Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Examiner Notes
Examiner cites particular paragraphs and/or columns and lines in the references as applied to Applicant’s claims for the convenience of the Applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the Applicant fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner. The prompt development of a clear issue requires that the replies of the Applicant meet the objections to and rejections of the claims. Applicant should also specifically point out the support for any amendments made to the disclosure. See MPEP § 2163.06.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Authorization for Internet Communications in a Patent Application
Applicant is encouraged to file an Authorization for Internet Communications in a Patent Application form (http://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/sb0439.pdf) along with the response to this office action to facilitate and expedite future communication between Applicant and the examiner. If the form is submitted then Applicant is requested to provide a contact email address in the signature block at the conclusion of the official reply.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 14-20 would be allowable over the prior art of record if rewritten to overcome the applicable rejection(s) and/or objection(s) set forth in this Office action because the examiner found neither prior art cited in its entirety, nor based on the prior art, found any motivation to combine any of the said prior art.
The primary reason for allowance for independent claim 14 is responsive to determining the cloud computing environment includes a plurality of public cloud zones and a plurality of private cloud zones: determine a respective total amount of a resource in each of the plurality of private cloud zones; determine a private cloud zone from among the plurality of private cloud zones having a largest total amount of the resource; assign the largest total amount of the resource as a respective total amount of the resource for each of the plurality of public cloud zones; determine, for each of the plurality of public cloud zones and the plurality of private cloud zones of the cloud computing environment, a respective zone proportion between an amount of the resource allocated to the customer and the total amount of the resource in the cloud zone; determine a placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment, wherein the placement cloud zone has a smallest zone proportion from among the plurality of public cloud zones and private cloud zones; determine, for each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone, a respective cluster proportion between an amount of the resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the resource in the cluster; and place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a smallest cluster proportion from among the plurality of clusters in conjunction with the rest of the limitations set forth in the claim.
As per claims 15-20, they are not specifically mentioned, and are allowed because they are dependent upon claim 14 mentioned above using the same rationale.
Claim Objections
Claims 4, 6, 11, 13, 17, and 19 are objected to because of minor informalities. Appropriate correction is required.
As per claim 4, “virtual processing” should be “a virtual processing resource”.
As per claim 6, “virtual processing” should be “a virtual processing resource”.
As per claim 11, it has similar limitation as claim 4 and is therefore objected to using the same rationale.
As per claim 13, it has similar limitation as claim 6 and is therefore objected to using the same rationale.
As per claim 17, it has similar limitation as claim 4 and is therefore objected to using the same rationale.
As per claim 19, it has similar limitation as claim 6 and is therefore objected to using the same rationale.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Step 1: The claim is a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter:
Claim 1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to.
Step 2A Prong One: The claim recites an abstract idea because it includes limitations that can be considered mental processes (concepts performed in the human mind including an observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion). If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the human mind or via pen and paper, then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea:
responsive to determining the cloud computing environment is a public cloud computing environment (abstract idea mental process):
determine a respective amount of a resource allocated to the customer in each of a plurality of cloud zones of the cloud computing environment (abstract idea mental process);
determine a placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment, wherein the placement cloud zone has a least amount of the allocated resource from among the plurality of cloud zones (abstract idea mental process);
determine a respective amount of the resource allocated to the customer in each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone (abstract idea mental process).
Step 2A Prong Two: The abstract idea is not integrated into a practical application because the abstract idea is recited but for generically recited additional computer elements (i.e. data storage, processor, memory, computer readable medium, etc.) which do not add meaningful limitations to the abstract idea amounting to simply implementing the abstract idea on a generic computer using generic computing hardware and/or software (e.g. generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(h)). Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. The generic computing components are recited at a high-level of generality such that they amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using the recited generic computer components. Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea:
receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI) of a project in cloud computing environment (generic computing components performing extra-solution activity of receiving data/information); and
place the VCI, wherein the instructions to place the VCI include instructions to:
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a least amount of the allocated resource from among the plurality of clusters (generic computing components performing extra-solution activity of merely reciting the words "apply it" or an equivalent with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea).
