Abstract:
A method provides a demonstration capability for a plurality of network coupled users by which many users can watch a primary user interact with an application. The method includes providing an application to a primary user from an application server over a network and translating output from the application into a broadcast protocol. The broadcast protocol is then translated into a browser protocol transmitted over a network for rendering by browsers at a plurality of network attached computers.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   This application is a continuation in part of an application entitled “Systems and Methods for Application Service Provision”, filed on Jun. 1, 2001 by James D. Flavin and assigned Ser. No. 09/870,992. 

   FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to data processing and, more particularly, relates to systems and methods for providing software applications and data processing to user communities over a network in an efficient, low-overhead manner. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   In recent years, there have been dramatic improvements in technologies that make bandwidth available for data transmission. These improvements have resulted in ubiquitous networks, such as the Internet, and have brought about rapid change in the operation of numerous industries including the software industry. 
   Conventionally, the software industry has developed application software for proprietary operating systems. Application software was then conventionally hosted on mainframe computers with output from software applications provided to character based terminals pursuant to proprietary protocols. 
   With the advent of inexpensive personal computers, this mainframe application software delivery model changed to a client-server model in which application software developers distributed application software programs to end users. In the latter scenario, the end users loaded or downloaded the application software on their computer, a “fat client” machine, and ran the application software directly on a proprietary operating system such as Microsoft Windows or Unix. 
   Some of the application programs in a client-server model reside on a fat client and require interaction with network resources, such as programs and data resident on servers within the network. In other client-server models, the application programs reside on the server and are provided to the client system with the aid of emulation software on the client system. 
   With the advent of the Internet and the world-wide web, client systems have been implementing browser programs to present information received from a network to users. The browser programs include an application program interface (API) that programmers may use to create plug-ins that enable browsers to render previously unrecognized information, to recognize new communications protocols and to execute applications. Browser programs, supplemented with plug-ins as necessary, provide the flexibility to interact with software applications that are remotely executed on a network. Moreover, on the server side, an application program that was written for a proprietary operating system or display protocol may be web enabled and provided to browsers on remote client systems over a network. This entails translating the output from the application program into a protocol that is recognized by the browser program or an associated plug in. 
   The ability to web enable existing applications and remotely host them on a network provides advantages to application software vendors as well as end users of the software. Businesses called application service providers (ASPs) have arisen to facilitate providing application software to end users and their organizations over a network and, in some cases, to facilitate web enabling of software applications. ASP businesses allow users and their organizations the flexibility to rent, as opposed to purchase, software, to avoid time consuming installations of software on client systems and to order and use software on an as needed basis. For organizations, use of an ASP may effectively represent an outsourcing of maintenance operations and information services to the ASP. ASPs also allow software vendors additional software distribution channels from which to derive revenue from end users. 
   In order for ASP businesses to succeed in delivering software application service to end users, the ASP must be able to deliver reliable, high-performance, secure service that is convenient for organizations and users to configure. If any of these features is lacking, organizations and users may prefer local execution and control of the application software. ASP businesses must also confront problems of scalability, extensibility and integration. With respect to scalability, demand for application service for a particular ASP may exponentially increase several orders of magnitude over a short period of time. Therefore, scalability may be critical. 
   Accordingly, there is a need for an architecture and methods for providing application service that allow an ASP to commission new servers and equipment for delivering application service rapidly and without interrupting existing service. In addition, there is a need for robust architecture and methods that help prevent service disruption despite server and network link failures. There is a further need for an architecture and methods that make efficient use of server and other resources of the ASP in delivering service. There is still a further need for an architecture and methods that minimize administrative burdens associated with providing application service to organizations including, for example, burdens of providing users and organizations immediate and changeable access to applications and data associated with diverse proprietary operating systems, the ability to bill for service and to perform periodic data backups. There is still a further need for methods that maximize the value of the ASP architecture. 
