Patent Publication Number: US-10320699-B1

Title: Computer implemented system and method, and a computer program product, for allocating virtualized resources across an enterprise

Description:
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     Aspects of the disclosure relate to computing technology and, more particularly, to a computer implemented system and method, and a computer program product, for allocating virtualized information technology resources across an enterprise. 
     BACKGROUND 
     In today&#39;s corporate or enterprise environments, every functional department has its own requirements for information technology (IT) resources in order for that department to function effectively. Allocating physical IT resources is relatively easily managed by providing the functional department the required physical IT resources needed to operate. Some IT resources may be shared among multiple departments as part of a common infrastructure. For all other departmental IT resource requirements, resources are provisioned as required. 
     As the deployment of virtualized IT resources in corporate and enterprise environments is rapidly increasing, existing methods of allocating IT resources from a high level become increasingly ineffective. Allocating resources to the enterprise&#39;s organizational units and subunits in a way that is consistent with the enterprise&#39;s high level goals is a difficult and arduous task, particularly when allocating virtualized IT resources. A high level virtualize IT resource allocation it difficult to monitor and manage; a count of physical machines is not an accurate measure of virtualized IT resource usage. So, what is needed is a system and method for allocating an enterprise&#39;s virtualized IT resources that aligns high-level enterprise priorities with the allocation of virtualized resources to the enterprise&#39;s organizational units and organizational subunits. 
     SUMMARY 
     A computer implemented system and method, and a computer program product, for allocating virtualized information technology resources across an enterprise. For example, a method may include accessing hierarchical enterprise information, which is information identifying a plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units of the enterprise. The method accesses virtualized resource information, which is information identifying virtualized resources available to the enterprise. The method also accesses virtualized resource allocation information, which is information identifying one or more of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units and information identifying one or more virtualized resources allocated to each of the identified one or more of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units. The method may receive a virtualized resources request from one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units, which identifies one or more virtualized resources requested by the one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units. Responsive to receiving the virtualized resources request, the method determines whether provisioning each of the virtualized resources identified in the virtualized resources request does not exceed the virtualized resources allocated to the one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units from which the virtualized resource request was received. If not, the method causes the provisioning each of the virtualized resources identified in the virtualized resources request to the one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units from which the virtualized resource request was received. 
     It will be appreciated that the above Summary is provided merely for purposes of summarizing some example embodiments so as to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. As such, it will be appreciated that the above described example embodiments are merely examples of some embodiments and should not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the disclosure in any way. It will be appreciated that the scope of the disclosure encompasses many potential embodiments, some of which will be further described below, in addition to those here summarized. Further, other aspects and advantages of embodiments disclosed herein will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the described embodiments. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The described embodiments and the advantages thereof may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that may be made to the described embodiments by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the described embodiments. 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram of an organizational chart for an enterprise, allocating virtualized resources across functional departments of the enterprise, according to some exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram of an organizational chart for a functional department of the enterprise, allocating virtualized resources across the units and subunits of the functional department, according to some exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG. 3  is a flow diagram for a process for allocating virtualized resources across an enterprise, in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an application for allocating virtualized resources across an enterprise implemented via an orchestration layer, in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 5  is a diagram of a converged infrastructure environment, across which an enterprise&#39;s virtualized resources may be allocated, in accordance with some example embodiments. 
         FIG. 6  is a diagram of a machine-level virtualization environment, the resources of which may be allocated across an enterprise, in accordance with some example embodiments. 
         FIG. 7  is a block diagram of an exemplary computing device, which may implement the embodiments described herein. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present disclosure now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all aspects of the disclosure are shown. Indeed, the disclosure may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the aspects set forth herein; rather, these aspects are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. 
     Some exemplary embodiments of the system and method, and computer program product, for allocating an enterprise&#39;s virtualized resources leverages existing infrastructure authentication services, such as, Active Directory and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). They do so by combining all the available virtualized resources within the enterprise&#39;s converged infrastructure into pools via a converged orchestration layer. Each pool may comprise processing, memory, network and storage resources. After combining the enterprise&#39;s virtualized resources, each pool is made available for use by an allocating entity, which is an entity or person that is positioned at the top of an enterprise&#39;s organization chart, such as a chief executive officer (“CEO”) or the board of directors, for example. At the beginning of a time period, such as a calendar quarter, a decision may be made as to how to deploy an enterprise&#39;s virtualized resources. For example, a CEO may determine for the next calendar quarter, 60% of virtualized resources will be allocated to business development, 20% will be allocated to research and development, 10% will be allocated to sales and the remaining 10% will be allocated to infrastructure, i.e., IT operations. 
