Patent Abstract:
Method and Apparatus for rapid scalable unified infrastructure system management platform are disclosed by discovery of compute nodes, network components across data centers, both public and private for a user; assessment of type, capability, VLAN, security, virtualization configuration of the discovered unified infrastructure nodes and components; configuration of nodes and components covering add, delete, modify, scale; and rapid roll out of nodes and components across data centers both public and private.

Full Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/873,067 filed Aug. 30, 2013 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CREATING INTER DATACENTER COLLISION DOMAIN NETWORK STRETCH”, the contents of which are all herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD 
       [0002]    The disclosure generally relates to enterprise cloud computing and more specifically to a seamless cloud across multiple clouds providing enterprises with quickly scalable, secure, multi-tenant automation. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    Cloud computing is a model for enabling on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources/service groups (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can ideally be provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. 
         [0004]    Software as a Service (SaaS) provides the user with the capability to use a service provider&#39;s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser or a program interface. The user does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities. 
         [0005]    Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides the user with the capability to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the user is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The user does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, and deployed applications; and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls). 
         [0006]    Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides the user with the capability to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure user-created or acquired applications created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The user does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment. 
         [0007]    Cloud deployment may be Public, Private or Hybrid. A Public Cloud infrastructure is provisioned for open use by the general public. It may be owned, managed, and operated by a business, academic, or government organization. It exists on the premises of the cloud provider. A Private Cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization comprising multiple users (e.g., business units). It may be owned, managed, and operated by the organization, a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off premises. A Hybrid Cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization comprising multiple users (e.g., business units). It may be owned, managed, and operated by the organization, a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off premises. 
         [0008]    The promise of enterprise cloud computing was supposed to lower capital and operating costs and increase flexibility for the Information Technology (IT) department. However lengthy delays, cost overruns, security concerns, and loss of budget control have plagued the IT department. Enterprise users must juggle multiple cloud setups and configurations, along with aligning public and private clouds to work together seamlessly. Turning up of cloud capacity (cloud stacks) can take months and many engineering hours to construct and maintain. High-dollar professional services are driving up the total cost of ownership dramatically. The current marketplace includes different ways of private cloud build-outs. Some build internally hosted private clouds while others emphasize Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controllers that relegate switches and routers to mere plumbing. 
         [0009]    The cloud automation market breaks down into several types of vendors, ranging from IT operations management (ITOM) providers, limited by their complexity, to so-called fabric-based infrastructure vendors that lack breadth and depth in IT operations and service. To date, true value in enterprise cloud has remained elusive, just out of reach for most organizations. No vendor provides a complete Cloud Management Platform (CMP) solution. 
         [0010]    Therefore there is a need for systems and methods that create a unified fabric on top of multiple clouds reducing costs and providing limitless agility. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0011]    Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and will become apparent from the description, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosed principles by those skilled in the art. The features and advantages of the disclosure can be realized and obtained by means of the disclosed instrumentalities and combinations as set forth in detail herein. These and other features of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description, or can be learned by the practice of the principles set forth herein. 
         [0012]    A Cloud Management Platform is described for fully unified compute and virtualized software-based networking components empowering enterprises with quickly scalable, secure, multi-tenant automation across clouds of any type, for clients from any segment, across geographically dispersed data centers. 
         [0013]    In one embodiment, systems and methods are described for sampling of data center devices alerts; selecting an appropriate response for the event; monitoring the end node for repeat activity; and monitoring remotely. 
         [0014]    In another embodiment, systems and methods are described for discovery of compute nodes; assessment of type, capability, VLAN, security, virtualization configuration of the discovered compute nodes; configuration of nodes covering add, delete, modify, scale; and rapid roll out of nodes across data centers. 
         [0015]    In another embodiment, systems and methods are described for discovery of network components including routers, switches, server load balancers, firewalls; assessment of type, capability, VLAN, security, access lists, policies, virtualization configuration of the discovered network components; configuration of components covering add, delete, modify, scale; and rapid roll out of network atomic units and components across data centers. 