   There is a further need for an architecture and technique that allow a primary user, such as a presenter of information, to demonstrate an application over the Internet to a plurality of users simultaneously in a way that is efficient and easy for users to access. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   According to the present invention, an architecture for providing software application service includes an intranet comprising redundant links to a network and redundant switches for reliable provision of application services to client systems over the network. The intranet provides a common interface for managing organizations and their users, granting access to application software, including only certain versions thereof, and data sets, tracking usage of services and performing periodic backing up of data. The architecture of the intranet is scalable so that application, administrative and brokering servers may be quickly added to keep up with exponential increases in demand. The architecture may be used to provide simultaneously a live demonstration of an application to many users over the Internet in an efficient and easy to access manner. 
   According to one embodiment of the invention, a method of efficiently provisioning application services for a plurality of diverse applications includes creating an organization entity within a data center, creating an organization unit for the organization entity and associating a group identification number with the organization entity. The method further includes propagating the organization unit and the group identification number for the organization entity to at least one application server within the data center. The method may further include collecting information about the organization entity and storing the collected information in an administrative database. The method may further include associating a suffix with the organization entity, verifying the uniqueness of the suffix within the data center and storing the suffix, the organization unit and the group identification number in an administrative database. Permission information for application services and data sets may also be stored in association with the organization entity in the administrative database. 
   The applications which form the basis of the application services may be published applications or custom applications. The applications may also be, for example, Windows based applications, Unix based applications, Linux based applications or other diverse applications. The organization information may be propagated to application servers within the data center based on an active directory or multi-master architecture. 
   The method may further include a facility for adding a user to the organization entity, associating a user identification with the user and propagating the user identification in association with at least one of the organization units and the group identification numbers to at least one application server within the data center. The user identification and associated permission information may be stored in the administrative database. 
   According to another embodiment of the invention, a method for providing a demonstration to a plurality of network coupled users of a remotely provided includes providing an application to a primary user from an application server over a network and translating output from the application into a broadcast protocol. The method further includes translating the broadcast protocol into a browser protocol and transmitting the output according to the browser protocol over a network for rendering by browsers at a plurality of network attached computers. The method may further include making the output available from a predetermined an internet protocol (IP) address on the network. The method may further include receiving a session identifier and password from at least some of the network attached computers via the address on the network, authenticating the network attached computers based on the session identifier and only making the output available to authenticated network attached computers. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
     The above described features and advantages of the present invention will be more fully appreciated with reference to the detailed description and appended figures in which: 
       FIG. 1  depicts various client configurations for connecting to a data center from which application service provision services are provided according to embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 2  depicts an embodiment of the architecture of a data center from which application service provision services are provided according to embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 3  depicts an administrative server array according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 4  depicts a tarantella server array within an application service provider architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 5  depicts Unix application server array within an application service provider architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 6  depicts a windows application server array within an application service provider architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 7  depicts a windows cluster server within an application service provider architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 8  depicts a data storage unit within an application service provider architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 9  depicts a method of defining organizations within a data center according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 10  depicts a method of adding users within a data center according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 11  depicts a functional view of a method of propagating organization and user data to a plurality of servers within a data center according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 12  depicts an embodiment of an architecture for providing the output from a primary application hosted in an application server environment to a plurality of users over a network. 
       FIG. 13  depicts a method of providing the output from a primary application hosted in an application server environment to a plurality of users over a network. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   According to the present invention, an architecture for providing software application service includes an intranet comprising redundant links to a network and redundant switches for reliable provision of application services to client systems over the network. The intranet provides a common interface for managing organizations and their users, granting access to application software, including only certain versions thereof, and data sets, tracking usage of services and performing periodic backing up of data. The architecture of the intranet is scalable so that application, administrative and brokering servers may be quickly added to keep up with exponential increases in demand. 
     FIG. 1  depicts various client configurations for connecting to a data center from which application service provision services are provided according to embodiments of the present invention. Referring to  FIG. 1 , a data center  100  is coupled to the client systems  120  via a network  110 . 
   The network  110  may be a local area network, a wide area network, the public switched telephone network, the interconnected backbones, routers, bridges, switches and servers known as the Internet, other communications links and combinations thereof. The network may include direct electrical connections, wireless, optical or any other communications links, including analog, digital, circuit switched and packet switched, for transmitting information. 