     The allocating entity, e.g., a CEO or board of directors, allocates a portion of the enterprise&#39;s processing, memory, network and storage resources by assigning a percentage of the total available processing, memory, network and storage resources to one or more of the enterprise&#39;s functional departments. The percentage of resources signed to a functional department will correspond to the enterprise&#39;s goals for that department. The resources represented by the percentage assigned to a functional department or organizational unit, therefore, becomes an upper limit for resource usage for that functional department or organizational unit. In some exemplary embodiments, information about an upper limit for a department&#39;s allocated virtualized resources may be stored in an Active Directory that for department. Thus, the total virtualized resources used by a department cannot exceed the amount of resources represented by the assigned percentage. Such limits on resources can be enforced via an orchestration layer. In some exemplary embodiments, if a department does use more virtualized resources than it was allocated, senior management personnel may be notified. 
     The assignment of virtualized resources may be repeated for each organizational level of an enterprise or a department of an enterprise until each individual team or individual user has been allocated virtualized resources. As may be appreciated, the allocation of resources may be as granular as the enterprise deems necessary. 
     In some exemplary embodiments, the system and method of allocating virtualized resources may be self-tuning. In addition, relative resource weights can be assigned to each department or organization unit to ensure that the correct proportion of processing, memory, network and storage resources are allocated and made available to a department to ensure, for example, that sufficient resources are available for running a department&#39;s mission critical applications. 
     Thus, the system and method of the present invention replaces the unidirectional approach of prior art systems and a method discussed above with a bidirectional system. This allows visibility of resources from a senior management perspective and enforces virtualized resource allocation on an organizational unit level. It also gives upper management visibility into a virtualized resource allocation, and allows close alignment of resource allocation and enterprise goals. 
       FIG. 1  is a diagram  100  of an organizational chart for an enterprise, illustrating an exemplary allocation of virtualized resources across functional departments of the enterprise. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the total virtualized resources available to an enterprise are shown in the level  110 , which is the uppermost level of the organization chart. For example, an enterprise may have a total of 10 THz of central processing unit (CPU) capacity  112 , 500 terabytes (TB) of memory  114  and 6 petabytes (PB) of storage  116  available for allocation among the enterprise&#39;s functional departments. In some example embodiments, a CEO  118  may be responsible for allocating the enterprise&#39;s resources among its functional departments. 
     In some example embodiments, the total virtualized resources available to an enterprise may be determined and reported by an orchestration layer. As may be appreciated, “orchestration” describes the automated arrangement, coordination, and management of complex computer systems, middleware and services. Orchestration can be used to define the policies and service levels through automated workflows, provisioning, and change of management. Orchestration also provides centralized management of virtualized resources, including billing, metering, and chargeback for consumption. 
     The enterprise&#39;s functional departments are illustrated in level  120 , which is the next level of the organization chart. For example, an enterprise&#39;s functional departments may include Research and Development (R&amp;D)  122 , Sales  124 , Human Resources (HR)  126  and Finance  128 . As shown in  FIG. 1 , CPU resources are shown as being allocated to functional departments as follows: 50% or 5 THz  132  is allocated to the Research &amp; Development department  122 , 30% or 3 THz  134  is allocated to the Sales department  124 , 20% or 2 THz  136  is allocated to the Human Resources department  126 , and 00% or 1 THz  138  is allocated to the Finance department  128 . As may be appreciated, each type of virtualized resource, e.g., CPU, memory, storage and network resources, can be allocated among the functional departments of an enterprise. However, for purposes of clarity,  FIG. 1  only illustrates the allocation of CPU resources among the functional departments. 
       FIG. 2  is a diagram of an organizational chart for a functional department of the enterprise, allocating virtualized resources across the units and subunits of the functional department, according to some exemplary embodiments.  FIG. 2  illustrates an exemplary embodiment where CPU resources are allocated among the organizational units and subunits of an R&amp;D Department  122  shown in  FIG. 1 . As shown in  FIG. 1 , the R&amp;D Department  122  is allocated 50% or 5 THz of the enterprise&#39;s total CPU resources. Again, as may be appreciated, each type of virtualized resource, e.g., CPU, memory, storage and network resources can be allocated among the organizational units and subunits of a functional department. However, for purposes of clarity,  FIG. 2  only illustrates the allocation of CPU resources among the organizational units and subunits of the functional department. 