Step 2B: The claim includes limitations which can be considered extra-solution activity (see MPEP 2106.05(g)) insufficient to amount to significantly more than the abstract idea because the additional limitations only perform at least one of collecting, gathering, displaying, generating, modifying, updating, storing, retrieving, sending, and receiving data/information data which are well-understood, routine, conventional computer functions as recognized by the court decisions listed in MPEP § 2106.05(d)II. The claim further includes limitations that do not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application because they merely recite the words "apply it" (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea, as discussed in MPEP § 2106.05(f). Therefore, the claim, and its limitations when considered separately and in combination, is directed to patent ineligible subject matter:
receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI) of a project in cloud computing environment (extra-solution activity of receiving data/information); and
place the VCI, wherein the instructions to place the VCI include instructions to:
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a least amount of the allocated resource from among the plurality of clusters (extra-solution activity of merely reciting the words "apply it" or an equivalent with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea).
Claim 2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the resource is memory (generic computing components).
Claim 3. The medium of claim 1, wherein the resource is storage (generic computing components).
Claim 4. The medium of claim 1, wherein the resource is virtual processing (generic computing components).
Claim 5. The medium of claim 1, including instructions to:
determine a respective amount of a first resource allocated to the customer in each of a plurality of cloud zones of the cloud computing environment (abstract idea mental process);
determine a first resource placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment, wherein the first resource placement cloud zone has a least amount of the first allocated resource from among the plurality of cloud zones (abstract idea mental process);
determine a respective amount of a second resource allocated to the customer in each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone (abstract idea mental process); and
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a least amount of the second allocated resource from among the plurality of clusters (extra-solution activity of merely reciting the words "apply it" or an equivalent with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea).
Claim 6. The medium of claim 5, wherein the first resource is one of: memory, storage, or virtual processing (generic computing components), and wherein the second resource is another of: memory, storage, or virtual processing (generic computing components).
Claim 7. The medium of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of cloud zones is associated with a different geographical region (generic computing components).
Step 1: The claim is a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter:
Claim 8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to.
Step 2A Prong One: The claim recites an abstract idea because it includes limitations that can be considered mental processes (concepts performed in the human mind including an observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion). If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the human mind or via pen and paper, then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea:
responsive to determining the cloud computing environment is a private cloud computing environment (abstract idea mental process):
determine, for each of a plurality of cloud zones of the cloud computing environment, a respective zone proportion between an amount of the resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the resource in the cloud zone (abstract idea mental process);
determine a placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment, wherein the placement cloud zone has a smallest zone proportion from among the plurality of cloud zones (abstract idea mental process);
determine, for each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone, a respective cluster proportion between an amount of the resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the resource in the cluster (abstract idea mental process).
Step 2A Prong Two: The abstract idea is not integrated into a practical application because the abstract idea is recited but for generically recited additional computer elements (i.e. data storage, processor, memory, computer readable medium, etc.) which do not add meaningful limitations to the abstract idea amounting to simply implementing the abstract idea on a generic computer using generic computing hardware and/or software (e.g. generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(h)). Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. The generic computing components are recited at a high-level of generality such that they amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using the recited generic computer components. Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea:
receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI) of a project in cloud computing environment (generic computing components performing extra-solution activity of receiving data/information); and
place the VCI, wherein the instructions to place the VCI include instructions to:
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a smallest cluster proportion from among the plurality of clusters (generic computing components performing extra-solution activity of merely reciting the words "apply it" or an equivalent with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea).
Step 2B: The claim includes limitations which can be considered extra-solution activity (see MPEP 2106.05(g)) insufficient to amount to significantly more than the abstract idea because the additional limitations only perform at least one of collecting, gathering, displaying, generating, modifying, updating, storing, retrieving, sending, and receiving data/information data which are well-understood, routine, conventional computer functions as recognized by the court decisions listed in MPEP § 2106.05(d)II. The claim further includes limitations that do not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application because they merely recite the words "apply it" (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea, as discussed in MPEP § 2106.05(f). Therefore, the claim, and its limitations when considered separately and in combination, is directed to patent ineligible subject matter:
receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI) of a project in cloud computing environment (extra-solution activity of receiving data/information); and
place the VCI, wherein the instructions to place the VCI include instructions to:
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a smallest cluster proportion from among the plurality of clusters (extra-solution activity of merely reciting the words "apply it" or an equivalent with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea).
Claim 9. The medium of claim 8, wherein the resource is memory (generic computing components).
Claim 10. The medium of claim 8, wherein the resource is storage (generic computing components).
Claim 11. The medium of claim 8, wherein the resource is virtual processing (generic computing components).
