "on-demand billing" policy; billing policy B includes: billing 100 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G according to the "annual billing" policy. In April, 50 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G are billed according to the "monthly billing" strategy. In October, 100 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G are billed according to the "monthly billing" strategy, and 100-600 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G are billed according to the "on-demand billing" strategy; the price of billing according to billing strategy B is at least 30% lower than the price of billing according to billing strategy A. In this way, the tenant 200 can understand why the cloud management platform 100 recommends these two billing strategies to the tenant and why the optimal billing strategy is billing strategy B. In actual applications, if the tenant 200 wants to select billing strategy B recommended by the cloud management platform 100, the tenant 200 can click the "billing strategy B" option, so that the cloud management platform 100 will bill according to billing strategy B. In addition, if tenant 200 determines that billing policy A is more suitable for its own business needs based on the details of the above two billing policies, tenant 200 can click the "Billing Policy A" option, so that the cloud management platform 100 will charge according to billing policy A.

Optionally, the tenant 200 authorizes the cloud management platform 100 to purchase cloud resources required for the tenant's business. Specifically, the tenant 200 pre-charges its cloud account, and after the cloud management platform 100 generates a billing policy for cloud resources, it can automatically deduct fees from the tenant's 200 cloud account according to the billing policy, thereby realizing the purchase of cloud resources.

It should be understood that after the tenant 200 purchases cloud resources, the tenant business can be deployed on these purchased cloud resources. Since the billing strategy of the above cloud resources may include a "pay-as-you-go" strategy, and billing according to the "pay-as-you-go" strategy requires paying more fees, how should the tenant 200 deploy the tenant business so as to use as few cloud resources as possible that are billed according to the "pay-as-you-go" strategy, thereby reducing payment fees? In this regard, the embodiment of the present application proposes that the cloud management platform 100 provides the tenant 200 with a business deployment strategy.

Specifically, the cloud management platform 100 determines the basic cloud resource list according to the target billing policy, and then provides the basic cloud resource list to the tenant 200, so that the tenant 200 can preferentially deploy the tenant services on the basic cloud resources according to the basic cloud resource list. Among them, when the cloud management platform 100 only generates a billing policy for one cloud resource in the above S103, the target billing policy is the billing policy of the cloud resource; when the cloud management platform 100 generates billing policies for multiple cloud resources in the above S103, the target billing policy can be any one selected by the tenant 200 from the billing policies of the above multiple cloud resources, or any one selected by the cloud management platform 100 from the billing policies of the above multiple cloud resources. The basic cloud resource list includes a mapping relationship between the identifier of the tenant service and the identifier of the basic cloud resource purchased by the tenant 200.

Further, when the tenant business includes the first business and the second business, the basic cloud resource list includes two parts: one part is the mapping relationship between the identifier of the first business and the identifier of the basic cloud resource used to run the first business, and the other part is the mapping relationship between the identifier of the second business and the identifier of the basic cloud resource used to run the second business. It should be understood that since the minimum amount of cloud resources (the amount of basic cloud resources) that can meet the tenant business needs is the sum of the amount of basic cloud resources of the first business and the amount of basic cloud resources of the second business, the cloud management platform 100 can determine the amount of basic cloud resources of the first business and the amount of basic cloud resources of the second business, and thus can determine the identifier of the basic cloud resources of the first business and the identifier of the basic cloud resources of the second business.

For example, the target billing strategy is billing strategy B, and the tenant services include the first service and the second service. As shown in FIG5 , the cloud management platform 100 displays UI 700 to the tenant 200. As can be seen from the figure, among the purchased basic cloud resources (100 VMs), the cloud management platform 100 recommends that 40 VMs be used to run the first service, and the remaining 60 VMs be used to run the second service. The tenant 200 can also click the "Basic Cloud Resource List" option to view that the identifiers of the 40 VMs used to run the first service are VM1-VM40, and the identifiers of the 60 VMs used to run the second service are VM41-VM100. In this way, the tenant 200 can, based on the above basic cloud resource list, preferentially deploy the first service to the VMs identified by VM1-VM40, and preferentially deploy the second service to the VMs identified by VM41-VM100.