         [0016]    In another embodiment, systems and methods are described for discovery of storage components including storage arrays, disks, SAN switches, NAS devices; assessment of type, capability, VLAN, VSAN, security, access lists, policies, virtualization configuration of the discovered storage components; configuration of components covering add, delete, modify, scale; and rapid roll out of storage atomic units and components across data centers. 
         [0017]    In another embodiment, systems and methods are described for discovery of workload and application components within data centers; assessment of type, capability, IP, TCP, bandwidth usage, threads, security, access lists, policies, virtualization configuration of the discovered application components; real time monitoring of the application components across data centers public or private; and capacity analysis and intelligence to adjust underlying infrastructure thus enabling liquid applications. 
         [0018]    In another embodiment, systems and methods are described for analysis of capacity of workload and application components across public and private data centers and clouds; assessment of available infrastructure components across the data centers and clouds; real time roll out and orchestration of application components across data centers public or private; and rapid configurations of all needed infrastructure components. 
         [0019]    In another embodiment, systems and methods are described for analysis of capacity of workload and application components across public and private data centers and clouds; assessment of available infrastructure components across the data centers and clouds; comparison of capacity with availability; real time roll out and orchestration of application components across data centers public or private within allowed threshold bringing about true elastic behavior; and rapid configurations of all needed infrastructure components. 
         [0020]    In another embodiment, systems and methods are described for analysis of all remote monitored data from diverse public and private data centers associated with a particular user; assessment of the analysis and linking it to the user applications; alerting user with one line message for high priority events; and additional business metrics and return on investment addition in the user configured parameters of the analytics. 
         [0021]    In another embodiment, systems and methods are described for discovery of compute nodes, network components across data centers, both public and private for a user; assessment of type, capability, VLAN, security, virtualization configuration of the discovered unified infrastructure nodes and components; configuration of nodes and components covering add, delete, modify, scale; and rapid roll out of nodes and components across data centers both public and private. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0022]    In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the disclosure can be obtained, a more particular description of the principles briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the principles herein are described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which: 
           [0023]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary hardware configuration in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0024]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram describing a tenancy configuration wherein the Enterprise hosts systems and methods within its own data center in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0025]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram describing a super tenancy configuration wherein the Enterprise uses systems and methods hosted in a cloud computing service in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0026]      FIG. 4  is a logical diagram of the Enterprise depicted in  FIG. 1  in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0027]      FIG. 5  illustrates a logical view that an Enterprise administrator and Enterprise user have of the uCloud Platform depicted in  FIG. 1  in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0028]      FIG. 6  illustrates a flow diagram of a service catalog classifying data center resources into service groups; selecting a service group and assigning it to end users; 
           [0029]      FIG. 7  illustrates a flow diagram of mapping service group categories to user groups that have been given access to a given service group, in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0030]      FIG. 8  illustrates the Cloud administration process utilizing the tenant cloud instance manager as well as the manager of manager and the ability of uCloud platform to logically restrict and widen scope of Cloud Administration, as well as monitoring; 
           [0031]      FIG. 9  illustrates a hierarchy diagram of the Cloud administration process utilizing the tenant cloud instance manager as well as the manager of manager and the ability of uCloud platform to logically restrict and widen scope of Cloud Administration in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0032]      FIG. 10  illustrates the logical flow of information from the uCloud Platform depicted in  FIG. 1  to a Controller Node in a given Enterprise for compute nodes; 
           [0033]      FIG. 11  illustrates the logical flow of information from the uCloud Platform depicted in  FIG. 1  to the Controller Node in a given Enterprise for network components; 
           [0034]      FIG. 12  illustrates the logical flow of information from the uCloud Platform to the Controller Node in a given Enterprise for storage devices; 
           [0035]      FIG. 13  illustrates the application-monitoring component of the uCloud Platform in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0036]      FIG. 14  illustrates the application-orchestration component of the uCloud Platform in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0037]      FIG. 15  illustrates the integration of the application-orchestration and application-monitoring components of the uCloud Platform in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0038]      FIG. 16  illustrates the big data component of the uCloud Platform depicted in  FIG. 1  and the relationship to the monitoring component of the platform 
           [0039]      FIG. 17  illustrates the process of deploying uCloud within an Enterprise environment; 
           [0040]      FIG. 18  illustrates a flow diagram in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0041]      FIG. 19  illustrates a flow diagram in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0042]      FIG. 20  illustrates a flow diagram in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0043]      FIG. 21  illustrates a flow diagram in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
           [0044]      FIG. 22  illustrates a block diagram in accordance with the principles of the present invention; and 
           [0045]      FIG. 23  illustrates a combined block and flow diagram in accordance with the principles of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0046]    The FIGURES and text below, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present invention are by way of illustration only and are not to be construed in any way to limit the scope of the invention. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting, since the scope of the present invention will be limited only by the appended claims. A Person Having Ordinary Skill in the Art (PHOSITA) will readily recognize that the principles of the present invention maybe implemented in any type of suitably arranged device or system. Specifically, while the present invention is described with respect to use in cloud computing services and Enterprise hosting, a PHOSITA will readily recognize other types of networks and other applications without departing from the scope of the present invention. 