     As can be seen from  FIG. 2 , CPU resources are allocated among the various hierarchically arranged organizational units and subunits of the functional department, which in the illustrated example is the R&amp;D Department  122  shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     Continuing with  FIG. 2 , the total CPU resources available to a functional department are shown in level  220 , which is the uppermost level of the organization chart for the functional department. In the example illustrated by  FIG. 2 , 50% or 5 THz  223  of the enterprise&#39;s total CPU resources have been allocated to the R&amp;D department  222 . 
     The organizational units and subunits of organization department  222  are shown in Levels  230  and  240 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , level  230  includes the Engineering organization  232 , which has been allocated 30% or 3 THz  233  of the enterprise&#39;s total CPU resources, and the Quality Assurance organization  234 , which has been allocated 20% or 2 THz  235  of the enterprise&#39;s total CPU resources. While the resources allocated to the organizational units and subunits may be expressed in terms of the enterprise&#39;s total resources, the invention is not so limited and the resources allocated to the organizational units and subunits may also be expressed in terms of the total resources allocated to the functional department. 
     Still referring to  FIG. 2 , level  240  includes two individual users, User X  242  and User Y  244 . As may be appreciated, the invention is not limited to the number or type of organizational levels and organizational units and subunits. As shown if  FIG. 2 , User X  242  has been allocated 20% or 2 THz  243  of the enterprise&#39;s CPU resources and User Y  244  has been allocated 10% or 1 THz  245  of the enterprise&#39;s CPU resources. In some example embodiments, the lowest organizational level to which resources should be able to be allocated is a user level. 
       FIG. 3  is a flow diagram for a process  300  for allocating virtualized resources across an enterprise, in accordance with some embodiments. As shown in  FIG. 3 , in operation  302  process  300  accesses hierarchical enterprise information. Hierarchical enterprise information is information that identifies a plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units of the enterprise. 
     In operation  304 , process  300  accesses virtualized resource information. Virtualized computing resource information is comprised of information identifying virtualized resources available to the enterprise. 
     In some exemplary embodiments, virtualized resource information may be comprised of virtualized resource pool information, which identifies one or more pools of virtualized resources, and allocates virtualized resource pools to the hierarchically arranged organizational units. In such embodiments, responsive to receiving the virtualized resources request, process  300  determines whether provisioning each of the virtualized resources would exceed the virtualized resources comprising the pool of virtualized resources allocated to the organizational unit from which the virtualized resources request was received. If process  300  determines that it would not, process  300  causes the each of the pool of virtualized resources identified in the virtualized resources request to be made available to the hierarchically arranged organizational unit from which the virtualized resources request was received. 
     Returning to  FIG. 3 , in operation  306 , process  300  accesses virtualized resource allocation information, wherein the virtualized resource allocation information is comprised of information identifying one or more of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units and information identifying one or more virtualized resources allocated to each of the identified one or more of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units. As may be appreciated, the invention is not necessarily limited to the sequence of operations  302 ,  304  and  306 . 
     In operation  308 , process  300  receives a virtualized resources request from one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units. The virtualized resources request is comprised of information identifying one or more virtualized resources requested by the one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units. 
     In operation  310 , responsive to receiving the virtualized resources request, process  300  determines whether provisioning each of the virtualized resources identified in the virtualized resources request will exceed the virtualized resources allocated to the one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units from which the virtualized resource request was received. 
     In operation  312 , process  300  provisions each of the virtualized resources identified in the virtualized resources request to one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units from, which the virtualized resource request was received. 
     In some exemplary embodiments, process  300 , authenticate the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units via a directory service. As may be appreciated, directory services, such as Active Directory, which is available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, may be used to provide the authentication services. 
     In some example embodiments, hierarchical enterprise information may include information identifying a plurality of allocable organizational units. An allocable organizational unit is a unit at the highest level of the hierarchical enterprise to which virtualized resources are allocated, a functional department, for example. Hierarchical enterprise information also may include information associating each of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units with one of the plurality of allocable organizational units. In such embodiments, the virtualized resource allocation information is comprised of information identifying each of the plurality of allocable organizational units and information identifying one or more virtualized resources allocated to each of the plurality of allocable organizational units. In such embodiments, process  300  also may include receiving a virtualized resources request from one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units, which identifies one or more virtualized resources requested by the one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units. Responsive to receiving the virtualized resources request, process  300  can also include determining whether provisioning each of the virtualized resources identified in the virtualized resources request would exceed the virtualized resources allocated to the allocable organizational unit with the hierarchically arranged organizational units is associated. If process  300  determines that it would not, each of the virtualized computer resources identified in the virtualized resources request is provisioned to the one of the plurality of hierarchically arranged organizational units from which the virtualized resources request was received. 