Optionally, the tenant 200 can also authorize the cloud management platform 100 to deploy the tenant's business on the purchased cloud resources to ensure that the tenant's business is deployed at a lower cost. In this case, the cloud management platform 100 may also perform one or more of the following steps:

S104: The cloud management platform 100 deploys tenant services according to the target billing policy.

In some embodiments, the target billing policy includes a "package period billing" policy and an "on-demand billing" policy. Then, the cloud management platform 100 deploys tenant services according to the target billing policy, including: the cloud management platform 100 determines a basic cloud resource list according to the target billing policy, and then preferentially deploys tenant services to cloud resources (i.e., basic cloud resources) that are billed according to the "package period billing" policy according to the basic cloud resource list. When the basic cloud resources are exhausted, the cloud management platform 100 deploys tenant services to cloud resources (i.e., fluctuating cloud resources) that are billed according to the "on-demand billing" policy.

Furthermore, if the "periodic billing" strategy in the target billing strategy is divided into two types: "annual billing" strategy and "monthly billing", the cloud management platform 100 will preferentially deploy tenant services to cloud resources billed according to the "annual billing" strategy. When these cloud resources are exhausted, the cloud management platform 100 will deploy tenant services to cloud resources billed according to the "monthly billing" strategy.

As can be seen from the above S101, the tenant service may include multiple services, for example: the first service and the second service. In some embodiments, in order to ensure the security of the first service and the second service, the first service and the second service need to be isolated, that is, the first service and the second service do not support the reuse of cloud resources. In this case, the cloud management platform 100 deploys the tenant service according to the target billing policy, including: the cloud management platform 100 preferentially deploys the first service to the first cloud resource and preferentially deploys the second service to the second cloud resource. When the first cloud resource is exhausted, the first service is deployed to the cloud resource charged according to the "on-demand billing" policy; when the second cloud resource is exhausted, the second service is deployed to the cloud resource charged according to the "on-demand billing" policy. Among them, the cloud resources charged according to the "package cycle billing" policy include the first cloud resource and the second cloud resource. The first cloud resource and the second cloud resource are determined by the cloud management platform 100 through the above S102, that is, the first cloud resource is a basic cloud resource that can meet the needs of the first service, and the second cloud resource is a basic cloud resource that can meet the needs of the second service.

In some other embodiments, the first service and the second service support the reuse of cloud resources. In this case, if the cloud management platform 100 monitors that the amount of cloud resources required for running the first service is greater than the amount of the first cloud resources (for example, the business volume of the first service increases), and the amount of cloud resources required for running the second service is less than the amount of the second cloud resources (for example, the business volume of the second service decreases), the cloud management platform 100 can use the unused second cloud resources to run the first service, that is, release the second cloud resources with part of the second service deployed, and deploy part of the first service to the above-released second cloud resources for execution. Specifically, the cloud management platform 100 releases a part of the basic cloud resources of the second service according to the basic cloud resource list, obtains the identifier of the basic cloud resources released, and then records the mapping relationship between the identifier of the basic cloud resources released and the identifier of the first service, so as to change the basic cloud resources released to the basic cloud resources used to run the first service. In this way, the utilization rate of the basic cloud resources can be improved, and the amount of cloud resources charged according to the "pay-as-you-go" policy can be reduced, thereby reducing the cost of using cloud resources by the tenant 200.

In an embodiment of the present application, when tenant 200 chooses to purchase cloud resources according to the billing strategy recommended by cloud management platform 100 (i.e., tenant 200 clicks the "Recommended Billing" option in UI 400), cloud management platform 100 may execute the above S101-S104 periodically (such as 1 month or 1 year). In this way, the billing strategy of cloud resources can be more adapted to changes in tenant business, thereby reducing the cost of tenant 200 using cloud resources.

The following is a further introduction to the billing method of the above cloud resources through several specific examples.