         [0047]    Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by a PHOSITA to which this invention belongs. Although any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can also be used in the practice or testing of the present invention, a limited number of the exemplary methods and materials are described herein. 
         [0048]    All publications mentioned herein are incorporated herein by reference to disclose and describe the methods and/or materials in connection with which the publications are cited. The publications discussed herein are provided solely for their disclosure prior to the filing date of the present application. Nothing herein is to be construed as an admission that the present invention is not entitled to antedate such publication by virtue of prior invention. Further, the dates of publication provided may be different from the actual publication dates, which may need to be independently confirmed. 
         [0049]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 1  that depicts a block diagram of an exemplary hardware configuration in accordance with the principles of the present invention. A uCloud Platform  100  combining self-service cloud orchestration with a Layer 2- and Layer 3-capable encrypted virtual network may be hosted by a cloud computing service such as but not limited to, Amazon Web Services or directly by an enterprise such as but not limited to, a service provider (e.g. Verizon or AT&amp;T), provides a web interface  104  with a Virtual IP (VIP) address, a Rest API interface  106  with a Virtual IP (VIP), a RPM Repository Download Server and, a message bus  110 , and a vAppliance Download Manager  112 . Connections to and from web interface  104 , Rest API interface  106 , RPM Repository Download Server, message bus  110 , and vAppliance Download Manager  112  are preferably SSL secured. Interfaces  104 ,  106 ,  107  and  109  are preferably VeriSign certificate based with Extra Validation (EV), allowing for 128-bit encryption and third party validation for all communication on the interfaces. In addition to SSL encryption on Message BUS  110 , each message sent across on interface  107  to a Tenant environment is preferably encrypted with a Public/Private key pair thus allowing for extra security per Enterprise/Service Provider communication. The Public/Private key pair security per Tenant prevents accidental information leakage to be shared across other Tenants. Interfaces  108  and  110  are preferably SSL based (with self-signed) certificates with 128-bit encryption. In addition to communication interfaces, all Tenant passwords and Credit Card information stored are preferably encrypted. 
         [0050]    Controller node  121  performs dispatched control, monitoring control and Xen Control. Dispatched control entails executing, or terminating, instructions received from the uCLoud Platform  100 . Xen control is the process of translating instructions received from uCLoud Platform  100  into a Xen Hypervisor API. Monitoring is performed by the monitor controller by periodically gathering management plane information data in an extended platform for memory, CPU, network, and storage utilizations. This information is gathered and then sent to the management plane. The extended platform comprises vAppliance instances that allow instantiation of Software Defined clouds. The management, control, and data planes in the tenant environment are contained within the extended platform. RPM Repository Download Server  108  downloads RPMs (packages of files that contain a programmatic installation guide for the resources contained) when initiated by Control node  121 . The message bus VIP  110  couples between the Enterprise  101  and the uCloud Platform  100 . A Software Defined Cloud (SDC) may comprise a plurality of Virtual Machines (vAppliances) such as, but not limited to a Bridge Router (BR-RTR, Router, Firewall, and DHCP-DNS (DDNS) across multiple virtual local area networks (VLANs) and potentially across data centers for scale, coupled through Compute node (C-N) nodes (aka servers)  120 - 120   n.  The SDC represents a logical linking of select compute nodes (aka servers) within the enterprise cloud. Virtual Networks running on Software Defined Routers  122  and Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) Firewalls are referred to as vAppliances. All Software defined networking components are dynamic and automated, provisioned as needed by the business policies defined in the Service Catalogue by the Tenant Administrator. 