Claim 12. The medium of claim 8, including instructions to:
determine, for each of a plurality of cloud zones of the cloud computing environment, a respective first resource zone proportion between an amount of a first resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the first resource in the cloud zone (abstract idea mental process);
determine a placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment, wherein the placement cloud zone has a smallest first resource zone proportion from among the plurality of cloud zones (abstract idea mental process);
determine, for each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone, a respective second resource cluster proportion between an amount of a second resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the second resource in the cluster (abstract idea mental process); and
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a smallest second resource cluster proportion from among the plurality of clusters (extra-solution activity of merely reciting the words "apply it" or an equivalent with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea).
Claim 13. The medium of claim 12, wherein the first resource is one of: memory, storage, or virtual processing (generic computing components), and wherein the second resource is another of: memory, storage, or virtual processing (generic computing components).
Step 1: The claim is a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter:
Claim 14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to.
Step 2A Prong One: The claim recites an abstract idea because it includes limitations that can be considered mental processes (concepts performed in the human mind including an observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion). If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the human mind or via pen and paper, then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea:
responsive to determining the cloud computing environment includes a plurality of public cloud zones and a plurality of private cloud zones (abstract idea mental process):
determine a respective total amount of a resource in each of the plurality of private cloud zones (abstract idea mental process);
determine a private cloud zone from among the plurality of private cloud zones having a largest total amount of the resource (abstract idea mental process);
assign the largest total amount of the resource as a respective total amount of the resource for each of the plurality of public cloud zones (abstract idea mental process);
determine, for each of the plurality of public cloud zones and the plurality of private cloud zones of the cloud computing environment, a respective zone proportion between an amount of the resource allocated to the customer and the total amount of the resource in the cloud zone (abstract idea mental process);
determine a placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment, wherein the placement cloud zone has a smallest zone proportion from among the plurality of public cloud zones and private cloud zones (abstract idea mental process);
determine, for each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone, a respective cluster proportion between an amount of the resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the resource in the cluster (abstract idea mental process).
Step 2A Prong Two: The abstract idea is not integrated into a practical application because the abstract idea is recited but for generically recited additional computer elements (i.e. data storage, processor, memory, computer readable medium, etc.) which do not add meaningful limitations to the abstract idea amounting to simply implementing the abstract idea on a generic computer using generic computing hardware and/or software (e.g. generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(h)). Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. The generic computing components are recited at a high-level of generality such that they amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using the recited generic computer components. Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea:
receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI) of a project in cloud computing environment (generic computing components performing extra-solution activity of receiving data/information); and
place the VCI, wherein the instructions to place the VCI include instructions to:
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a smallest cluster proportion from among the plurality of clusters (generic computing components performing extra-solution activity of merely reciting the words "apply it" or an equivalent with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea).
Step 2B: The claim includes limitations which can be considered extra-solution activity (see MPEP 2106.05(g)) insufficient to amount to significantly more than the abstract idea because the additional limitations only perform at least one of collecting, gathering, displaying, generating, modifying, updating, storing, retrieving, sending, and receiving data/information data which are well-understood, routine, conventional computer functions as recognized by the court decisions listed in MPEP § 2106.05(d)II. The claim further includes limitations that do not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application because they merely recite the words "apply it" (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea, as discussed in MPEP § 2106.05(f). Therefore, the claim, and its limitations when considered separately and in combination, is directed to patent ineligible subject matter:
receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI) of a project in cloud computing environment (extra-solution activity of receiving data/information); and
place the VCI, wherein the instructions to place the VCI include instructions to:
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a smallest cluster proportion from among the plurality of clusters (extra-solution activity of merely reciting the words "apply it" or an equivalent with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea).
Claim 15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the resource is memory (generic computing components).
Claim 16. The medium of claim 14, wherein the resource is storage (generic computing components).
Claim 17. The medium of claim 14, wherein the resource is virtual processing (generic computing components).