     As discussed above, in some exemplary embodiments, the above described system and method for allocating virtualized resources across an enterprise may be implemented using an orchestration workflow engine.  FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating a resource allocation system  402  invoking an orchestration workflow  404  to execute on an orchestration workflow engine  406 , in accordance with some embodiments. The resource allocation system  402  can be implemented as a layer of software that handles workflow execution requests. Physically, resource allocation system  402  can be implemented in a computer coupled to virtual computing center  408 , or can be included in physical resources  410  of a virtual computing center  408 , for example as software executing on a processor thereof. Workflow  404  could, for example, commission, provision or decommission one or more virtual machines  414 ,  416  and  418 , via a virtual local area network (VLAN)  412 , or other virtual or physical arrangement of the physical resources  410  available from the virtual computing center  408 , as a service fulfillment process, for example. In some example embodiments, resource allocation system  402  and workflow engine  406  are implemented on the same server, which could be a physical computing resource or a virtual server implemented on physical computing resources. In other example embodiments, resource allocation system  402  and workflow engine  406  are implemented on different physical computing resources. 
     Still referring to  FIG. 4 , resource allocation system  402  may generate a user interface for workflow inputs. This user interface can be in the form of HTML (hypertext markup language). Resource allocation system  402  may accept user inputs, validate the user inputs, and forwards the request to the workflow  404  resident in a workflow engine  406 . Workflow engine  406  may be implemented on a virtual or physical computing device, e.g., a virtual server or a physical server, etc. Workflow  404  executes within work flow engine  406  and allocates physical resources  410  in virtual computing center  408 . This execution allocates one or more virtual machines  414 ,  416 ,  418  and virtual local area network  412 , in some embodiments. In some exemplary embodiments, the virtualized resources may be implemented via a converged infrastructure, a hyper converged infrastructure or a software container infrastructure.  FIG. 5  is a diagram of a converged infrastructure environment, across which an enterprise&#39;s virtualized resources may be allocated, in accordance with some example embodiments. The environment  500  may include a converged infrastructure  502 . The converged infrastructure  502  may include a plurality of components, such as servers, data storage devices, network equipment, and associated software. In some example embodiments, the converged infrastructure is implemented by a Vblock® System available from the VCE Company, LLC of Richardson, Tex. 
     By way of non-limiting example, in some embodiments, the converged infrastructure  502  for which a configuration may be determined may be a hyper-converged infrastructure. A hyper-converged infrastructure is characterized by a software-centric architecture that tightly integrates servers, data storage devices, network equipment, and associated software and virtualization resources, in a commodity hardware box supported by a single vendor. Hyper-convergence is related to the concept of converged infrastructure, which is an infrastructure approach where a single vendor provides a pre-configured bundle of hardware and software in a single chassis with the goal of minimizing compatibility issues and simplifying management. If required, however, the hardware components of a converged infrastructure can be separated and used independently. The hardware components in a hyper-converged infrastructure, however, are so integrated that they typically cannot be separated. In some example embodiments the hyper-converged infrastructure is implemented by a VxRack™ System, available from the VCE Company, LLC of Richardson, Tex. 
     The converged infrastructure  502  of some embodiments may include one or more compute layer  550  components, such as one or more servers (e.g., blade servers, rack servers, and/or other servers), one or more fabric extenders, one or more fabric interconnects, a chassis, and/or other compute layer components that may be implemented on a converged infrastructure to provide computing and processing resources of the converged infrastructure. The converged infrastructure  502  may further include one or more storage layer  552  components, such as one or more storage arrays and/or other mass storage devices that may be implemented on a converged infrastructure. In some embodiments, the converged infrastructure  502  may additionally include one or more network layer  554  components, such as one or more switches and/or other network layer components that may be implemented on a converged infrastructure. For example, the network layer  554  may include components that provide switching and routing between the compute layer  550  and storage layer  552  within the converged infrastructure  502 . The network layer  554  may additionally or alternatively include components that provide switching and routing between the converged infrastructure  502  and a network so as to support network communication between a component(s) of the converged infrastructure  502  and a computing platform(s) independent of the converged infrastructure  502 . The components of the compute layer  550 , storage layer  552 , and network layer  554  may collectively provide a physical infrastructure of the converged infrastructure  502 . 