Example 1: The tenant business is a single business

Take VM as an example for explanation: As shown in Figure 6, when tenant 200 authorizes cloud management platform 100 to purchase VM according to the generated billing policy, cloud management platform 100 first queries the historical usage of VM by the tenant's business, and then determines the amount of basic cloud resources (100 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G) that can meet the tenant's business needs in the next six months based on the query results, and then generates the corresponding billing policy based on the above-determined amount of basic cloud resources. Among them, the billing policy includes: billing the above 100 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G according to the "monthly billing" policy, and the purchase period is 6 months; billing the additional VMs required for the tenant's business operation according to the "on-demand billing" policy. According to the above billing strategy, the cloud management platform 100 first purchases 100 VMs of C6 series, 32U, and 64G on a monthly basis (6 months). After the VMs are purchased successfully, the tenant services are deployed on the 100 VMs purchased on a monthly basis first. When the resources on these 100 VMs are all occupied, it automatically applies to purchase additional VMs on demand.

Example 2: Tenant business is multi-business

Take the tenant business including the first business and the second business, the first business and the second business support the reuse of cloud resources, and the cloud resources required by the tenant business are CCI as an example: As shown in Figure 7, when the tenant 200 authorizes the cloud management platform 100 to purchase CCI according to the generated billing policy, the cloud management platform 100 first queries the historical usage of the cloud resources of the first business and the historical usage of the cloud resources of the second business, and then determines the amount of basic cloud resources that can meet the needs of the first business in the next year based on the historical situation of the cloud resources of the first business (100 CCIs with specifications of 32U and 256G), and determines the amount of basic cloud resources that can meet the needs of the second business in the next year based on the historical situation of the cloud resources of the second business (50 CCIs with specifications of 32U and 256G), and then generates a corresponding billing policy based on the sum of the amounts of the two basic cloud resources determined above (150 CCIs with specifications of 32U and 256G). Among them, the billing policy includes: according to the "annual billing" policy, the above 150 CCIs with specifications of 32U and 256G are used. 32U, 256G CCIs are charged, and the purchase period is 1 year; the additional CCIs required for the operation of the first and second services are charged according to the "on-demand billing" strategy. According to the above billing strategy, the cloud management platform 100 first purchases 150 CCIs with specifications of 32U and 256G for an annual package (1 year). After the CCI purchase is successful, the first and second services are deployed to the 150 CCIs purchased for annual package purchase. When the resources on these 150 CCIs are occupied, it automatically applies to purchase additional CCIs on demand. In addition, if the cloud management platform 100 monitors that the first service only uses 80 CCIs during operation, and the second service needs to use 120 CCIs during operation, at this time, the cloud management platform 100 will give priority to deploying the second service to the 20 CCIs belonging to the first service, so that the second service can be deployed to 70 CCIs. Correspondingly, the tenant 200 only needs to purchase 50 CCIs on demand.

Example 3: The tenant business uses AS services, that is, the cloud resources required by the tenant business include AS groups

AS service is a service that automatically adjusts the cloud resources (mainly VMs and EIPs) required for tenant business according to tenant business needs. It can define scaling configuration and scaling strategies according to tenant business needs, reduce the workload of manual repeated adjustment of cloud resources when dealing with tenant business fluctuations and peak pressures, and help tenants save resources and labor costs.

To implement the AS service, the tenant 200 needs to create an AS group on the cloud management platform 100. The AS group is a collection of VMs and scaling policies with the same attributes and application scenarios, and is the basic unit for starting and stopping scaling policies and performing scaling activities. Generally, the creation of an AS group requires the tenant 200 to pay the corresponding fee. In addition, when creating an AS group, the tenant needs to input or select the maximum number of instances and the minimum number of instances included in the AS group, where the maximum number of instances refers to the maximum number of VMs in the AS group, and the minimum number of instances refers to the minimum number of VMs in the AS group. In this way, during the operation of the tenant, the conditions set by the scaling policy can be used to automatically increase or decrease the number of VMs in the AS group, or to maintain a fixed number of VMs in the AS group.