         [0051]    The uCloud Platform  100  supports policy-based placement of vAppliances and compute nodes ( 120   a - 120   n ). The policies permit the Tenant Administrator to do auto or static placement thus facilitating creation of dedicated hardware environment Nodes for Tenant&#39;s Virtual Machine networking deployment base. 
         [0052]    The uCloud Platform  100  created SDC environment enables the Tenant Administrator to create lines of businesses or in other words, department groups with segregated networked space and service offerings. This facilitates Tenant departments like IT, Finance and development to all share the same SDC space but at the same time be isolated by networking and service offerings. 
         [0053]    The uCloud Platform  100  supports deploying SDC vAppliances in redundant pair topologies. This allows for key virtual networking building block host nodes to be swapped out and new functional host nodes be inserted managed through uCloud Platform  100 . SDCs can be dedicated to data centers, thus two unique SDCs in different data centers can provide the Enterprise a disaster recovery scenario. 
         [0054]    SDC vAppliances are used for the logical configuration of SDC&#39;s within a tenants private cloud. A Router Node is a physical server, or node, in an tenant&#39;s private cloud that may be used to host certain vAppliances relating SDC networking Such vAppliances may include the Router, DDNS, and BR-RTR (Bridge Router) vApplications that may be used to route internet traffic to and from an SDC, as well as establish logical boundaries for SDC accessibility. Two Router Nodes exist, an active Node (-A) and a standby Node (-S), used in the event that the active node experiences failure. The Firewall Nodes, also present in an active and standby pair, are used to filter internet traffic coming into an SDC. There is a singular vAppliance that uses the Firewall Node, that being the Firewall vAppliance. The vAppliances are configured through use of vAppliance templates, which are downloaded and stored by the tenant in the appliance store/Template store. 
         [0055]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 2  depicting a block diagram describing a tenancy configuration wherein the Enterprise hosts systems and methods within its own data center in accordance with the principles of the present invention. The uCloud platform  100  is hosted directly on an enterprise  200  which may be a Service Provider such as, but not limited to, Verizon FIOS or AT&amp;T uVerse, which serves tenants A-n  202 ,  204  and  206 , respectively. Alternatively, enterprise  200  may be an enterprise having subsidiaries or departments  202 ,  204  and  206  that it chooses to keep segregated. 
         [0056]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 3  depicting a block diagram of a super tenancy configuration wherein the Enterprise uses systems and methods hosted in a cloud computing service  300  in accordance with the principles of the present invention. In this configuration, the uCloud platform is hosted by a cloud computing service  300  that services Enterprises  302 ,  304  and  306 . It should be understood that more or less Enterprises could be serviced without departing from the scope of the invention. In the present example, Enterprise C  306  has sub tenants. Enterprise C  306  may be a service provider (e.g. Verizon FIOS or AT&amp;T u-Verse) or an Enterprise having subsidiaries or departments that it chooses to keep segregated. 
         [0057]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 4  depicting a block diagram describing permutations of a Software Defined Cloud (SDC) in accordance with the principles of the present invention. The SDC can be of three types namely Routed  400 , Public Routed  402  and Public  404 . Routed and Routed Public SDC types  400  and  402  respectively are designed to be reachable through the Enterprise IP address space, with the caveat that the Enterprise IP address space cannot be in the same collision domain as these types of SDC IP network space. Furthermore, Routed and Public Routed SDC  400  and  402  respectively can re-use same IP network space without colliding with each other. The Public SDC  404  is Internet  406  facing only, it can have overlapping collision IP space with the Enterprise network. Public SDC  404  further provides Internet facing access only. SDC IP schema is automatically managed by the uCloud platform  100  and does not require Tenant Administrator intervention. 