     The converged infrastructure  502  may additionally include a virtualization layer  556 , which may include one or more virtualization components configured to support one or more virtualized computing environments. The components of the virtualization layer  556  may include components embodied in software, hardware, firmware, and/or some combination thereof. For example, the virtualization layer  556  may include a hypervisor and/or other virtualization components that may be configured to create and run virtual machines and/or to otherwise virtually simulate a computing environment. In some example embodiments, the virtualization layer  556  may include and/or may be communicatively coupled with one or more management components configured to support management of the converged infrastructure  502 . For example, in some embodiments, the virtualization layer  556  may include a management infrastructure, which may provide management resources for managing the converged infrastructure  502 . In some such embodiments, the management infrastructure may be a separate system from the converged infrastructure, but may be connected to the converged infrastructure to allow management of the entire converged infrastructure  502 . In some example embodiments, the virtualization layer  556  may utilize physical hardware resources of the compute layer  550 , storage layer  552 , and/or network layer  554  to support operation of one or more components of the virtualization layer  556 . Additionally or alternatively, in some example embodiments, the virtualization layer  556  may include dedicated physical resources (e.g., physical hardware components) that may provide computing, storage, and/or network communication resources to one or more components of the virtualization layer  556 . 
     It will be appreciated that the compute layer  550 , storage layer  552 , network layer  554 , and virtualization layer  556  as illustrated in  FIG. 5  and described above are provided by way of example, and not by way of limitation. In this regard, in some embodiments, aspects of the compute layer  550 , storage layer  552 , network layer  554 , and virtualization layer  556  as described above may not be mandatory and thus some may be omitted in certain embodiments. Additionally, the converged infrastructure  502  of some embodiments may include further or different layers and/or components beyond those illustrated in and described with respect to  FIG. 5 . 
     Physical components of the converged infrastructure  502  may be communicatively coupled with each other to support operation of the converged infrastructure  502  via direct connection and/or network communication. For example, as discussed above, in some example embodiments, the network layer  554  may provide switching and routing between physical components of the converged infrastructure. 
     In some embodiments at least a portion of the components of the converged infrastructure  502  may be assigned addresses, such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and/or other network layer addresses, via which the components may be accessed by another component internal to the converged infrastructure  502  and/or via a computing device external to the converged infrastructure  502 . For example, in some example embodiments, the converged infrastructure  502  and/or one or more network addressable components thereof may be accessed by an external computing device over a network to which the converged infrastructure  502  of some embodiments may be connected. 
       FIG. 5  also shows a resource allocation system  504 , which may be used to allocate an enterprise&#39;s virtualized resources implemented via a converged infrastructure, in accordance with some example embodiments. A sample embodiment of the resource allocation system  504  is illustrated in more detail in  FIGS. 1-3  and is discussed in more detail in the discussion of  FIGS. 1-3  above. 
       FIG. 6  is a diagram of a machine-level virtualization environment  600 , in which a resource allocation system may be deployed, in accordance with some example embodiments. It will be appreciated that the components and associated architecture illustrated in and described with respect to  FIG. 6  are provided by way of example, and not by way of limitation. In this regard, components illustrated in  FIG. 6  and described further below may not be mandatory and thus some may be omitted in certain embodiments. Additionally, some embodiments may include further or different components, beyond those illustrated in and described with respect to  FIG. 6 . Further, it will be appreciated that converged infrastructures within the scope of the disclosure may implement architectures other than that illustrated in and described with respect to  FIG. 6 . 
     The machine-level virtualization environment  600  may include a physical infrastructure  640  configured to support a virtualized infrastructure  650 . In some example embodiments, the physical infrastructure  640  may include hardware resources  644 , such as servers  646 - 1  to  646 -N (sometimes referred to as “hosts”) and one or more storage array networks (SAN), such as SAN  648 , which may be communicatively connected by a network (not shown). The physical infrastructure  640 , including hardware resources  644  may, for example, provide an embodiment of the compute layer  550 , storage layer  552 , and network layer  554 . For example, the servers  646  may comprise an implementation of the compute layer  550 , and the SAN  648  may comprise an implementation of the storage layer  552 . The hardware resources  644 , including, for example, the servers  646  and SAN  648  may be communicatively connected by an embodiment of the network layer  554 . 