Claim 18. The medium of claim 14, including instructions to:
determine a respective total amount of a first resource in each of the plurality of private cloud zones (abstract idea mental process);
determine a private cloud zone from among the plurality of private cloud zones having a largest total amount of the first resource (abstract idea mental process);
assign the largest total amount of the first resource as a respective total amount of the first resource for each of the plurality of public cloud zones (abstract idea mental process);
determine, for each of the plurality of public cloud zones and the plurality of private cloud zones of the cloud computing environment, a respective first resource zone proportion between an amount of the first resource allocated to the customer and the total amount of the first resource in the cloud zone (abstract idea mental process);
determine a placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment, wherein the placement cloud zone has a smallest first resource zone proportion from among the plurality of public cloud zones and private cloud zones (abstract idea mental process);
determine, for each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone, a respective second resource cluster proportion between an amount of a second resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the second resource in the cluster (abstract idea mental process); and
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a smallest second resource cluster proportion from among the plurality of clusters (extra-solution activity of merely reciting the words "apply it" or an equivalent with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea).
Claim 19. The medium of claim 18, wherein the first resource is one of: memory, storage, or virtual processing (generic computing components), and wherein the second resource is another of: memory, storage, or virtual processing (generic computing components).
Claim 20. The medium of claim 14, including instructions to place the VCI without regard to an actual total amount of the resource in any of the plurality of public cloud zones (extra-solution activity of merely reciting the words "apply it" or an equivalent with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using the computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cropper et al. (US 9,569,277) (hereinafter Cropper) in view of Naseem (US 2024/0152401) in view of Ferris et al. (US 2011/0296370) (hereinafter Ferris).
As per claim 1, Cropper primarily teaches the invention as claimed including a non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which (col. 7, ll. 26-56 computer readable medium), when executed by a processor (fig. 3A, block 110 processor), cause the processor to:
a project in cloud computing environment (fig. 4, block 218 and col. 11, ll. 15-32 cloud projects); and
place the VCI (col. 16, ll. 16-26 place virtual machines on hosts), wherein the instructions to place the VCI include instructions to:
responsive to determining the cloud computing environment is a public cloud computing environment (col. 4, ll. 52-60 and col. 5, ll. 9-11 public cloud):
determine a placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment (col. 5, ll. 3-5 cloud computing environment has multiple cloud computing nodes and col. 6, ll. 5-7 different cloud environments), wherein the placement cloud zone has a least amount of the allocated resource from among the plurality of cloud zones (col. 10, ll. 55-60 optimize virtual machine placement for shared resources leveraging an ability to share a minimum resource capacity and col. 13, ll. 54-61 virtual machine placement policy based on minimum resource capacities);
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a least amount of the allocated resource from among the plurality of clusters (col. 15, ll. 12-37 identify candidate hosts that have sufficient unused capacity to support allocating to the virtual machine the minimum resource capacity for virtual machine on the candidate hosts and col. 15, ll. 55-66 select candidate hosts to minimize resource contention whereby the sum of shared weight values for all virtual machines on the candidate hosts is the lowest and allocated the minimum resource capacity).
Cropper does not explicitly teach:
receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI);
determine a respective amount of a resource allocated to the customer in each of a plurality of cloud zones of the cloud computing environment;
determine a respective amount of the resource allocated to the customer in each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone.
However, Naseem teaches:
determine a respective amount of a resource allocated to the customer in each of a plurality of cloud zones of the cloud computing environment ([0014] the company may have quotas indicating the amount of resources allowed e.g., allocated at each of the cloud service providers);
determine a respective amount of the resource allocated to the customer in each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone ([0030]-[0031] an entity e.g., a company accessing a cloud provider as a tenant may receive an allocation of resources according to quotas which may be enforced at the subaccount level e.g., company ‘X’ region ‘A’, or in other ways as well i.e., geographical areas and regions in multi-cloud environments).
Naseem and Cropper are both concerned with cloud computing environments and are therefore combinable/modifiable. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Cropper in view of Naseem because it would provide for automated management of runtime resource consumption in a heterogeneous environment of cloud platforms. For example, if at a given region for an entity the current threshold usage for a given resource is reached, the system may automatically cause upscaling of physical resources at a cloud service provider in that region to provide additional runtime resources before the actual quota is reached for that resource at that region. The system may provide one or more of the following: provide notification regarding hardware resource limitations before the resource limitation is reached; enable cloud resources optimizations; dynamically scale in or scale out resources; reduce overall time required to scale up or down quota of resources; and/or reduce outages by anticipating resource needs before they reach the quota limit.
Cropper in view of Naseem does not explicitly teach receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI).