         [0058]    SDC Software Defined Firewalls  408  are of two/one type, Internet gateway (for DMZ use). The SDC vAppliances (e.g. Firewall  408 , Router  410 ) and compute nodes ( 120   a - 120   n ) provide a scalable Cloud deployment environment for the Enterprise. The scalability is achieved through round robin and dedicated hypervisor host nodes. The host pool provisioning management is performed through uCloud Platform  100 . The uCloud Platform  100  manages dedicated nodes for the compute nodes ( 120   a - 120   n ), it allows for fault isolation across the Tenant&#39;s Virtual Machine workload deployment base. 
         [0059]    Referring back to  FIG. 1 , an uCloud Platform administrator  102 A, an Enterprise administrator  102 B, and an Enterprise User  102 C without administrator privileges are depicted. To deploy uCloud platform  100 , Enterprise administrator  102 B grants uCloud Platform administrator  102 A information regarding the enterprise environment  101  and the hardware residing within it (e.g. compute nodes  120   a - n ). After this information is supplied, platform  100  creates a customized package that contains a Controller Node  121  designed for the Enterprise  101 . Enterprise administrator  102 B downloads and install Controller Node  121  into the Enterprise environment  101 . The uCloud Platform  100  then generates a series of tasks, and communicates these tasks indirectly with Controller Node  121 , via the internet  111 . The communication is preferably done indirectly so as to eliminate any potential for unauthorized access to the Enterprise&#39;s information. The process preferably requires uCloud platform  100  to leave the tasks in an online location, and the tasks are only accessible to the unique Controller Node  121  present in an Enterprise Environment  101 . Controller Node  121  then fulfills the tasks generated by uCloud platform  100 , and thus configures the compute  122 , network  123 , and storage  120   a - n  capability of the Enterprise environment  101 . 
         [0060]    Upon completion of the hardware configuration, uCloud platform  100  is deployed in the Enterprise environment  101 . The uCloud platform  100  monitors the Enterprise environment  101  and preferably communicates with Controller Node  121  indirectly. Enterprise administrator  102 B and Enterprise User  102 C use the online portal to access uCloud platform  100  and to operate their private cloud. 
         [0061]    Software defined clouds (SDCs) are created within the uCloud platform  100  configured Enterprise  101 . Each SDC contains compute nodes that are logically linked to each other, as well as certain network and storage components (logical and physical) that create logical isolation for those compute nodes within the SDC. As discussed above, an enterprise  101  may create three types of SDC&#39;s: Routed  400 , Public Routed  402 , and Public  404  as depicted in  FIG. 4 . The difference, as illustrated by  FIG. 4 , is how each SDC is accessible to an Enterprise user  102 C. 
         [0062]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 5  that depicts a logical view of the uCloud Platform  100  that the Enterprise administrator  102 B and Enterprise user  102 C have in accordance with the principles of the present invention. Resources compute  502 , network  504  and storage  506  residing in a data center  507  are coupled to the service catalog  508  that classifies the resources into service groups  510   a - 510   n.  A monitor  512  is coupled to the service catalog  508  and to a user  514 . User  514  is also coupled to service catalog  508 . Service catalog  508  is configured to designate various data center items (compute  502 , network  504 , and storage  506 ) as belonging to certain service groups  510   a - 510   n.  The Service catalog  508  also maps the service groups to the appropriate User. Additionally, monitor  512  monitors and controls the service groups belonging to a specific User. 
         [0063]    The service catalog  508  allows for a) the creation of User defined services: a service is a virtual application, or a category/group of virtual applications to be consumed by the Users or their environment, b) the creation of categories, c) the association of virtual appliances to categories, d) the entitlement of services to tenant administrator-defined User groups, and e) the Launch of services by Users through an app orchestrator. The service catalog  508  may then create service groups  510   a - 510   n.  A service group is a classification of certain data center components e.g. compute Nodes, network Nodes, and storage Nodes. 
         [0064]    Monitoring in  FIG. 5  is done by periodically gathering management plane information data in the extended platform for memory, CPU, network, storage utilizations. This information is gathered and then sent to the management plane. 
         [0065]      FIG. 6  illustrates a flow diagram of a service catalog classifying data center resources into service groups; selecting a service group and assigning it to end users.  FIG. 7  illustrates a flow diagram of mapping service group categories to user groups that have been given access to a given service group, in accordance with the principles of the present invention. 
