Abstract: A system and method for associating a state with a distributed system and transitioning component states with recovery to reverse transitioning attempts includes defining a global state representing an overall provisioning state of a plurality of components involved in a system wherein a set of global states are employed as provisioning checkpoints. Individual software component methods are defined for transitioning from one state to another. Individual states are associated with a global state. A rollback method is defined by which a destination global state may be rolled back to a previous global state in an event of a failure.

Abstract: A plurality of traditional software applications are packaged as custom composite solutions, and are stored as custom composite solution deployable images. Customer input is obtained from a customer. At least one of the custom composite solution deployable images is deployed into a management cloud in response to the customer input.

Abstract: A method including identifying an individual contribution to a compilation, where the compilation comprises a plurality of individual contributions; and determining, at least partially with a computer processor, a royalty distribution value for the identified individual contribution based, at least partially, upon at least one weighted metric regarding the compilation.

Abstract: A method for creating a configurable model for rating and metering resource usage, the method includes utilizing at least one rating context for a contract of a registered offering, wherein the registered offering is a resource, monitoring the resource usage to create a usage record, optimizing the collection of the usage data based on revenue potential and metering costs, contextualizing a usage record of the resource, generating rated usage data according to the usage record, and tuning a performance indicator of a metering definition for the registered offering based on the rated usage data.

Abstract: A method for creating a configurable model for rating and metering resource usage, the method includes utilizing at least one rating context for a contract of a registered offering, wherein the registered offering is a resource, monitoring the resource usage to create a usage record, optimizing the collection of the usage data based on revenue potential and metering costs, contextualizing a usage record of the resource, generating rated usage data according to the usage record, and tuning a performance indicator of a metering definition for the registered offering based on the rated usage data.

Abstract: A system including at least one memory having a plurality of individual contributions forming a compilation stored in the at least one memory; and at least one processor connected to the at least one memory. The processor is configured to identify at least one of the individual contributions; and determine a royalty distribution value for the identified individual contribution based, at least partially, upon at least one weighted metric regarding the compilation.

Abstract: A system including at least one memory having a plurality of individual contributions forming a compilation stored in the at least one memory; and at least one processor connected to the at least one memory, where the processor is configured to use provenance data associated with a catalog item to track an individual contribution in a compilation of contributions, where the compilation is stored in the at least one memory; and dynamically compute a royalty distribution for the individual contribution based, at least partially, upon at least one metric related to the contributions which form the compilation.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method, computer-program product and a system to compose an application solution on a cloud-computing platform for a user. The method includes, in response to input from the user, selecting at least one predetermined template that includes a hardware and software instance of a data processing system that is implementable as an solution on a cloud platform; comparing the at least one selected template against a set of constraints; establishing an instance of a cloud based solution for the user based on the selected template; and validating the established cloud based solution against user-uploaded information such as software and workloads to ensure that the solution satisfies requirements of the user, such as both technical and financial requirements of the user.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method, computer-program product and a system to compose an application solution on a cloud-computing platform for a user. The method includes, in response to input from the user, selecting at least one predetermined template that includes a hardware and software instance of a data processing system that is implementable as an solution on a cloud platform; comparing the at least one selected template against a set of constraints; establishing an instance of a cloud based solution for the user based on the selected template; and validating the established cloud based solution against user-uploaded information such as software and workloads to ensure that the solution satisfies requirements of the user, such as both technical and financial requirements of the user.

Abstract: A system and an article of manufacture for de-duplicating virtual machine image accesses include identifying one or more identical blocks in two or more images in a virtual machine image repository, generating a block map for mapping different blocks with identical content into a same block, deploying a virtual machine image by reconstituting an image from the block map and fetching any unique blocks remotely on-demand, and de-duplicating virtual machine image accesses by storing the deployed virtual machine image in a local disk cache.

Abstract: Techniques for de-duplicating virtual machine image accesses. A method includes identifying one or more identical blocks in two or more images in a virtual machine image repository, generating a block map for mapping different blocks with identical content into a same block, deploying a virtual machine image by reconstituting an image from the block map and fetching any unique blocks remotely on-demand, and de-duplicating virtual machine image accesses by storing the deployed virtual machine image in a local disk cache.

Abstract: One embodiment of a method for provisioning a new virtual machine instance based on the content of an image of the new virtual machine instance includes identifying, from among a plurality of host machines, the host machine having the highest percentage of the content available in local storage, and provisioning the new virtual machine instance on the host machine having the highest percentage of the content available in local storage. Another embodiment of a method for provisioning a new virtual machine instance based on an image of the new virtual machine instance includes constructing at least a portion of the image using data stored locally on a target machine hosting the new virtual machine instance, and completing the image using data obtained over a network from remote storage.