However, Ferris teaches receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI) ([0022] to instantiate new virtual machines, a user can transmit an instantiation request to the cloud management system. A user can make a request to instantiate a set of virtual machines from the cloud. The request can be received and processed by the cloud management system, which identifies the type of virtual machine being requested. The cloud management system can then identify the collection of resources necessary to instantiate that virtual machine and [0037] the user making an instantiation request or otherwise accessing or utilizing the cloud can be a person, customer, subscriber, administrator, corporation, organization, or other entity).
Ferris and Cropper are both concerned with cloud computing environments and are therefore combinable/modifiable. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Cropper in view of Naseem in view of Ferris because it would provide a way to store information such as a minimum amount of cloud resources to instantiate a particular software program in the cloud and a price to use the particular software program in the cloud. This allows the user flexibility in using the cloud by allowing the user to customize software program usage across different vendors. The cloud management system can select a group of the resource servers that match or best match the instantiation request for resources needed to build the virtual machines, software appliances, or other processes.
As per claim 2, Cropper further teaches wherein the resource is memory (col. 10, ll. 22-26 hardware resources may include for example, computing resources such as memory resources).
As per claim 3, Cropper further teaches wherein the resource is storage (col. 10, ll. 22-26 hardware resources may include for example, computing resources such as storage and network resources).
As per claim 4, Cropper further teaches wherein the resource is virtual processing (col. 11, ll. 36-39 virtual hardware templates define various configuration settings for virtual machines, e.g., sizes for virtual memory, disk, virtual CPUs, etc.).
As per claim 5, the combination of references above teaches the medium of claim 1, including instructions to:
determine a respective amount of a first resource (Cropper col. 10, ll. 19-26 different types of hardware resources and col. 12, ll. 4-9 multiple types of hardware resources) allocated to the customer in each of a plurality of cloud zones of the cloud computing environment (Naseem [0014] the company may have quotas indicating the amount of resources allowed e.g., allocated at each of the cloud service providers);
determine a first resource placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment (Cropper col. 5, ll. 3-5 cloud computing environment has multiple cloud computing nodes and col. 6, ll. 5-7 different cloud environments), wherein the first resource placement cloud zone has a least amount of the first allocated resource from among the plurality of cloud zones (Cropper col. 10, ll. 55-60 optimize virtual machine placement for shared resources leveraging an ability to share a minimum resource capacity and col. 13, ll. 54-61 virtual machine placement policy based on minimum resource capacities);
determine a respective amount of a second resource (Cropper col. 10, ll. 19-26 different types of hardware resources and col. 12, ll. 4-9 multiple types of hardware resources) allocated to the customer in each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone (Naseem [0030]-[0031] an entity e.g., a company accessing a cloud provider as a tenant may receive an allocation of resources according to quotas which may be enforced at the subaccount level e.g., company ‘X’ region ‘A’, or in other ways as well i.e., geographical areas and regions in multi-cloud environments); and
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a least amount of the second allocated resource from among the plurality of clusters (Cropper col. 15, ll. 12-37 identify candidate hosts that have sufficient unused capacity to support allocating to the virtual machine the minimum resource capacity for virtual machine on the candidate hosts and col. 15, ll. 55-66 select candidate hosts to minimize resource contention whereby the sum of shared weight values for all virtual machines on the candidate hosts is the lowest and allocated the minimum resource capacity).
As per claim 6, Cropper further teaches wherein the first resource is one of: memory, storage, or virtual processing (col. 10, ll. 22-26 hardware resources may include for example, computing resources such as memory, storage, and network resources), and wherein the second resource is another of: memory, storage, or virtual processing (col. 11, ll. 36-39 virtual hardware templates define various configuration settings for virtual machines, e.g., sizes for virtual memory, disk, virtual CPUs, etc.).
As per claim 7, Naseem teaches wherein each of the plurality of cloud zones is associated with a different geographical region ([0030]-[0031] an entity e.g., a company accessing a cloud provider as a tenant may receive an allocation of resources according to quotas which may be enforced at the subaccount level e.g., company ‘X’ region ‘A’, or in other ways as well i.e., geographical areas and regions in multi-cloud environments).
Claims 8-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cropper in view of Madi et al. (US 2021/0152572) (hereinafter Madi) in view of Ferris.