         [0066]    Reference is now made to  FIGS. 8 and 9  that illustrate the Cloud administration process its hierarchy respectively, utilizing the tenant cloud instance manager as well as the manager of manager and the ability of uCloud platform to logically restrict and widen scope of Cloud Administration as well as monitoring; 
         [0067]    It should be noted that reference throughout the specification to “tenants” includes both enterprises and service providers as “super-tenants”. Each Software Defined Cloud (SDC) has a management plane, as well as a Data Plane and Control Plane. The Management plane provisions, configures, and operates the cloud instances. The Control plane creates and manages the static topology configuration across network and security domains. The Data plane is part of the network that carries user networking traffic. Together, these three planes govern the SDC&#39;s abilities and define the logical boundaries of a given SDC. The Manager of Manager  604  in uCLoud Platform  100  which is accessible only to the uCloud Platform administrator  102 A, manages the tenant cloud instance manager  706  ( FIG. 10 ) in every tenant private cloud. The hierarchy of this management is shown in  FIG. 9 . 
         [0068]    Referring now to  FIGS. 10 ,  11  and  12 , the tenant cloud instance manager  706  is responsible for overseeing the management planes of various SDC&#39;s as well as any other virtual Applications that the tenant is running in its compute Nodes, network components and storage devices, respectively. The uCloud Platform  100  generates commands related to the management of Compute Nodes  120   a - n  based on tenant cloud instance manager  706  and extended platform orchestrator. The extended platform orchestrator is responsible for intelligently dispersing commands to create, manage, delete, or modify components of a tenant&#39;s uCloud platform  100 , or the extended platform based on predetermined logic. These commands are communicated indirectly to the Controller Node  121  of a specific Enterprise environment. The controller node  121  then accesses the compute Nodes  120   a - n  and executes the commands. The launched cloud instance (SDC) management planes are depicted as  708   a -n in  FIG. 10 . The ability of the tenant cloud instance manager  706  to modify and delete SDC management plane characteristics (compute, network, storage, Users, and business processes is provided over the internet  111 . Tenants (depicted in  FIG. 3  as  302 ,  304  and  306 ) each have a Tenant cloud instance manager  706  viewable to through the web interface  104  depicted in  FIG. 1 . 
         [0069]    Again with reference to  FIG. 8 , the monitoring platform  602  is not limited to one controller but rather, its scope is all controllers within the platform. The monitoring done by the controller  512  ( FIG. 5 ) is performed in a limited capacity, periodically gathering management plane information data in the extended platform for memory, CPU, network, storage utilizations. This information is gathered and then sent to the tenant cloud instance manager  706 . 
         [0070]    Centralized management view of all management planes across the tenants is provided to uCloud Platform administrator  102 A through the uCloud web interface  104  depicted in  FIG. 1 . 
         [0071]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 11  illustrating the logical flow of information from the uCloud Platform  100  to the Controller Node in a given Enterprise. The uCloud Platform  100  generates commands related to the management of Network components  122  and  123  based on tenant cloud instance manager and extended platform orchestrator element. The extended platform orchestrator is responsible for intelligently dispersing commands to create, manage, delete, or modify components of  100 , or the extended platform based on predetermined logic. These commands are communicated indirectly to the Controller Node ( 121  in  FIG. 1 ) of a specific Enterprise environment  101 . The controller node then accesses the pertinent router nodes, and within them, the pertinent vAppliances, and executes the commands. 
         [0072]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 12  illustrating the logical flow of information from the uCloud Platform to the Controller Node in a given Enterprise. The uCloud Platform  100  generates commands related to the management of Storage components tenant cloud instance manager and extended platform orchestrator. The extended platform orchestrator is responsible for intelligently dispersing commands to create, manage, delete, or modify components of  100 , or the extended platform based on predetermined logic. These commands are communicated indirectly to the Controller Node  121  of a specific Enterprise environment. The controller node then accesses the pertinent storage devices and executes the commands. 
         [0073]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 13  illustrating the application-monitoring component of the uCloud Platform  100  in accordance with the principles of the present invention. The platform indirectly communicates with the Controller Node which monitors the application health. This entails passively monitoring a) the state of Enterprise SDC&#39;s ( 400 ,  402 ,  404  in  FIG. 4 ), and b) the capacity of the Enterprise infrastructure. The Controller Node also actively monitors the state of the processes initiated by the uCloud Platform and executed by the Controller Node. The Controller Node relays the status of the above components to the uCloud Platform monitoring component  1000 . 