As shown in FIG8 , when the tenant 200 authorizes the cloud management platform 100 to purchase an AS group according to the generated billing policy, the cloud management platform 100 first queries the historical usage of VMs by the tenant's business, and then determines the amount of basic cloud resources (100 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G) that can meet the tenant's business needs in the next three months based on the query results, and then determines the minimum number of instances in the AS group that needs to be purchased based on the amount of the above basic cloud resources (that is, the minimum number of instances is 100) and the instance specifications are C6 series, 32U, and 64G. The maximum number of instances and their specifications in the AS group that need to be purchased can be specified by the tenant 200, or determined by the cloud management platform 100 based on the above query results, for example: the maximum number of instances in the AS group and their specifications are 500 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G. Afterwards, the cloud management platform 100 generates corresponding billing strategies according to the minimum number of instances and their specifications and the maximum number of instances and their specifications determined above, wherein the billing strategies include: billing the minimum number of instances in the AS group (100 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G) according to the "monthly billing" strategy, and the purchase period is 3 months; the expansion cloud resources between the minimum number of instances and the maximum number of instances in the AS group (i.e., 400 VMs with specifications of C6 series, 32U, and 64G) are billed according to the "on-demand billing" strategy; when the business volume of the tenant business decreases and the capacity needs to be reduced, the cloud management platform 100 preferentially releases the VMs that are billed according to the "on-demand billing" strategy according to the VM identifiers recorded in the basic cloud resource list. After the AS group is purchased successfully, the tenant business is preferentially deployed to the VM corresponding to the minimum number of instances in the AS group to run. When the tenant business demand increases and the VMs corresponding to the minimum number of instances are occupied, other VMs are automatically purchased on demand. When the business demand decreases, the VMs purchased on demand are automatically deleted.

Example 4: The cloud resources required by the tenant's business include multiple cloud resources

Take the cloud resources required by tenant services, including VMs, CCEs, and function workflows, as an example:

In some embodiments, CCE itself does not charge fees, but related resources (here, a cluster, which includes multiple VMs) will be created during use, and tenant 200 needs to pay the management fee of the cluster and the VM fees required during the creation and use of the cluster. In addition, each VM in the cluster needs to use function workflows during the operation of the business, so tenant 200 also needs to pay the use fee of the function workflow.

As shown in FIG9 , when the tenant 200 authorizes the cloud management platform 100 to purchase cloud resources according to the generated billing policy, the cloud management platform 100 first queries the historical usage of each cloud resource by the tenant's business, that is, respectively queries the historical usage of VMs, CCEs and function workflows by the tenant's business, and then determines the amount of each basic cloud resource that can meet the tenant's business needs in the next month based on the above query results (CCE manages 50 VMs of the C6 series, 32U, and 64G specifications, and 2 million function requests), and then generates a corresponding billing policy based on the above determined amount of basic cloud resources. Among them, the billing policy includes: billing the above 50 VMs of the C6 series, 32U, and 64G specifications, the management fees of CCE for the above 50 VMs, and 2 million function requests according to the "monthly billing" policy, and the purchase period is 1 month; billing the additional VMs and CCE management fees and function requests required during the tenant's business operation according to the "on-demand billing" policy. After the cloud management platform 100 successfully purchases cloud resources according to the above billing strategy, it will preferentially deploy tenant services to the cloud resources purchased on a monthly basis. When all the cloud resources purchased on a monthly basis are occupied, it will automatically apply to purchase additional cloud resources on demand.

It should be understood that the above four examples are only intended to help those skilled in the art better understand the billing method for cloud resources provided in the embodiments of the present application, and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Those skilled in the art may make various equivalent modifications or changes to the four examples given, for example: the cloud resources required for the tenant business in the above example 1 are other cloud resources such as CCI and BMS, or the billing strategy for cloud resources in the above example 1 is determined by tenant 200; those skilled in the art may also combine any two or more of the above examples, for example, Combining Example 1 and Example 4 can obtain an example in which the tenant business is a single business and the cloud resources required by the business include multiple cloud resources.

