Patent ID: 9202239
Filing Date: 2015-12-01
Classification: G06F,G06Q,H04L,H04M

Abstract:
1. A method of billing usage of a cloud computing environment, the method comprising: executing, on a cluster of computer systems in the cloud computing environment, a distributed control plane, wherein the cluster of computer systems comprises a plurality of virtual machine nodes, wherein the distributed control plane comprises an infrastructure controller and a metering and billing module, wherein the distributed control plane is replicated on each of the plurality of virtual machine nodes in the cluster of computer systems, and wherein one of the plurality of virtual machine nodes comprises a master node; metering, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, usage of one or more cloud resources within the cloud computing environment by one or more users based on one or more rules, wherein the one or more cloud resources are hosted on the cluster of computer systems in the cloud computing environment or on one or more remote cloud sites accessible to the cluster of computer systems, wherein the one or more users is associated with at least one entity, and wherein each of the one or more rules comprises one or more predicate defined when a rule is applied and one or more associated actions taken when the rule is applied; converting, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, the metered usage of the one or more cloud resources to a revenue-generating value, wherein converting the metered usage of the one or more cloud resources to the revenue-generating value comprises applying the one or more rules to usage files for the one or more users; and billing, by the metering and billing module of the master node on the cluster of computer systems, the revenue-generating value to the at least one entity associated with the one or more users, wherein billing the revenue-generating value to the at least one entity associated with the one or more users comprises generating one or more settlement files.