   The client systems  120  may be general purpose computer systems which each incorporate modems or other communications technologies for exchanging information with the network  110 . The client systems  120  may be coupled directly to the network  110  or may illustratively be coupled by way of a firewall  140 , a proxy  150  or a LAN/WAN  160 . Each client system may also be coupled to a printer or other peripherals  130 . A printer or other peripheral  130  may also be coupled to the network  110  via a LAN/WAN  160  as shown. 
     FIG. 2  depicts an illustrative implementation of a data center for providing application services according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fundamentally, the architecture shown is flexible, robust and redundant. Referring to  FIG. 2 , the network  100  includes routers  200  coupled in parallel to the network  110 . One of the routers  200  is within a left leg and the other is in a right leg of the network. The parallel connection is redundant to help prevent data center down time. 
   The routers  200  exchange packet data between the network  110  and the rest of the data center  200 . The routers  200  receive and forward packets to appropriate elements within the data center  100  based on headers in the packets. The parallel switches  205  switch packets in the data center to steer packets in the appropriate direction. The switches  205  are interconnected as well such that if a path in the direction of the left leg is broken, packets may be switched to the right leg. 
   The switches  205  are coupled to firewalls  210  in a criss-cross arrangement. Switches  215  are also coupled to the firewalls  210  in a criss-cross arrangement as shown. This arrangement permits packet traffic to by-pass one firewall  210  and travel through the other in the event of failure of one. In essence, the firewalls  210  look at each packet entering or leaving the network and accepts or rejects it based on user-defined rules. The firewall may apply application gateway techniques, circuit-level gateway techniques which apply certain tests prior to establishing a connection and/or proxy server techniques. Proxy server techniques effectively hide the true, internal data center network addresses from the network  110 . 
   The switching routers  220  and  230  are coupled each coupled to the left and the right legs of the network and to each other. The switching routers  220  and  230  route data between and among a tarantella array  240 , an administration array  245 , a data storage unit  250  and a plurality of switches  225 ,  235  and  250 . The switches  225  filter and forward packets between segments of the data center network. According to one embodiment of the invention, the data center network depicted is an ethernet network or a giga-bit ethernet network. The switches  225 ,  235  and  250  in this implementation may be used to implement a switched ethernet or giga-bit ethernet network. 
   The data storage unit  250  stores user application data for users of the ASP services. The data storage unit  250  serves files to the other functional units within the data center and to users at client systems  120  accessing the network. 
     FIG. 8  depicts an internal view of an embodiment of the data store. Referring to  FIG. 8 , the data storage unit includes two data movers  800  which provide access to a drive array. The drive array may comprise a redundant array of inexpensive drives (RAID) type storage device or other storage device. The data movers  800  offer redundant access to the drive array  810  such that if one data mover  800  fails the other data mover  800  takes over. The data movers and array may be configured to provide storage in a network file system to allow users access to shared files stored in the array. There may be a separate system query language (SQL) path into the drive array  810  to facilitate database operations. 
     FIG. 3  depicts an administrative server array  245 . The administrative server array  245  maintains data which identifies information for organizations and users of the data center and other details that are described below and propagates the data to the other functional components of the data center  100 . The administrative server array  245  includes administrative servers  300  as shown. The administrative servers may each include an active directory  310  and an administrative database  320 . The active directory  310  stores and automatically propagates administrative data to windows servers and other compatible servers. The administrative database  320  is used to store and propagate administrative data to UNIX based and compatible servers. The administrative server array and the servers themselves may be coupled to one of the switching routers  220  directly, however other convenient arrangements are possible. The population of the administrative database and the active directory to manage access control to the data center and other functions is described in more detail with reference to the method flow diagrams of  FIGS. 9-11 . 