In the embodiment of the present application, the above functions of the cloud management platform 100 can be implemented by a software system, a hardware device, or a combination of a software system and a hardware device. Moreover, the cloud management platform 100 is flexible in deployment. It can be one or more servers in a cloud data center, or a software device deployed on a server or virtual machine in a cloud data center. The software device can be distributedly deployed on multiple servers, or distributedly deployed on multiple VMs, or distributedly deployed on servers and VMs.

FIG10 exemplarily shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a cloud management platform 100. As shown in FIG10 , the cloud management platform 100 includes a determination module 110 and a billing module 120. Optionally, the cloud management platform 100 also includes a service scheduling module 130. Among them, the determination module 110, the billing module 120 and the service scheduling module 130 work together to implement the steps performed by the cloud management platform 100 in the above method embodiment. Specifically, the determination module 110 is used to execute the above S101-S102; the billing module 120 is used to execute the above S103; and the service scheduling module 130 is used to execute the above S104.

In the embodiment of the present application, the determination module 110, the billing module 120 and the service scheduling module 130 can be implemented by software or by hardware. Exemplarily, the implementation of the determination module 110 is described below by taking the determination module 110 as an example. Similarly, the implementation of the billing module 120 and the service scheduling module 130 can refer to the implementation of the determination module 110.

As an example of a software functional unit, the determination module 110 may include code running on a computing instance. Among them, the computing instance may include at least one of a physical host (computing device), a virtual machine, and a container. Further, the above-mentioned computing instance may be one or more. For example, the determination module 110 may include code running on multiple hosts/virtual machines/containers. It should be noted that the multiple hosts/virtual machines/containers used to run the code may be distributed in the same region or in different regions. Furthermore, the multiple hosts/virtual machines/containers used to run the code may be distributed in the same AZ or in different AZs, and each AZ includes a data center or multiple data centers with similar geographical locations. Among them, usually a region can include multiple AZs.

Similarly, multiple hosts/virtual machines/containers used to run the code can be distributed in the same VPC or in multiple VPCs. Usually, a VPC is set up in a region. For cross-region communication between two VPCs in the same region and between VPCs in different regions, a communication gateway needs to be set up in each VPC to achieve interconnection between VPCs through the communication gateway.

As an example of a hardware functional unit, the determination module 110 may include at least one computing device, such as a server, etc. Alternatively, the determination module 110 may also be a device implemented by an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a programmable logic device (PLD). The PLD may be a complex programmable logical device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a generic array logic (GAL), or any combination thereof.

The multiple computing devices included in the determination module 110 may be distributed in the same region or in different regions. The multiple computing devices included in the determination module 110 may be distributed in the same AZ or in different AZs. Similarly, the multiple computing devices included in the determination module 110 may be distributed in the same VPC or in multiple VPCs. The multiple computing devices may be any combination of computing devices such as servers, ASICs, PLDs, CPLDs, FPGAs, and GALs.

It should be noted that, in other embodiments, the determination module 110 can be used to execute any step in the above S101-S104, the billing module 120 can be used to execute any step in the above S101-S104, and the service scheduling module 130 can be used to execute any step in the above S101-S104. The steps that the determination module 110, the billing module 120 and the service scheduling module 130 are responsible for implementing can be specified as needed. The full functions of the distributed service generation system are realized by respectively implementing different steps in the above distributed service generation method (including the above S101-S104) by the determination module 110, the billing module 120 and the service scheduling module 130.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a computing device. As shown in Figure 11, the computing device 400 includes a bus 410, a processor 420, a memory 430, and a communication interface 440. The processor 420, the memory 430, and the communication interface 440 communicate through the bus 410. The computing device 400 can be a server or a terminal device. It should be understood that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the number of processors and memories in the computing device 400.

The bus 410 may be a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, FIG. 11 is represented by only one line, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus. The bus 410 may include a path for transmitting information between various components of the computing device 400 (e.g., memory 430, processor 420, communication interface 440).