         [0074]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 14  illustrating the application-orchestration component of the uCloud Platform in accordance with the principles of the present invention. The app orchestrator performs the process of tracking service offerings that are logically connected to SDC&#39;s. It takes the requests from the service catalog and deterministically retrieves information on what compute Nodes and vAppliances are part of a given SDC. It launches service catalog applications within the compute nodes that are connected to a targeted SDC. 
         [0075]    The process is as follows: 
         [0076]    1. receive request for launch of a virtual application from service catalog  508 . 
         [0077]    2. retrieve information on destination of the request (which SDC in which tenant environment) 
         [0078]    3. Retrieve information of what devices compute Nodes and vAppliances are involved in the SDC 
         [0079]    4. once it determines the above, the app orchestrator sends a configuration to launch these virtual applications to the controller Node. 
         [0080]    Additionally, the app orchestrator will be used in conjunction with the app monitor in the uCloud platform  100  as well as the monitoring controller present in the controller node in the extended platform to a) receive requests from controller node and b) access the relevant tenant extended platform, determines the impacted SDC, and c) perform appropriate corrective action. 
         [0081]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 15  illustrating the integration of the application-orchestration and application-monitoring components of the uCloud Platform in accordance with the principles of the present invention.  FIG. 15  illustrates part of the Monitoring functionality of the uCLoud platform  100 . Through use of the monitoring controller, the app monitor collects health information of the extended platform (as detailed herein above). In addition, a tenant can define a “disruptive event”. In the event of a disruptive event the monitoring controller will alert the app orchestrator to perform corrective action. The monitoring controller performs corrective action by rebuilding relevant portions of extended platform control plane. 
         [0082]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 16  illustrating the big data component of the uCloud Platform  100  and the relationship to the monitoring component of the platform. Based on the data collected by the Controller Node  121  that is relayed to the Platform and stored in a Database, an analysis can be made of, a) SDC and compute nodes usage, and b) disruptive events reported. Heuristics of cloud usage is tracked by the Controller Node. Heuristic algorithmic analysis is used in  100  to understand aspects of tenant cloud usage. 
         [0083]    SDC instance information is collected from the SDC management plane by the tenant cloud instance manager. (achieved by a) tenant cloud instance manager sending a command to the controller node via the message bus, b) controller node uses the command to retrieve collected information from the correct SDC management plane, c) information is relayed to tenant cloud instance manager, d) information is stored in a database) 
         [0084]    SDC instance Information refers to Data about services usage, services types, SDC networking, compute, storage consumption data. This Data is collected continuously (via process outlined above) and archived to an external Big Data database ( 1303 , contained in  100 ). Big data analytics engine processes the gathered information and performs heuristic big data analysis to determine cloud tenant services usage, services types, SDC networking, compute, storage consumption data, and then suggests optimal cloud deployment for tenant (through web interface in  100 ). 
         [0085]    This analysis can contain a determination of high priority events, and report it to the relevant administrators  102 A, and  102 B. Additional analysis can be made using business metrics and return on investment computations. 
         [0086]    Reference is now made to  FIG. 17  illustrates the process of deploying uCloud within an Enterprise environment. Using gathered information on compute nodes  120   a - n,  uCloud Platform  100  creates a customized package that contains a Controller Node  121 , designed for the Enterprise  101 . Administrator  102 B then downloads and installs Controller Node  121  into the Enterprise environment  101 . The uCloud Platform then orchestrates the infrastructure within the Enterprise environment, via the Controller Node. This includes configuration of router nodes  122 , firewall node  123 , compute Nodes  120   a - n,  as well as any storage infrastructure. 
         [0087]      FIG. 17  represents a holistic view of the cloud management platform capabilities of uCloud Platform. The platform is separated into the hosted platform  100  and the management platform. 