     FIG. 4  depicts an array of tarantella servers  400 , which may be connected to the data center  100  network via the switching router  220 . The tarantella array and servers within the array may be used as an intermediary between UNIX application servers within the data center and client systems coupled to the data center  100  via the network  110 . Pursuant to this intermediary function, a client system which seeks to access a UNIX server does so via a tarantella server. The tarantella server communicates with the client system according to a protocol called AIP and with the UNIX or other application according to a different protocol such as RDP. The client system includes corresponding capability to interface with the tarantella server pursuant to AIP and similarly the UNIX server communicates with the appropriate Tarentalla server according to the RDP or other compatible protocol. Tarantella servers and their functionality in brokering applications is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,392 
     FIG. 5  depicts a UNIX server array  260  which is coupled to the data center  100  network via a switching router  250 . The UNIX server array includes a user accounts database  510  and an application data  520  portion. The application data portion stores data for users of the servers. The application data may be physically resident in the data storage unit  250  or on the UNIX server itself. The UNIX servers store and execute application programs in response to authorized user requests to execute the applications. Access to the applications and application data is controlled by the user accounts. 
   During operation of the data center, a user may interact with browser software on the client system to access the data center. According to one embodiment of the invention, the user be routed through the data center network to a tarantella server. The tarantella server may transmit an interactive web page back to the user which permits the user to launch applications, such as UNIX applications. When UNIX applications are launched in this manner, the user interacts with the Tarantella server via, for example, the AIP protocol. The AIP protocol delivers to the client system display data and the application interface from the chosen UNIX application. 
     FIG. 6  depicts a windows server array which is analogous to the UNIX server array. However, the windows server array runs the Microsoft Windows™ operating system. The windows server array may be coupled to the data center  100  network via the switches  250 . The windows server array includes an active directory  610  and an administrative database  620  for storing administrative information that may be used for application and file access control and other purposes. The windows server array also has application programs mounted on it with which users at client systems may interact via Tarantella as described above or via other protocols. 
     FIG. 7  depicts a Windows cluster server  270 . The Windows cluster server  270  which may include cluster members  700 . The cluster members  700  may be coupled together and to a shared data array  710 . This arrangement provides another method for accessing the data storage via SQL. 
     FIG. 9  depicts a method of defining organizations within a data center according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method may be implemented by an administrative tool which amounts to a software program resident on the administrative server or another server for obtaining administrative information. 
   Referring to  FIG. 9 , in step  900  organization information is collected to define an organization to the data center  100 . This information may include the name of the company, billing information, the name of a designated administrative contact and other information. According to one embodiment, this information includes a QORG suffix. The QORG (or QORG suffix) is a short name used to identify the organization and maintain user name uniqueness in the Data Center. (i.e. alx, m2m). The organization may be an individual or a corporation but in general is an organization or entity that is to be billed as a single unit. The organization may have associated with it a plurality of users that are entitled to ASP privileges with respect to particular applications. These users may be divided into various groups with various access privileges. 
   In step  910 , an organization entity is created based on the information collected in step  900 . In step  920 , the uniqueness of the QORG suffix is checked by querying the administrative database to determine whether or not the QORG suffix is taken. If not, then another QORG must be chosen. 
   Step  930  may begin after QORG uniqueness is established. In step  930 , a Windows organizational unit for the QORG is established. Then in step  940 , a group identification (GID) number is associated with the QORG. In step  950 , the information for the organization is stored into the administrative database. The information is also stored into the active directory. 
   In step  960 , the GID is added to user data of the appropriate UNIX system and to the active directory of appropriate Windows systems. Organizations, for example, may be serviced by one or a subset of UNIX and Windows servers. 
     FIG. 10  depicts a method of adding users within a data center according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method of  FIG. 10  is also be implemented by an administrative software tool. The administrative software tool may be run by on an administrative server and in general is also run pursuant to the ASP mode. Accordingly, designated administrators may interact directly with the administrative tool to define user access privileges and other privileges and features described below. This is powerful and allows a data center to roll out service to a large number of users with very little human capital required for administration because the organizations themselves perform, to a large extent, their own administration. 