The processor 420 may include any one or more processors such as a CPU, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a microprocessor (MP), or a digital signal processor (DSP).

The memory 430 may include a volatile memory, such as a random access memory. The processor 420 may also include a non-volatile memory, such as a read-only memory (ROM), a flash memory, a hard disk drive (HDD), or a solid state drive (SSD).

The memory 430 stores executable program codes, and the processor 420 executes the executable program codes to respectively implement the functions of the aforementioned determination module 110, the billing module 120, and the service scheduling module 130, thereby implementing the billing method for cloud resources described above (including the above S101-S104). That is, the memory 430 stores instructions for executing the billing method for cloud resources described above.

The communication interface 440 uses a transceiver module such as, but not limited to, a network interface card or a transceiver to implement communication between the computing device 400 and other devices or a communication network.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a computing device cluster. The computing device cluster includes at least one computing device. The computing device can be a server, such as a central server, an edge server, or a local server in a local data center. In some embodiments, the computing device can also be a terminal device such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, or a smart phone.

As shown in Fig. 12, the computing device cluster includes at least one computing device 400. The memory 430 in one or more computing devices 400 in the computing device cluster may store the same instructions for executing the above-mentioned cloud resource billing method.

In some possible implementations, the memory 430 of one or more computing devices 400 in the computing device cluster may also store partial instructions for executing the above-mentioned cloud resource billing method. In other words, the combination of one or more computing devices 400 can jointly execute instructions for executing the above-mentioned cloud resource billing method.

It should be noted that the memory 430 in different computing devices 400 in the computing device cluster may store different instructions, which are respectively used to execute part of the functions of the cloud management platform 100. That is, the instructions stored in the memory 430 in different computing devices 400 may implement the functions of one or more modules among the determination module 110, the billing module 120 and the service scheduling module 130.

In some possible implementations, one or more computing devices in the computing device cluster can be connected via a network. Wherein, the network can be a wide area network or a local area network, etc. Figure 13 shows a possible implementation. As shown in Figure 13, two computing devices 400 (i.e., computing device 400A and computing device 400B in the figure) are connected via a network. Specifically, the network is connected via a communication interface in each computing device. In this type of possible implementation, the memory 430 in the computing device 400A stores instructions for executing the functions of the determination module 110 and the service scheduling module 130. At the same time, the memory 430 in the computing device 400B stores instructions for executing the functions of the billing module 120.

The connection method between the computing device clusters shown in Figure 13 can be considered that the billing method for the above-mentioned cloud resources provided in the embodiment of the present application requires a large amount of data calculation, so it is considered to hand over the functions implemented by the billing module 120 to the computing device 400B for execution.

It should be understood that the functions of the computing device 400A shown in FIG13 may also be completed by multiple computing devices 400. Similarly, the functions of the computing device 400B may also be completed by multiple computing devices 400.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product including instructions. The computer program product may be software or a program product including instructions that can be run on a computing device or stored in any available medium. When the computer program product is run on at least one computing device, the at least one computing device executes the billing method for cloud resources described above.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be stored by the computing device or a data storage device such as a data center containing one or more available media, wherein the available medium can be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid-state hard disk), etc. The computer-readable storage medium includes instructions, wherein the instructions instruct the computing device to execute the billing method for cloud resources described above, or instruct the computing device to execute the billing method for cloud resources described above.

Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, rather than to limit it. Although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments, or make equivalent replacements for some of the technical features therein. However, these modifications or replacements do not cause the essence of the corresponding technical solutions to deviate from the protection scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

A cloud resource billing method, characterized by comprising:

The cloud management platform determines the configuration information selected or input by the tenant and related to one or more services to be deployed;

The cloud management platform determines the demand of the one or more services for cloud resources according to the configuration information;

The cloud management platform generates a billing policy for the cloud resources according to the demand for cloud resources by the one or more services, so that the cloud management platform charges for the cloud resources.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the cloud management platform determines the demand of the one or more services for cloud resources according to the configuration information, comprising:

The cloud management platform obtains historical usage of cloud resources of the one or more services according to the configuration information;

The cloud management platform determines the minimum amount of cloud resources that can meet the needs of the one or more services based on the historical usage of the cloud resources.
The method according to claim 2 is characterized in that the billing policy includes a package period billing policy and an on-demand billing policy, a part of the cloud resources required for the one or more services are billed according to the package period billing policy, and another part of the cloud resources required for the one or more services are billed according to the on-demand billing policy.
The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

The cloud management platform preferentially deploys the one or more services to the cloud resources that are charged according to the package period charging policy according to the charging policy of the cloud resources.
The method according to claim 4, wherein the multiple services include a first service and a second service, and the cloud management platform preferentially deploys the one or more services to cloud resources charged according to the package period charging policy according to the charging policy of the cloud resources, including:

When the first service or the second service does not support reuse of cloud resources, the cloud management platform preferentially deploys the first service and the second service to different cloud resources that are charged according to the package period charging policy.
The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

When the business volume of the second business decreases, the cloud management platform releases the cloud resources on which part of the second business is deployed, and deploys part of the first business to the released cloud resources for execution.
The method according to any one of claims 3 to 6, wherein the configuration information includes a minimum number of instances and a maximum number of instances in an elastic scaling AS group, and the method further comprises:

The cloud management platform deploys instances corresponding to the minimum number of instances on cloud resources that are charged according to the package period charging policy.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising:

The cloud management platform provides the tenant with a billing policy for the cloud resources for the tenant to select.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 is characterized in that the cloud resources include one or more of virtual machines VM, containers, bare metal servers BMS, and function workflows function graph.
A cloud management platform, characterized by comprising:

A determination module, configured to determine configuration information related to one or more services to be deployed, selected or input by the tenant, and determine the demand for cloud resources of the one or more services according to the configuration information;

The billing module is used to generate a billing policy for the cloud resources according to the demand for cloud resources by the one or more services, so that the cloud management platform can bill the cloud resources.
The cloud management platform according to claim 10, characterized in that:

The determination module is used to obtain historical usage of cloud resources of the one or more services according to the configuration information, and determine the minimum amount of cloud resources that can meet the needs of the one or more services according to the historical usage of the cloud resources.
The cloud management platform according to claim 11 is characterized in that the billing policy includes a package period billing policy and an on-demand billing policy, a part of the cloud resources required for the one or more services are billed according to the package period billing policy, and another part of the cloud resources required for the one or more services are billed according to the on-demand billing policy.
The cloud management platform according to claim 12, further comprising:

The service scheduling module is used to preferentially deploy the one or more services to the cloud resources charged according to the packet period charging policy according to the charging policy of the cloud resources.
The cloud management platform according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of services include a first service and a second service,

The service scheduling module is used to preferentially deploy the first service and the second service to different cloud resources that are charged according to the packet period charging policy when the first service or the second service does not support the reuse of cloud resources.
The cloud management platform according to claim 14, characterized in that:

The service scheduling module is further configured to release the cloud resources on which part of the second service is deployed when the service volume of the second service decreases, and deploy part of the first service to the released cloud resources for execution.
The cloud management platform according to any one of claims 12 to 15, wherein the configuration information includes a minimum number of instances and a maximum number of instances in the elastic scaling AS group.

The service scheduling module is also used by the cloud management platform to deploy instances corresponding to the minimum number of instances to cloud resources that are charged according to the package period charging policy.
The cloud management platform according to any one of claims 10 to 16, characterized in that:

The billing module is further used to provide the billing strategy of the cloud resources to the tenant for selection by the tenant.
The cloud management platform according to any one of claims 10-17 is characterized in that the cloud resources include one or more of virtual machines VM, containers, bare metal servers BMS, and function workflows function graph.
A computing device, characterized in that it comprises a processor and a memory, wherein the processor executes computer program code in the memory to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that it stores computer program code, and when the computer program code is executed by a computing device, the computing device executes the method described in any one of claims 1 to 9.