As per claim 8, Cropper primarily teaches the invention as claimed including a non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which (col. 7, ll. 26-56 computer readable medium), when executed by a processor (fig. 3A, block 110 processor), cause the processor to:
a project in cloud computing environment (fig. 4, block 218 and col. 11, ll. 15-32 cloud projects); and
place the VCI (col. 16, ll. 16-26 place virtual machines on hosts), wherein the instructions to place the VCI include instructions to:
responsive to determining the cloud computing environment is a private cloud computing environment (col. 4, ll. 43-60 private cloud):
determine a placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment (col. 5, ll. 3-5 cloud computing environment has multiple cloud computing nodes and col. 6, ll. 5-7 different cloud environments), wherein the placement cloud zone has a smallest zone proportion from among the plurality of cloud zones (col. 10, ll. 48-60 virtual machines may also be assigned or specified a priority or weight, e.g., a shared weight that represents a ratio to which a virtual machine receives unused resource capacity relative to other virtual machines on the same host, that may be used to control how available resources are allocated to virtual machines assigned to a shared pool of resources and optimize virtual machine placement for shared resources leveraging an ability to share a minimum resource capacity and col. 13, ll. 54-61 virtual machine placement policy based on minimum resource capacities);
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a smallest cluster proportion from among the plurality of clusters (col. 15, ll. 12-37 identify candidate hosts that have sufficient unused capacity to support allocating to the virtual machine the minimum resource capacity for virtual machine on the candidate hosts and col. 15, ll. 55-66 select candidate hosts to minimize resource contention whereby the sum of shared weight values for all virtual machines on the candidate hosts is the lowest and allocated the minimum resource capacity).
Cropper does not explicitly teach:
receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI);
determine, for each of a plurality of cloud zones of the cloud computing environment, a respective zone proportion between an amount of the resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the resource in the cloud zone;
determine, for each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone, a respective cluster proportion between an amount of the resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the resource in the cluster.
However, Madi teaches:
determine, for each of a plurality of cloud zones of the cloud computing environment, a respective zone proportion between an amount of the resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the resource in the cloud zone ([0085] the coverage metric is associated with a ratio of resources of the tenant corresponding to a common host in which there are other resources of at least one other tenant, and the abundance metric is associated with a number of resources of the tenant corresponding to a host divided by a total number of resources on the host);
determine, for each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone, a respective cluster proportion between an amount of the resource allocated to the customer and a total amount of the resource in the cluster ([0094] the coverage metric is associated with a ratio of resources of the tenant corresponding to a common host in which there are other resources of at least one other tenant and the abundance metric is associated with a number of resources of the tenant corresponding to a host divided by a total number of resources on the host).
Madi and Cropper are both concerned with cloud computing environments and are therefore combinable/modifiable. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Cropper in view of Madi because it would provide for a novel security evaluation system which can combine a set of virtual network-level as well as compute-level measurements for virtual infrastructures in order to quantitatively evaluate the security level of tenants' deployments in a cloud environment. This can occur by quantitatively evaluating the proximity between different virtual infrastructure deployments, that quantitatively evaluates the potential risk between different virtual infrastructure deployments, and that quantitatively evaluates the potential maximum damage per tenant virtual infrastructure deployment using novel metrics calculations, which may include metrics for VM and flow coverage and abundance, as well as, normalized host sharing metrics. Accordingly, this may advantageously improve security concerns associated with sharing tenancy in a cloud environment among arms-length/distrusted tenants.
Cropper in view of Madi does not explicitly teach receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI).
However, Ferris teaches receive a request made by a customer to create a virtual computing instance (VCI) ([0022] to instantiate new virtual machines, a user can transmit an instantiation request to the cloud management system. A user can make a request to instantiate a set of virtual machines from the cloud. The request can be received and processed by the cloud management system, which identifies the type of virtual machine being requested. The cloud management system can then identify the collection of resources necessary to instantiate that virtual machine and [0037] the user making an instantiation request or otherwise accessing or utilizing the cloud can be a person, customer, subscriber, administrator, corporation, organization, or other entity).
Ferris and Cropper are both concerned with cloud computing environments and are therefore combinable/modifiable. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Cropper in view of Madi in view of Ferris because it would provide a way to store information such as a minimum amount of cloud resources to instantiate a particular software program in the cloud and a price to use the particular software program in the cloud. This allows the user flexibility in using the cloud by allowing the user to customize software program usage across different vendors. The cloud management system can select a group of the resource servers that match or best match the instantiation request for resources needed to build the virtual machines, software appliances, or other processes.