         [0088]    The uCloud Platform  100  can support many tenants recalling that a tenant is defined as an enterprise or a service provider. The multi tenant concept can be seen in  FIG. 2 , as well as in  FIG. 3 . The tenant environment prior to deployment of uCloud is a collection of Compute Nodes. Post uCloud deployment, the environment, now called a private cloud, comprises an extended platform and compute nodes. The extended platform comprises of a limited number of Nodes dedicated for the logical creation of clouds (SDC&#39;s). The compute Nodes are used as Enterprise resources, and can be part of a single or multiple SDC&#39;s, or software defined clouds. The SDC concept is seen in  FIG. 4 . This is referred to as the “logical view” of the private cloud. The division of the extended platform and the compute nodes is seen in  FIG. 1 . This will be referred to as the “hardware view” of the private cloud. The combination of the logical and hardware views is seen in ( FIG. 18 ). As mentioned, the extended platform consists of several Nodes (servers). Each Node will run specific types of virtual Appliances, or vAppliances, that regulate and create logical boundaries for an SDC. Every SDC will contain a specific set of vAppliances. The shaded regions of (FLOW  1 ) represent exclusive use of a set of vAppliances by a specific SDC. The Compute Nodes of a private cloud, seen in  FIG. 1  and in FLOW as C-N, are a resource that can be shared between multiple SDC&#39;s. This sharing concept is seen in  FIG. 18 . 
         [0089]    The uCloud Platform manages SDC&#39;s by providing several features that will assist a tenant in operating the private cloud. These features include, but are not restricted to, a) service catalog of virtual applications to be run on a given SDC, b) monitoring of SDC&#39;s, c) Big Data analytics of SDC usage and functionality, and d) hierarchical logic dictating access to SDC&#39;s/virtual applications/health information/or other sensitive information. The process of performing each feature has been shown in  FIGS. 5-14 . 
         [0090]    The uCloud Platform configuration process is summarized as follows: Using gathered information on compute nodes  120   a - n,  uCloud Platform  100  creates a customized package that contains a Controller Node  121 , designed for the Enterprise  101 .  102 B then downloads and installs  121  into the Enterprise environment  101 . The uCloud Platform then orchestrates the infrastructure within the Enterprise environment, via the Controller Node. This includes configuration of router nodes  122 , firewall node  123 , compute Nodes  120   a - n,  as well as any storage infrastructure. The combination of all uCLoud Platform components in the hosted and extended platforms allows for the operation of a multi-tenant, multi-User, scalable Private cloud. 
         [0091]      FIGS. 22 and 23  illustrate embodiments of systems and methods for creating inter datacenter collision domain network stretch. The tenant administrator accesses the uCloud platform  100 . The tenant administrator accesses the service catalog manager  2305 . The tenant administrator launches a software defined cloud (SDC)  2310 . In exemplary configuration, the launched SDC is of public or public routed types. The SDC is created successfully and the instance information is stored  2315  in the uCloud database  2320 . 
         [0092]    At a second major step, the tenant administrator accesses the uCloud platform  100 . The tenant administrator accesses an interface presented by the uCloud platform, an SDC wizard via a web portal in exemplary configuration  2325 . The tenant administrator accesses virtual private network (VPN) setup settings  2340 . The tenant administrator accesses a VPN configuration interface presented by the system  2345 . The tenant administrator configures the VPN by launching a VPN virtual machine (VM) in the public or public-routed SDC  2350 . Via the VPN configuration interface, the tenant administrator configures the VPN application  2355 . It should be noted that manual steps may be needed for the remote-end to connect back into the SDC VPN application  2360 . It should also be noted that a VPN VM may be launched in the remote-end public cloud and the VPN application is configured to have connectivity to the SDC VM instance  2365 . Upon successful configuration, the VPN is completed and the layer 2, site-to-site VPN is established. 
         [0093]    At the third major step, the tenant administrator accesses the SDC interface via web platform  2325 . The tenant administrator accesses the VPN tab  2330 . The VPN tab displays all existing site to site VPN connections with remote-end and near-end connectivity information between the public cloud and the public routed SDC  2335 . 
         [0094]    While this disclosure has described certain embodiments and generally associated methods, alterations and permutations of these embodiments and methods will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the above description of example embodiments does not define or constrain this disclosure. Other changes, substitutions, and alterations are also possible without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure, as defined by the following claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7