Patent ID: 9519441
Filing Date: 2016-12-13
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus comprising: a centralized database; and at least one processing device implementing a selection algorithm for automated provisioning and management of a plurality of storage arrays based on information collected from the storage arrays and stored in the centralized database; wherein the storage arrays are associated with respective storage systems, each of the storage systems being associated with a different service provider, each service provider having multiple tenants; and wherein the centralized database is implemented in a centralized storage provisioning and management system configured to control provisioning and management of the service provider storage systems utilizing information collected from the service provider storage systems, the centralized storage provisioning and management system being further configured to associate user identifiers with respective tenants of each of the service providers and to control user access to the storage systems associated with the different service providers in a manner that allows the centralized storage provisioning and management system to track resource usage; the centralized storage provisioning and management system comprising a centralized control path implemented apart from the service provider storage systems and a plurality of localized control paths implemented in respective ones of the service provider storage systems; and the centralized storage provisioning and management system providing storage provisioning and management functionality for the different service providers in accordance with a software-as-a-service model in which the centralized storage provisioning and management system exclusively controls provisioning and management of the storage arrays associated with the respective service provider storage systems; wherein the service provider storage systems offload local provisioning and management functionality to the centralized storage provisioning and management system; and wherein responsive to the storage arrays having different numbers of connections to one or more storage area network switches, the selection algorithm utilizes information relating to occupancy levels of the storage arrays and the numbers of connections to the storage area network switches to choose placement for new storage.