   Referring to  FIG. 10 , in step  1000  a user (a designated administrator at a client system) is prompted by the administrative tool to take an action with respect to user administration. In step  1010  the tool determines whether the command is to add, modify or delete user data. IF the command is to ADD user data, then in step  1030 , the tool receives user information including permission information for applications, profiles, files and data. In step  1040 , the user is added to an organizational unit within the user&#39;s QORG. In step  1050 , a user identification (UID) number is associated with the user. Then in step  1060 , the UID and user information is stored into the administrative database in association with the QORG. The information is also stored into the active directory. In step  1070 , the user is added to the user accounts of appropriate UNIX systems to permit access to those systems. The systems are chosen based on the UID and GID of the user&#39;s organization. In this manner new users are identified to the data center and permitted to access ASP services and generate revenue for the data center. This may occur without any involvement by administrative personnel of the data center  100 . 
   If in step  1010  the command is to modify a user, then step  1080  begins. In step  1080  user information may be received including permission information for applications, files profiles, and other information generally such as the user&#39;s name, address, phone number, email address, etc. In step  1090 , the modified user information is stored into the administrative database in association with the QORG of the user. The modified user information is also stored into the active directory of Windows servers. In step  1095 , the modified user id may be added to the user accounts of appropriate UNIX and Windows systems. 
   If in step  1010  the command is to delete a user then step  1020  begins. In step  1020 , the UID and user information is deleted from the administrative database and active directories however a tombstone is saved. 
     FIG. 11  depicts a graphical illustration of the manner in which the administrative tool interacts with the administrative database, the active directory, the internal database of Tarantella servers and the user accounts of UNIX servers. When there is a change in organization or user information or administrative information generally, this information is propagated as illustrated. The administrative tool updates the administrative database based on interaction with the user. The added, modified or deleted information is then propagated to the active directories via the ADSI block. The ASDI block is an Active Directory Service Interface and governs mapping administrative information into a format recognized by the active directory. The added, modified or deleted information is then propagated to the user accounts and to the internal it database of the Tarantella servers via a database merge program. 
     FIG. 12  depicts an illustrative embodiment of an architecture for providing the output from a primary application hosted in an application server environment to a plurality of users over a network. This embodiment may be very useful for conveying presentations to a plurality of users simultaneously via a network. 
   Referring to  FIG. 12 , application servers  1200  within a data center  100  are configured to provide applications to client systems  1280 - 1290  over the network  1275 . The client system  1290  is configured to be a primary client system which is used by a primary user to interact with an application of interest to a broad audience. For example, the primary user may desire to give a presentation to a broad audience by interacting with the MICROSOFT POWER POINT application in order to view and page through a particular MICROSOFT POWER POINT presentation file that is of interest to a broad array of users. The primary user may, accordingly inform a plurality of users or the public at large that the presentation will occur at a particular time and date and provide information necessary to access the presentation. 
   At the appointed time and date, the primary user at the primary client system  1290  may connect to the application server  1200  for providing application hosting of the desired application to the primary user according to the principles of application access and delivery discussed herein. Accordingly, the primary client system  1290  may be coupled pursuant to a desired protocol to an application server  1200  that is available to the primary user. 
   The primary user may be connected to the application server  1200  in several different ways depending on the protocols involved. For example, the primary client system  1290  may be coupled to the application server to interact with the desired application via the RDP protocol  1215  as shown in path (1). Alternatively, the primary client system may communicate with the application server  1200  directly through a different protocol through several protocols with one or more translation steps. For example, the primary client system  1290  is shown as having alternative brokering paths (2) and (3) that make use of an intermediate server  1255  that includes a RDP block  1260 , a protocol  1  block  1270  and a protocol  2  block  1265 . The primary client system  1290  may interact with the protocol  1  block  1270  pursuant to protocol  1 . The protocol  1  block  1270  may then translate the output into RDP for interaction with the RDP unit  1260  and ultimately with the application server  1200  via the RDP protocol through path (2). The protocol  1  block  1270  may alternatively translate protocol  1  into protocol  2  for interacting with the protocol  2  block  1255  and application server  1200  according to protocol  2  via path (3). In general, however, any protocol path with one or more intermediate translations may occur. Moreover, any translations may occur on the primary application server  1200  or on one or more intermediate servers  1255  as shown. 