As per claim 9, Cropper further teaches wherein the resource is memory (col. 10, ll. 22-26 hardware resources may include for example, computing resources such as memory resources).
As per claim 10, Cropper further teaches wherein the resource is storage (col. 10, ll. 22-26 hardware resources may include for example, computing resources such as storage and network resources).
As per claim 11, Cropper further teaches wherein the resource is virtual processing (col. 11, ll. 36-39 virtual hardware templates define various configuration settings for virtual machines, e.g., sizes for virtual memory, disk, virtual CPUs, etc.).
As per claim 12, the combination of references above teaches the medium of claim 8, including instructions to:
determine, for each of a plurality of cloud zones of the cloud computing environment, a respective first resource zone proportion between an amount of a first resource (Cropper col. 10, ll. 19-26 different types of hardware resources and col. 12, ll. 4-9 multiple types of hardware resources) allocated to the customer and a total amount of the first resource in the cloud zone (Madi [0085] the coverage metric is associated with a ratio of resources of the tenant corresponding to a common host in which there are other resources of at least one other tenant, and the abundance metric is associated with a number of resources of the tenant corresponding to a host divided by a total number of resources on the host);
determine a placement cloud zone of the cloud computing environment (Cropper col. 5, ll. 3-5 cloud computing environment has multiple cloud computing nodes and col. 6, ll. 5-7 different cloud environments), wherein the placement cloud zone has a smallest first resource zone proportion from among the plurality of cloud zones (Cropper col. 10, ll. 48-60 virtual machines may also be assigned or specified a priority or weight, e.g., a shared weight that represents a ratio to which a virtual machine receives unused resource capacity relative to other virtual machines on the same host, that may be used to control how available resources are allocated to virtual machines assigned to a shared pool of resources and optimize virtual machine placement for shared resources leveraging an ability to share a minimum resource capacity and col. 13, ll. 54-61 virtual machine placement policy based on minimum resource capacities);
determine, for each of a plurality of clusters of the placement cloud zone, a respective second resource cluster proportion between an amount of a second resource (Cropper col. 10, ll. 19-26 different types of hardware resources and col. 12, ll. 4-9 multiple types of hardware resources) allocated to the customer and a total amount of the second resource in the cluster (Madi [0094] the coverage metric is associated with a ratio of resources of the tenant corresponding to a common host in which there are other resources of at least one other tenant and the abundance metric is associated with a number of resources of the tenant corresponding to a host divided by a total number of resources on the host); and
place the VCI in a cluster of the placement cloud zone having a smallest second resource cluster proportion from among the plurality of clusters (Cropper col. 15, ll. 12-37 identify candidate hosts that have sufficient unused capacity to support allocating to the virtual machine the minimum resource capacity for virtual machine on the candidate hosts and col. 15, ll. 55-66 select candidate hosts to minimize resource contention whereby the sum of shared weight values for all virtual machines on the candidate hosts is the lowest and allocated the minimum resource capacity).
As per claim 13, Cropper further teaches wherein the first resource is one of: memory, storage, or virtual processing (col. 10, ll. 22-26 hardware resources may include for example, computing resources such as memory, storage, and network resources), and wherein the second resource is another of: memory, storage, or virtual processing (col. 11, ll. 36-39 virtual hardware templates define various configuration settings for virtual machines, e.g., sizes for virtual memory, disk, virtual CPUs, etc.).
Citation of Relevant Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure:
Suragi Math et al. (US 2015/0143366) disclose identifying a virtual machine for placement in a cloud computing environment, wherein the cloud computing environment comprises multiple cloud computing systems.
Muthukrishnan et al. (US 2023/0350733) disclose virtual machine cluster placement in a cloud environment.
Apte et al. (US 9,262,144) disclose a placement engine at the lowest tier selects the compute node(s) in the selected region(s) of the lowest tier to place the virtual machine instances of the pattern based on placement policies and constraints at the compute node level and availability of the artifacts required by the virtual machine instance(s) of the pattern in the compute node level. In this manner, the virtual machine instances of the pattern can be effectively deployed when the resources of the cloud environment are large and geographically dispersed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Adam Lee whose telephone number is (571) 270-3369. The examiner can normally be reached on M-TH 8AM-5PM.
If attempts to reach the above noted Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Pierre Vital, can be reached at the following telephone number: (571) 272-4215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Adam Lee/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2198 February 9, 2026