     In some example embodiments, the physical infrastructure  640  may be organized into a “computing-block” based infrastructure, wherein physical infrastructure units may be characterized by repeatable units of construction having similar performance, operational characteristics, and discrete requirements of power, space, and cooling that facilitate rapid deployment, integration, and scalability. The computing-block based infrastructure may be configured to dynamically provision hardware resources based on performance demands placed on the physical infrastructure  640 . One such example of physical infrastructure  640  is a Vblock® system available from the VCE Company, LLC. 
     The physical infrastructure  640  may further include an infrastructure manager  642  configured to manage the configuration, provisioning, and policy compliance of the physical infrastructure  640 . Infrastructure manager  642  may be configured to provide an interface by which provisioning of hardware resources  644  (e.g., computing, networking, storage) may be managed with policy-based automation. According to some embodiments, the infrastructure manager  642  may be included in every physical infrastructure  640  to manage the configuration, provisioning, and compliance of computing-block based infrastructure. As described in further detail below, the virtualized infrastructure  650  (or component thereof) of some example embodiments may be configured to connect to and communicate with the infrastructure manager  642  to manage and/or configure the physical infrastructure  640  to support operation of components of the virtualized infrastructure  650 . One example of an infrastructure manager  642  includes EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager (UIM) available from EMC Corporation. In some embodiments, the infrastructure manager  642  may further be configured to provide network manager functionality such that the infrastructure manager  642  may be configured to configure network devices (e.g., switches, routers) and manage addressing, subnets, virtual local area networks (VLANs), and/or other network configurations that may be implemented on the converged infrastructure  602 . One example of a network manager that may be included on the infrastructure manager  642  of such embodiments is a Cisco Switch, such as may be accessible via a Cisco IOS® command line interface (CLI), available from Cisco System, Inc. 
     The virtualized infrastructure  650  may include a virtualization environment  652  comprising one or more virtual machines (VM)  651 , such as VM  651 - 1  to VM  651 -M. Each virtual machine  651  can have an operating system (OS), one or more applications (APP) and an agent (AGENT). In some embodiments, one or more of the virtual machines  651  may be configured to connect to one or more users by a communications network, such as the Internet. The virtualized infrastructure  650  may, for example, comprise an embodiment of at least a portion of the virtualization layer  656 . 
     The virtualization environment  652  may accordingly be configured to simulate (e.g., to virtualize) conventional components of a computing device, such as a processor, system memory, a hard disk drive, and/or the like for executing the VMs  651 . For example, each VM  651  may include a virtual processor and a virtual system memory configured to execute an application. Thus, for example, the converged infrastructure  502  of some example embodiments may be configured to perform physical-to-virtual conversion of hardware resources  644  and/or other physical computing of the physical infrastructure  640  to support or host virtual machines  651  in the virtualized infrastructure  650 . In this regard, components of the physical infrastructure  640  may include physical components, such as physical servers and/or other computing devices, memories, buses, networks, and/or other physical components, which may collectively support the virtualized infrastructure  650  and VMs  651 . 
     A virtualization manager  654  of the virtualization environment  652  may be configured to establish and oversee the VMs  651 . The virtualization manager  654  may be configured to dynamically allocate resources among the virtual machines  651 . For example, in some embodiments, the virtualization manger  654  may be configured to communicate with the infrastructure manager  642  to manage and/or configure the physical infrastructure  640  to support operation of the virtual machines  651 . The virtualization manager  654  of some example embodiments may be implemented with the VMware® vCenter® virtualized management platform available from VMware, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif. 
     In some example embodiments, virtualization environment  652  may be implemented by running VMware vSphere® and/or VMware ESX®-based hypervisor technologies, available from Vmware, Inc., on servers  646 . However, it will be appreciated that any virtualization/hypervisor/container technology may be used in addition to or in lieu of VMware hypervisor technologies in accordance with various example embodiments. 
       FIG. 6  also shows a resource allocation system  660 , which may be configured to allocate an enterprise&#39;s virtual resources in a machine-level virtualization environment  650 , in accordance with some example embodiments. A sample embodiment of the resource allocation system  660  is illustrated in more detail in  FIGS. 1-3  and is discussed in more detail in the discussion of  FIGS. 1-3  above. 