Abstract: One embodiment of a system for provisioning a new virtual machine instance on a target host based on an image of the new virtual machine instance includes a local storage for storing images of virtual machine instances currently running on the target host and a virtual machine creator coupled to the local storage for constructing the image of the new virtual machine instance at least in part using the images of virtual machine instances currently running on the target host.

Abstract: Co-locating a virtual machine with nested virtualization, in one aspect, may comprise receiving a list of one or more virtual machine instances to co-locate with associated configuration information. A parent virtual machine instance may be identified to host the one or more virtual machine instances. Virtual machine images associated with the one or more virtual machine instances may be consolidated. A composite parent virtual machine image may be created based on the consolidated virtual machine images and the parent virtual machine instance. The parent virtual machine instance may be configured to accommodate for capacity requirement of the one or more child virtual machine instances. The parent virtual machine instance may be started on a processor via the composite parent virtual machine image. The one or more virtual machine instances may be started within the parent virtual machine instance as one or more child virtual machine instances.

Abstract: Co-locating a virtual machine with nested virtualization, in one aspect, may comprise receiving a list of one or more virtual machine instances to co-locate with associated configuration information. A parent virtual machine instance may be identified to host the one or more virtual machine instances. Virtual machine images associated with the one or more virtual machine instances may be consolidated. A composite parent virtual machine image may be created based on the consolidated virtual machine images and the parent virtual machine instance. The parent virtual machine instance may be configured to accommodate for capacity requirement of the one or more child virtual machine instances. The parent virtual machine instance may be started on a processor via the composite parent virtual machine image. The one or more virtual machine instances may be started within the parent virtual machine instance as one or more child virtual machine instances.

Abstract: A solution to a variant of a class constrained multiple knapsack problem. Previous solutions require that memory demand of every application be identical and do not consider minimizing placement changes. Previous techniques do not consider optimizing placement to improve load balancing as is described subsequently. Thus, the present invention provides systems, methods and apparatus, encapsulated in software, to provide the dynamic placement of application instances on a heterogeneous cluster of server machines. It depends on the existence of a visible and controllable platform, systems management and other business services that signal events and accept commands. It provides dynamically placing applications on servers such as to maximize a total amount of satisfied application demands, minimize a number of placement changes from a current placement, and minimize imbalance of load distribution of said applications on said at least one server.

Abstract: In a distributed computing network having computers interconnected with each other, a method and apparatus of providing policy based provisioning of middleware components to provide a solution for a service. With this invention, the middleware components that are necessary to provide the solution are determined. Then, the configurations of the computers are determined so as to satisfy a selected configuration policy for a selected solution. Finally, the necessary middleware components are installed on the configured computers so that the solution can be provided. Some of the selected configuration policies are: maximization of server utilization policy, provisioning of software components requiring external access based on availability of external resources, and minimization of total time to install said determined components.

Abstract: Database systems using BitSets to model and manage relationships between and/or among entities describing the corresponding fast user defined scalar and column functions used for BitSets, including a technique to model categorization and steps to perform rule evaluation from retrieving the entities associated with ancestors and descendent categories, as well as a technique to model Boolean Expression using Bitsets for relationships and the steps to perform fast Boolean evaluation.

Abstract: A solution to a variant of a class constrained multiple knapsack problem. Previous solutions require that memory demand of every application be identical and do not consider minimizing placement changes. Previous techniques do not consider optimizing placement to improve load balancing as is described subsequently. Thus, the present invention provides systems, methods and apparatus, encapsulated in software, to provide the dynamic placement of application instances on a heterogeneous cluster of server machines. It depends on the existence of a visible and controllable platform, systems management and other business services that signal events and accept commands. It provides dynamically placing applications on servers such as to maximize a total amount of satisfied application demands, minimize a number of placement changes from a current placement, and minimize imbalance of load distribution of said applications on said at least one server.

Abstract: A solution to a variant of a class constrained multiple knapsack problem. Previous solutions require that memory demand of every application be identical and do not consider minimizing placement changes. Previous techniques do not consider optimizing placement to improve load balancing as is described subsequently. Thus, the present invention provides systems, methods and apparatus, encapsulated in software, to provide the dynamic placement of application instances on a heterogeneous cluster of server machines. It depends on the existence of a visible and controllable platform, systems management and other business services that signal events and accept commands. It provides dynamically placing applications on servers such as to maximize a total amount of satisfied application demands, minimize a number of placement changes from a current placement, and minimize imbalance of load distribution of said applications on said at least one server.