   Once the primary client system  1290  establishes its connection with the primary application server  1200 , the primary user may interact with the primary application. In addition, the user may interact with an administrative server  1235  to establish that the user&#39;s session should be treated as a broadcast session. In addition, the user interacts with the administrative server  1235  to provide access data that users of secondary client systems must have in order to access the broadcast session. 
   When the primary client system indicates to the administrative server  1235  and/or to the application server  1200  that the user&#39;s session is a broadcast session, then user is prompted to specify a session number and an optional password for the session. The session number is used to identify the broadcast session to the data center  100  and to give secondary users  180  and  1285  information necessary to access the broadcast session. The optional password may be used to provide additional security to prevent unauthorized access to particular sessions. 
   The session number and password may be generated by the administrative server prior to the broadcast session and provided to the primary user. The primary user may then distribute the assigned session number and password to desired participants for them to subsequently use to access the broadcast session at the appointed time. 
   When the primary client system completes the login process for a particular broadcast session, then the application  1205  with which the user is interacting outputs data pursuant to a broadcast protocol. The VNC protocol  1210  is pictured as the illustrative broadcast protocol output by the application  1205 . However, any other broadcast protocol may be used. The application data output pursuant to the VNC may be input to another application server  1202  for further translation from the VNC protocol  1225  to the RDP protocol  1230 , for example. Accordingly, once the primary user specifies that a particular session with an application  1205  is to be a broadcast session, the output of the session is simultaneously provided to the primary user according to an ordinary protocol and is translated into a broadcast protocol in anticipation of transmission to one or more secondary client systems according to one or more protocols for the secondary client systems  1280 . 
   The users of the secondary client systems  1280 - 1285  may be unknown to the data center. However, prior to or at any time during the primary user&#39;s broadcast session the primary user or other party may make available to users of the secondary client systems the session ID and password for a particular session and the address of the server where the session is being hosted. The address is generally an internet protocol (IP) address or a URL. 
   The users of the secondary client systems  1280  and  1285  may then direct browser software resident at the systems to connect to content at the address provided for the session. The browsers may then couple the client systems  1280 - 1285  over the network  1275  to the appropriate administrative server  1235  via, for example one or more switches  1240  within the data center  100 . The address provided to the secondary users may be the address of a page of content which causes the browser of each secondary client system to prompt the user for a session ID and/or a password. When the user provides a valid session number and/or password to the administrative database, the administrative server  1235  redirects the users browser to start receiving content from the application that was first output pursuant to the broadcast protocol and that corresponds to the user&#39;s session ID. The depending on the configuration of the user&#39;s browser and the data center  100 , the user may receive content from a separate application server  1202  and pursuant to a translation of the broadcast protocol, such as the RDP translation of the VNC protocol. Alternatively, the broadcast protocol may be the protocol ultimately used for transmission to the end user. In still other embodiments, the output from the primary application for the session may be output directly from the application server  1200  either in the broadcast protocol or pursuant to one or more intermediate protocol translations. As additional secondary users are connected through the network  1275  to the data center at the address of the broadcast session, the switches  1240  and  1245  may be used to couple output to each new user. The switches may also couple users to one or more application servers to perform protocol translation or parallel output depending on the number of simultaneous users and the capacity of each switch and application server in the path of the broadcast session. In this manner, a primary user may interact with an application and cause the output to be simultaneously transmitted to an arbitrarily large target audience. 
     FIG. 13  depicts an illustrative method of providing the output from a primary application hosted in an application server environment to a plurality of users over a network. Referring to  FIG. 13 , in step  1300 , a data center provides an interactive application to a primary client system. Then in step  1310 , a server translates the application output into a broadcast protocol. In step  1320 , the broadcast protocol output is translated into a browser protocol output. 
   In step  1330 , a server receives a session identifier and an optional password from secondary client systems. Users of the secondary client systems provide the session identifier and optional password in order to access the broadcast session by pointing their browser to a predetermined URL address. In step  1340 , the server verifies the session identifier and optional password. When the secondary user is authenticated pursuant to step  1340  then in step  1350  the output of the application is provided to the secondary client browser pursuant to a browser protocol which may be the same as or different from the broadcast protocol. 
   While particular embodiments have been disclosed, it will be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art that changes may be made to those embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.