Composite public cloud, method and system

Abstract

A composite public cloud enables an automated marketplace system for, selling and trading of computational resources by aggregating available compute resources so that buyers are automatically matched with sellers. A listing of compute resources available on a prospective seller's system and bids by prospective buyers for resources offered is maintained. A seller uses a series of attributes to characterize an available resource for prospective buyers. Compute resources are presented in a form which can be easily quantified or compartmentalized. Prospective buyers search the marketplace system based on desired resource criteria. The marketplace continually evaluates the attributes of resources available for sale and the desired criteria of prospective buyers. The system attempts to match buyers and sellers, optimizing for the needs of both parties. If a desirable match is found, the marketplace system facilitates a transaction between both parties, making the purchased resource available to the buyer.

1 . A system for creating a composite public cloud in a cloud-computing environment comprising:
 a processor coupled to a bus; and   a non-transitory machine-readable medium coupled to the bus, the non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions for:
 creating a plurality of tenants in at least one availability zone of at least one private cloud, wherein an availability zone comprises a physical instance of the private cloud, and wherein a tenant comprises a virtual representation of certain compute resources situated within an availability zone; 
 allocating a portion of the tenants as resale tenants; 
 associating a description with each resale tenant, wherein the description describes an associated resale tenant according to a corresponding grace period; and 
 aggregating one or more of the resale tenants into a composite public cloud. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein for the corresponding grace period, a longer grace period corresponds to a higher market value. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the physical instance comprises a plurality of servers and associated storage, each of the servers having resident thereon an instance of a hypervisor application, the hypervisor application operative to virtualize the server so that each server is represented as at least one virtual machine; and
 wherein a tenant comprises at least one virtual machine.   
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the aggregating one or more of the resale tenants into a composite public cloud comprises:
 registering at least one resale tenant on a facility for transferring commoditized excess compute resources,   mapping each of the at least one resale tenant to a public tenant within a public availability zone in a virtualized public cloud, and   publishing the description of the registered resale tenant.   
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein associating a description to each resale tenant further includes any of a start of availability, a cost, and a minimal duration. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes instructions for:
 logically segregating computing resources from each other within the same cloud, to filter traffic between different members of the same cloud; and   specifying rules for how that traffic should flow.   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes instructions for:
 establishing a portal for buying and selling commoditized excess compute resources;   automatically matching buyers and sellers through the portal; and   facilitating trading of commoditized excess compute resources.   
     
     
         8 . A method implemented on a computer for creating a composite public cloud in a cloud-computing environment, the method comprising:
 creating a plurality of tenants in at least one availability zone of at least one private cloud, wherein an availability zone comprises a physical instance of the private cloud and wherein a tenant comprises a virtual representation of certain compute resources situated within an availability zone;   allocating a portion of the tenants as resale tenants;   associating a description with each resale tenant, wherein the description describes at least one resale tenant according to a corresponding grace period; and   aggregating at least some of the resale tenants into a composite public cloud.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein for the corresponding grace period, a longer grace period corresponds to a higher market value. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the physical instance comprises a plurality of servers and associated storage, each of the servers having resident thereon an instance of a hypervisor application, the hypervisor application operative to virtualize the server so that each server is represented as at least one virtual machine; and
 wherein a tenant comprises at least one virtual machine.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein aggregating at least some of the resale tenants into a composite public cloud comprises:
 registering at least one resale tenant on a portal for trading computing resources;   mapping the at least some resale tenants to a public tenant within a public availability zone in the composite public cloud; and   publishing the description of the registered resale tenant.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein associating a description with each resale tenant further comprises:
 describing each of the resale tenants according to one or more predetermined attributes including any of start of availability, cost, and minimal duration.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 logically segregating computing resources from each other within the same cloud, to filter traffic between different members of the same cloud; and   specifying rules for how that traffic should flow.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8 , the memory further comprising:
 establishing a portal for buying and selling commoditized excess compute resources;   matching buyers and sellers through the portal; and   facilitating trading of commoditized excess compute resources.   
     
     
         15 . A method implemented on a computer, comprising:
 creating a plurality of tenants in at least one availability zone of at least one private cloud, wherein an availability zone comprises a physical instance of the private cloud, and wherein each of the tenants comprises a virtual representation of corresponding compute resources situated within an availability zone;   allocating a portion of the tenants as resale tenants;   associating a description with each resale tenant; and   aggregating the resale tenants having the associated descriptions to form a composite public cloud, wherein the aggregating includes mapping the resale tenants having the associated description to a public tenant within a public availability zone in a virtualized public cloud; and   publishing the descriptions of the associated resale tenants.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the description includes a grace period corresponding to each of the resale tenants. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein for the corresponding grace periods, a longer grace period corresponds to a higher market value. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the physical instance comprises a plurality of servers and associated storage, each of the servers having resident thereon an instance of a hypervisor application, the hypervisor application operative to virtualize the server so that each server is represented as at least one virtual machine; and
 wherein a tenant comprises at least one virtual machine.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein associating a description with each resale tenant comprises:
 describing each of the resale tenants according to one or more predetermined attributes including any of start of availability, cost, and minimal duration.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 logically segregating computing resources from each other within the same cloud, to filter traffic between different members of the same cloud; and   specifying rules for how that traffic should flow.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 15 , the memory further comprising:
 establishing a portal for buying and selling commoditized excess compute resources;   matching buyers and sellers through the portal; and   facilitating trading of commoditized excess compute resources.