     As may be appreciated, rather than deploying a software application, for which resources need to be identified for deployment, in the machine-level virtualization environment  600  shown in  FIG. 6 , the software application may be deployed in an operating system-level virtualization environment, which is also known as a software container virtualized infrastructure. As also may be appreciated, operating system-level virtualization is a technique where the kernel of an operating system allows for multiple isolated user-space instances. These instances run on top of an existing host operating system and provide a set of libraries that applications interact with, giving them the appearance that they are running on a machine dedicated to their use. These instances are sometimes referred to as software containers and, thus, such an operating system-level virtualization environment may also be referred to as a software container virtualized infrastructure. 
       FIG. 7  is a diagram of an example computing system  700  that may be used to implement some example embodiments of a resource allocation system. The computing system  700  may be implemented on any computing device or plurality of computing devices that may be configured to implement one or more example embodiments. By way of non-limiting example, in some embodiments, the computing system  700  may be implemented on a user terminal and/or a computing platform(s) of a converged infrastructure. 
     The computing system may include a plurality of elements, such as processing circuitry  710 , mass storage  718 , communication interface  720 , and user interface  722 , which may be interfaced via a system bus  716 . It will be appreciated that the components, devices or elements illustrated in and described with respect to  FIG. 7  below may not be mandatory and thus some may be omitted in certain embodiments. Additionally, the computing system  700  of some embodiments may include further or different components, devices or elements beyond those illustrated in and described with respect to  FIG. 7 . 
     Further, while  FIG. 7  illustrates an architecture including elements interfaced via the system bus  716 , it will be appreciated that in some example embodiments, elements of the computing system  700  may be implemented in a distributed computing environment in which elements may be distributed across a plurality of computing devices, which may be in communication with each other, such as via a network, to provide functionality of the computing system  700 . As such, in some example embodiments, elements of the computing system  700  may be communicatively coupled via a network in addition to or in lieu of the system bus  716 . 
     The computing system  700  of some example embodiments may implement an operating system(s), such as MICROSOFT WINDOWS™, UNIX™, LINUX™, IBM z/OS™, CISCO™ INTERNETWORK OPERATING SYSTEM™ (IOS), CISCO™ CATALYST™ OPERATING SYSTEM (CatOS), CISCO NX-OS, EMC™ ISILON OneFS™ OPERATING SYSTEM, NETAPP™ DATA ONTAP™, or other known operating systems. It should be appreciated; however, that in some embodiments, one or more aspects of the computing system  700  may be implemented on and/or integrated with a virtualized computing system, such as may be provided by a converged infrastructure. 
     In some example embodiments, the computing system  700  may include processing circuitry  710  that is configurable to perform actions in accordance with one or more example embodiments disclosed herein. In this regard, the processing circuitry  710  may be configured to perform and/or control performance of one or more functionalities for determining a configuration of a converged infrastructure, such as converged infrastructure, in accordance with various example embodiments. Thus, the processing circuitry  710  may be configured to perform data processing, application execution and/or other processing and management services according to one or more example embodiments. 
     In some example embodiments, the processing circuitry  710  may include a processor  712  and, in some embodiments, such as that illustrated in  FIG. 7 , may further include memory  714 . The processing circuitry  710  may be in communication with (e.g., via system bus  716 ) and/or otherwise control mass storage  718 , communication interface  720 , and/or user interface  722 . 
     The processor  712  may be embodied in a variety of forms. For example, the processor  712  may be embodied as various hardware processing means such as a microprocessor, a coprocessor, a general purpose processor, a controller or various other computing or processing devices including integrated circuits (e.g., a logic device), such as an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit), an FPGA (field programmable gate array), some combination thereof, or the like. Although illustrated as a single processor, it will be appreciated that the processor  712  may comprise a plurality of processors. The plurality of processors may be in operative communication with each other and may be collectively configured to perform one or more functionalities to support determination of a configuration of a converged infrastructure in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments in which the computing system  700  is embodied as a plurality of computing devices, a plurality of processors, which may collectively form the processor  712 , may be distributed across a plurality of computing devices that may be in operative communication with each other directly and/or via a network. In some example embodiments, the processor  712  may be configured to execute instructions that may be stored in a memory, such as the memory  714  and/or the mass storage  718  and/or that may be otherwise accessible to the processor  712 . As such, whether configured by hardware or by a combination of hardware and software, the processor  712  may be capable of performing operations according to various embodiments while configured accordingly. 
     In embodiments including the memory  714 , the memory  714  may include read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), and/or the like. The mass storage  718  may include one or more memory and/or other storage devices, which may include fixed (e.g., a fixed hard disc drive, storage array, fixed flash memory device, and/or the like) and/or removable memory devices (e.g., a removable flash memory device, an optical disc drive, and/or other removable memory device). The mass storage  718  may provide a persistent data storage device. In some example embodiments, the mass storage  718  may be configured to provide a backup storage. The mass storage  718  may include a memory device implemented locally to the computing system  700  and/or a memory device remote to the computing system  700 , which may be communicatively coupled with the computing system  700 , such as via a network. In some embodiments in which the computing system  700  is embodied as a plurality of computing devices, the memory  714  and/or mass storage  718  may include a plurality of memory devices, which may be distributed across a plurality of computing devices that may be in operative communication with each other directly and/or via a network to form the computing system  700 . 
     In some embodiments, the memory  714  and/or the mass storage  718  may provide a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that may store computer program instructions that may be executed by the processor  712 . In this regard, the memory  714  and/or mass storage  718  may be configured to store information, data, applications, instructions and/or the like for enabling the computing system  700  to carry out various functions in accordance with one or more example embodiments. Applications that may be executed by the processor  712  may also be in the form of modulated electronic signals that may be accessed via a network modem or other network interface of the computing system  700 . 
     The computing system  700  may further include a communication interface  720 . The communication interface  720  may enable the computing system  700  to communicate (e.g., over a network or other communication interface) with another computing device or system, such as the converged infrastructure. In this regard, the communication interface  720  may include one or more interface mechanisms for enabling communication with other devices and/or networks. As such, the communication interface  720  may include, for example, an antenna (or multiple antennas) and supporting hardware and/or software for enabling communications with a wireless communication network (e.g., a cellular network, wireless local area network, and/or the like) and/or a communication modem or other hardware/software for supporting communication via cable, digital subscriber line (DSL), USB, FireWire, Ethernet, one or more optical transmission technologies, and/or other wireline networking methods. 
     In some example embodiments, the computing system  700  may include the user interface  722 . It will be appreciated, however, that in some example embodiments, one or more aspects of the user interface  722  may be omitted, and in some embodiments, the user interface  722  may be omitted entirely. The user interface  722  may be in communication with the processing circuitry  710  to receive an indication of a user input and/or to provide an audible, visual, mechanical, or other output to a user. As such, the user interface  722  may include, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, a display, a touch screen display, a microphone, a speaker, one or more biometric input devices, and/or other input/output mechanisms. 
     As shown in  FIG. 7 , in some example embodiments, a resource allocation system  740  interfaces with computing system  700 . As discussed above in connection with  FIG. 4 , the resource allocation system  740  may be configured to allocated an enterprise&#39;s virtualized resources using an orchestration layer. 
     Embodiments described herein may be practiced with various computer system configurations including blade devices, cloud systems, converged infrastructure systems, rack mounted servers, switches, storage environments, hand-held devices, tablets, microprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, mini computers, mainframe computers and the like. Some embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through one or more networks, such as one or more wireline networks and/or one or more wireless networks. 
     A computer program product may be used to implement a test framework for orchestration workflows, in some example embodiments. A computer program product embodiment may include a machine-readable, non-transitory (non-volatile) storage medium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in, which can be used to program a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodiments described herein. Computer code for operating and configuring a test framework for orchestration workflows is preferably downloaded and stored on a hard disk, although the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device as is well known, such as a read only memory (ROM) or random access memory (RAM), or provided on any media capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotating or solid state media, or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is well known, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection as is well known (e.g., extranet, virtual private network (VPN), local area network (LAN), etc.) using any communication medium and protocols (e.g., transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP), hypertext transport protocol (HTTP), HTTP secure (HTTPS), Ethernet, etc.) as are well known. It may be appreciated that computer code for implementing embodiments of the present invention can be implemented in any programming language that can be executed on a client system and/or server or server system such as, for example, C, C++, hypertext markup language (HTML), any other markup language, Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such as VBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may be used. 
     Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these disclosed embodiments pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that embodiments of the invention are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the invention. Moreover, although the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings describe example embodiments in the context of certain example combinations of elements and/or functions, it should be appreciated that different combinations of elements and/or functions may be provided by alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the disclosure. In this regard, for example, different combinations of elements and/or functions than those explicitly described above are also contemplated within the scope of the disclosure. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. 
     It should be understood that although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various steps or calculations, these steps or calculations should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one operation or calculation from another. For example, a first calculation may be termed a second calculation, and, similarly, a second step may be termed a first step, without departing from the scope of this disclosure. As used herein, the term “and/or” and the “/” symbol includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. 
     As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes”, and/or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. Therefore, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting.