DETAILED ACTION
1. Claims 1-20 are pending.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on October 5, 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Title of the Invention
3. The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
4. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The following claim language is unclear:
Claims 1 and 14 include the limitations of “the hybrid cells comprising a real-world entity cell and a complimentary virtual entity cell.” The terms “hybrid cells”, “real-world entity cell,” and “virtual entity cell” are not defined by the claim. The specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. When speaking of configuring hybrid cells to provide services to customers of the tenants, there is no further clarification as to what hybrid cells, real-world entity cell, and virtual entity cell are. It is neither clarified in the claim or drawings. For examination purposes, the examiner interprets the real-world entity as a user request service, and the virtual entity cell is any computing resource used to execute the service. Moreover, a hybrid cell is being interpreted as a computing environment that has computing resources to execute a user requested service.
Regarding claims 2-13, they are dependent on claim 1 and fail to cure the deficiencies set forth above for claim 1. Therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claims 15-17, they are dependent on claim 14 and fail to cure the deficiencies set forth above for claim 1. Therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claims 19-20, they are dependent on claim 18 and fail to cure the deficiencies set forth above for claim 1. Therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
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.
5. Claims 1-8, 14, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Greenstein et al. US 20200007418 A1 in view of Bryant et al. US 20180129524 A1.
6. With regard to claim 1, Greenstein teaches:
A system, comprising:
a data store storing information for a plurality of hybrid cells, the hybrid cells comprising a real-world entity cell and a complimentary virtual entity cell, wherein the hybrid cells are configured to be provisioned to tenants for use in providing a plurality of types of services to customers of the tenants (Fig. 7, Data Storage Tier 724; [0024] As used herein, a “pre-provisioned instance” includes a configured collection of Virtual Machines (VMs) and service-supporting dependencies including computer resources. This is an initial resource configuration but has no specific application software loaded. The pre-provisioned instance is proactively constructed in advance of an anticipated demand for a service so the system can more quickly setup and provide the service when needed. The pre-provisioned instance does not include application software (executable code) of a service and is not yet assigned to a customer in production; [0110] The data storage tier 724 may include one or more data stores, which may include a Service Data store 725 and one or more Tenant Data stores 726; [0111] Each tenant data store 726 may contain tenant-specific data that is used as part of providing a range of tenant-specific business services or functions, including but not limited to ERP, CRM, eCommerce, Human Resources management, payroll, etc. Data stores may be implemented with any suitable data storage technology, including structured query language (SQL) based relational database management systems (RDBMS); Examiner’s Note: The pre-provisioned instance is set up for a user specified service (real-world entity). The pre-provisioned instance has a configured collection of VMs and service-supporting dependencies including computer resources (virtual entity cell).);
one or more computing devices configured to implement a hybrid cell management system configured to:
allocate, to a requesting tenant, a given one of the respective real-world entity cells for a requested hybrid cell of a given type ([0023] As described herein, a cloud computing environment or other computing system is configured to execute instances of services and provide the services upon request to remote computing devices [...] For example, the service may comprise a calendar service, an email service, a financial analysis service, or any other type of application that can be executed by the cloud computing environment; [0025] A “provisioned instance” is a pre-provisioned instance that includes the application software for a requested service. The provisioned instance is also uniquely assigned by the system to a customer and is executing in a production setting (referred to as a production instance); Examiner’s Note: A user is assigned a provisioned instance to execute the requested service.); and
provide a corresponding complimentary virtual entity cell for the requested hybrid cell of the given type, wherein the complimentary virtual entity cell performs management operations for the real-world entity cell of the hybrid cell of the given type ([0024] As used herein, a “pre-provisioned instance” includes a configured collection of Virtual Machines (VMs) and service-supporting dependencies including computer resources. This is an initial resource configuration but has no specific application software loaded. The pre-provisioned instance is proactively constructed in advance of an anticipated demand for a service so the system can more quickly setup and provide the service when needed. The pre-provisioned instance does not include application software (executable code) of a service and is not yet assigned to a customer in production; [0034] An instance of a service is provisioned by configuring one or more VM shapes (e.g., based on specifications of CPU, CPU cycles, a number of processors, memory resources, storage resources, and networking resources) to a computing environment. The computing environment, such as a virtual machine, is configured to execute the executable code of the service through the provisioned instance. That is, a provisioning system determines an appropriate shape and uses resources to create one or more virtual machines to execute a service instance being provisioned; [0043] A more detailed description is provided with reference to FIG. 2. The system 100 is implemented as a management module 105 hosted on a computing device. In one embodiment, the management module 105 is associated with a cloud computing environment that hosts services made accessible to remote devices. Such services can correspond to application hosting services, Software as a Service (SaaS), network storage, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and a wide variety of other software applications and computer implemented services. Such instances of services are executed using computing resources of the cloud computing environment; [0046] The management module 105 maintains a first pool 125 of pre-provisioned instances within the zone 110. For example, the management module 105 constructs pre-provisioned instances 130 of a service within the first pool 125 (e.g., represented by pre-provision function block 120 in FIG. 1). A pre-provisioned instance is a proactively constructed configuration of computing resources of the zone 110 as a computing environment that can be subsequently used to execute executable code of the service. The computing environment may comprise processor, memory, storage, and network resources, a virtual machine, and/or other computing resources used to execute the executable code; Examiner’s Note: The VMs are created when a request to execute a service instance is received. The virtual entity includes a management module.).
Greenstein fails to explicitly teach one or more computing devices configured to implement a hybrid cell inventory management system, the hybrid cell inventory management system configured to: receive information indicative of current or future hybrid cell usage levels for a plurality of types of hybrid cells; determine target inventory levels to be maintained for each of the plurality of types of hybrid cells, wherein different ones of the types of hybrid cells are used to provide different ones of the plurality of types of services to the customers of the tenants; and for one or more of the types of hybrid cells for which an inventory level is less than its respective target inventory level, initiate establishment of additional real-world entity cells of a type corresponding to the respective hybrid cell type for which the inventory level is less than its respective target inventory level.
However, in analogous art, Bryant teaches:
one or more computing devices configured to implement a hybrid cell inventory management system, the hybrid cell inventory management system configured to:
receive information indicative of current or future hybrid cell usage levels for a plurality of types of hybrid cells ([0027] By keeping historical records of what types of virtual machine instances were created, and when these instances were created, the pool manager 306 can make intelligent decisions regarding how many of each type of virtual machine instance needs to be newly created, what pool the newly created virtual machine instance needs to be placed into, and at what time or times the newly created virtual machine is needed the most.);
determine target inventory levels to be maintained for each of the plurality of types of hybrid cells, wherein different ones of the types of hybrid cells are used to provide different ones of the plurality of types of services to the customers of the tenants ([0027] The intelligent virtual machine instance allocation performed by the pool manager 306 allows pools of virtual machine instances to better react and respond to fluctuations in instance creation patterns, and also to not overuse cloud resources by creating too many instances. For example, for a given cloud service, if a favorite machine of a typical user is a medium-sized instance running a Ubuntu™ 14.04×64 operating system, perhaps a greater number of virtual machine instances should be created and placed into a pool type that corresponds to the medium-sized instance running the Ubuntu™ operating system.); and
for one or more of the types of hybrid cells for which an inventory level is less than its respective target inventory level, initiate establishment of additional real-world entity cells of a type corresponding to the respective hybrid cell type for which the inventory level is less than its respective target inventory level ([0016] Next, at block 103, a machine logic-based pool manager analyzes the input data set to determine configuration data for allocating each respective virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines to a corresponding pool of a plurality of pools. The pool manager may be implemented using a dedicated pool manager node. The pool manager is in charge of watching over each of the plurality of pools, ensuring that there are a sufficient number of instances in each pool. The determination of the configuration data may be performed in such a way that the plurality of pools will have a highest or maximized probability of meeting a subsequently received set of request parameter data; [0031] Some embodiments of the present invention may include one, or more, of the following features, characteristics, advantages and/or operations: (i) coordinated management of multiple pools (as opposed to a single pool); (ii) VM instances in a pool are restricted by the size and trade-offs of that pool; (iii) dynamically changing the size and number of pools; (iv) using VM initialization time in the decision; (v) VMs which can be initialized quickly, even though they are high use, will be allocated a smaller pool (for example, containers, which are almost instantaneous, would be assigned no-entry pools); (vi) historic data is used to control pool sizes (for example, when the VM ‘type’ goes into a time period of low use, the pool size is reduced, and just before historic high use, the pool size is increased); (vii) coordination across multiple clouds; (viii) multiple clouds can also be managed by allowing more than one instance of a VM ‘type’ pool as long as it is not co-located; (ix) coordination with upgrade process; and/or (x) especially with containers, when V1 is being replaced by V2, the existing pool for the VM ‘type’ would be identified for V1 and a 2nd pool created for V2—as the migration completes, the allocation to the pools would move from V1 to V2); and
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Greenstein with the teachings of Bryant where one or more computing devices configured to implement a hybrid cell inventory management system, the hybrid cell inventory management system configured to: receive information indicative of current or future hybrid cell usage levels for a plurality of types of hybrid cells; determine target inventory levels to be maintained for each of the plurality of types of hybrid cells, wherein different ones of the types of hybrid cells are used to provide different ones of the plurality of types of services to the customers of the tenants; and for one or more of the types of hybrid cells for which an inventory level is less than its respective target inventory level, initiate establishment of additional real-world entity cells of a type corresponding to the respective hybrid cell type for which the inventory level is less than its respective target inventory level. Greenstein teaches of a computer implemented service, which can include insurance administration ([0115]). When the computer implemented services is initiated by a request from a user to execute a service, corresponding virtual resources are also initiated. These resources can include virtual machines. Similarly, Bryant teaches of VM pool configurations. The configurations are dynamic based on historical utilization. When a pool is requested by a user, the pool that has VMs best suited to execute the request is deployed to the user’s request ([0006]). Together, Greenstein and Bryant teach of a computer implemented service that uses resources, which can be VMs to execute a user’s requested service. The pool of VMs can be dynamically changed based on historical usage data. Therefore, Greenstein and Bryant provide a computing environment that is adaptable to user needs, which ensures that resources are allocated to services so that they can be executed efficiently.
7. With regard to claim 2, Greenstein further teaches:
wherein the one or more computing devices configured to implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to:
store a plurality of templates for implementing a plurality of types of complimentary virtual entity cells for a plurality of types of real-word entity cells corresponding to the plurality of types of hybrid cells ([0024] As used herein, a “pre-provisioned instance” includes a configured collection of Virtual Machines (VMs) and service-supporting dependencies including computer resources. This is an initial resource configuration but has no specific application software loaded. The pre-provisioned instance is proactively constructed in advance of an anticipated demand for a service so the system can more quickly setup and provide the service when needed. The pre-provisioned instance does not include application software (executable code) of a service and is not yet assigned to a customer in production; Examiner’s Note: The pre-provisioned instance act as a template.);
receive, via a user interface of the system, a tenant selection of a given type of real-world entity cell to be allocated to the requesting tenant ([0039] When a request for the service is received, any number of pre-orchestrated instances can be quickly and efficiently provisioned as executing instances of the service and assigned to a requesting customer.);
allocate, to the requesting tenant, a given one of the real-world entity cells of the given type from an inventory of real-world entity cells of the given type maintained by the hybrid cell inventory management system ([0039] When a request for the service is received, any number of pre-orchestrated instances can be quickly and efficiently provisioned as executing instances of the service and assigned to a requesting customer. This is because the pre-orchestrated instances already comprise the computing environment constructed with computing resources and the pre-installed executable code of the service.); and
provide the complimentary virtual entity cell for the given real world entity cell, wherein providing the complimentary virtual entity cell comprises instantiating one or more virtual resources using one or more of the stored templates, wherein the one or more virtual resources, when instantiated using the one or more stored templates, are configured to perform management operations for managing the real-world entity cell of the given type ([0060] For each remote device requesting access to the service, an instance of the service is provisioned and executed, such as executing instances 315 shown in FIG. 3A. An instance is executed using computing resources of the cloud computing environment provisioned for the instance. In one embodiment, an instance is hosted within a virtual machine that has access to the provisioned computing resources, such as processor, memory, storage, and networking resources.).
8. With regard to claim 3, Greenstein further teaches:
wherein to instantiate the one or more virtual resources, the one or more computing devices that implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to:
allocate computing and/or storage capacity at a cloud-based service provider to be used to instantiate the one or more virtual resources ([0060] For each remote device requesting access to the service, an instance of the service is provisioned and executed, such as executing instances 315 shown in FIG. 3A. An instance is executed using computing resources of the cloud computing environment provisioned for the instance. In one embodiment, an instance is hosted within a virtual machine that has access to the provisioned computing resources, such as processor, memory, storage, and networking resources.); and
execute program instructions included in the given one or more templates to configure the reserved computing and/or storage capacity of the cloud-based service provider to provide the complimentary virtual entity cell for the given real-world entity cell ([0059] The computing resources, such as the processor 520, are used for executing instructions associated with constructing pre-provisioned instances, pre-orchestrated instances, and POM instances of a service. Memory 535 and/or storage devices (e.g., disks 555) are used for storing the pre-provisioned instances, the pre-orchestrated instances, and the POM instances and/or other data. Network hardware is used for providing remote devices with access to executing instances of the services over a network. The method 200 is triggered upon a command to modify a service, in one embodiment.).
9. With regard to claim 4, Bryant further teaches:
wherein the one or more computing devices configured to implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to:
monitor performance of the one or more virtual resources using the allocated computing and/or storage capacity at the cloud-based service provider ([0015] The method commences at block 101 where a plurality of virtual machines that are currently operating and in use within a cloud are monitored. The monitoring is performed to generate an input data set based on the operating of the plurality of virtual machines. Illustratively, the monitoring includes collecting any of the following types of input data: a user identifier, an image type, an identifier for a central processing unit (CPU) core, an amount of random-access memory (RAM) being used, a calendar date, a time, and a duration of initialization for each of the plurality of virtual machines.); and
automatically scale up or scale down the allocated computing and/or storage capacity based on the monitored performance ([0023] The first definition is different from the second definition. Next, at block 209, an instance of the plurality of virtual machine pools is configured according to the first definition. Then, at block 211, the instance of the plurality of virtual machine pools is reconfigured according to the second definition. The difference or differences between the first definition and the second definition may reflect at least one of the following types of differences: (a) moving a virtual machine-related resource from a first virtual machine pool of the plurality of virtual machine pools to a second virtual machine pool of the plurality of virtual machine pools, (b) adding a virtual machine pool to the plurality of virtual machine pools, (c) removing a virtual machine pool from the plurality of virtual machine pools, (d) adding a virtual machine-related resource to a virtual machine pool of the plurality of virtual machine pools, and/or (e) removing a virtual machine-related resource from the plurality of virtual machine pools; Examiner’s Note: The definition specifies the configuration of VMs and VM pools.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Greenstein with the teachings of Bryant wherein the one or more computing devices configured to implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to: monitor performance of the one or more virtual resources using the allocated computing and/or storage capacity at the cloud-based service provider; and automatically scale up or scale down the allocated computing and/or storage capacity based on the monitored performance. Bryant teaches that VM related resources can be added or removed as VMs are reconfigured due to monitoring. This ensures that VM resources are properly allocated, and can dynamically change when new definitions are made.
10. With regard to claim 5, Greenstein further teaches:
wherein the one or more computing devices configured to implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to:
configure the one or more virtual resources to provide a user interface to the customers of the requesting tenant, wherein the user interface is provided within an existing user interface of the requesting tenant (Fig. 7, User Interface(s) Tier 716; [0109] The distributed computing service/platform (which may also be referred to as a multi-tenant business data processing platform) 708 may include multiple processing tiers, including a user interface tier 716, an application server tier 720, and a data storage tier 724. The user interface tier 716 may maintain multiple user interfaces 718, including graphical user interfaces and/or web-based interfaces. The user interfaces may include a default user interface for the service to provide access to applications and data for a user or “tenant” of the service (depicted as “Service UI” in the figure), as well as one or more user interfaces that have been specialized/customized in accordance with user specific requirements (e.g., represented by “Tenant A UI”, . . . , “Tenant Z UI” in the figure, and which may be accessed via one or more APIs).).
11. With regard to claim 6, Greenstein further teaches:
wherein the one or more computing devices configured to implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to:
implement at the one or more virtual resources, one or more application programmatic interfaces (APIs) for receiving queries relayed to the one or more virtual resources from the existing user interface of the requesting tenant ([0109] The distributed computing service/platform (which may also be referred to as a multi-tenant business data processing platform) 708 may include multiple processing tiers, including a user interface tier 716, an application server tier 720, and a data storage tier 724. The user interface tier 716 may maintain multiple user interfaces 718, including graphical user interfaces and/or web-based interfaces. The user interfaces may include a default user interface for the service to provide access to applications and data for a user or “tenant” of the service (depicted as “Service UI” in the figure), as well as one or more user interfaces that have been specialized/customized in accordance with user specific requirements (e.g., represented by “Tenant A UI”, . . . , “Tenant Z UI” in the figure, and which may be accessed via one or more APIs); [0111] Each tenant data store 726 may contain tenant-specific data that is used as part of providing a range of tenant-specific business services or functions, including but not limited to ERP, CRM, eCommerce, Human Resources management, payroll, etc. Data stores may be implemented with any suitable data storage technology, including structured query language (SQL) based relational database management systems (RDBMS).); and
provide, to the requesting tenant, program instructions for incorporating user interface elements into the existing user interface of the requesting tenant, wherein the user interface elements to be included in the existing user interface of the requesting tenant are configured to generate the queries relayed to the APIs of the one or more virtual resources ([0109] The distributed computing service/platform (which may also be referred to as a multi-tenant business data processing platform) 708 may include multiple processing tiers, including a user interface tier 716, an application server tier 720, and a data storage tier 724. The user interface tier 716 may maintain multiple user interfaces 718, including graphical user interfaces and/or web-based interfaces. The user interfaces may include a default user interface for the service to provide access to applications and data for a user or “tenant” of the service (depicted as “Service UI” in the figure), as well as one or more user interfaces that have been specialized/customized in accordance with user specific requirements (e.g., represented by “Tenant A UI”, . . . , “Tenant Z UI” in the figure, and which may be accessed via one or more APIs); [0110] The default user interface may include components enabling a tenant to administer the tenant's participation in the functions and capabilities provided by the service platform, such as accessing data, causing the execution of specific data processing operations, etc. Each processing tier shown in the figure may be implemented with a set of computers and/or computer components including computer servers and processors, and may perform various functions, methods, processes, or operations as determined by the execution of a software application or set of instructions. The data storage tier 724 may include one or more data stores, which may include a Service Data store 725 and one or more Tenant Data stores 726; [0111] Each tenant data store 726 may contain tenant-specific data that is used as part of providing a range of tenant-specific business services or functions, including but not limited to ERP, CRM, eCommerce, Human Resources management, payroll, etc. Data stores may be implemented with any suitable data storage technology, including structured query language (SQL) based relational database management systems (RDBMS).).
12. With regard to claim 7, Greenstein further teaches:
wherein the one or more computing devices configured to implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to:
provide, to the requesting tenant, program instructions for incorporating user interface elements into the existing user interface of the requesting tenant, wherein the user interface elements to be included in the existing user interface of the requesting tenant are configured to redirect a customer of the requesting tenant to a user interface implemented via the one or more virtual resources ([0109] The distributed computing service/platform (which may also be referred to as a multi-tenant business data processing platform) 708 may include multiple processing tiers, including a user interface tier 716, an application server tier 720, and a data storage tier 724. The user interface tier 716 may maintain multiple user interfaces 718, including graphical user interfaces and/or web-based interfaces. The user interfaces may include a default user interface for the service to provide access to applications and data for a user or “tenant” of the service (depicted as “Service UI” in the figure), as well as one or more user interfaces that have been specialized/customized in accordance with user specific requirements (e.g., represented by “Tenant A UI”, . . . , “Tenant Z UI” in the figure, and which may be accessed via one or more APIs); [0110] The default user interface may include components enabling a tenant to administer the tenant's participation in the functions and capabilities provided by the service platform, such as accessing data, causing the execution of specific data processing operations, etc. Each processing tier shown in the figure may be implemented with a set of computers and/or computer components including computer servers and processors, and may perform various functions, methods, processes, or operations as determined by the execution of a software application or set of instructions. The data storage tier 724 may include one or more data stores, which may include a Service Data store 725 and one or more Tenant Data stores 726.).
13. With regard to claim 8, Greenstein further teaches:
wherein the one or more computing devices configured to implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to:
receive, from the requesting tenant, information about potential customers of the requesting tenant ([0006] A user will subscribe to the cloud computing environment by providing identifying information and an intent to utilize one or more services in the future.); and
select a given one or more of the stored templates to be used to instantiate the one or more virtual resources based on the potential customer information ([0006] Once the subscriber is defined, the subscriber can request access to a service instance. When a request for access to the service is received from a remote device, an instance of the service is created on-demand and executed. On-demand creation and execution of the instance is triggered when the cloud computing environment receives the request for access to the service. A service instance (hereinafter “instance”) is a collection of one or more computing resource(s) interrelated in a way defined by the particular service and comprising an orderable and provisionable unit of the service. The instance can be hosted within a virtual machine that executes software of the service using processor, memory, and storage resources of the cloud computing environment. The instance can be comprised of a collection of virtual machines of diverse shapes.).
14, With regard to claim 14, Greenstein teaches:
A method, comprising:
receiving, at one or more computing devices implementing a hybrid cell management system, from a requesting tenant, a request to provide a hybrid cell comprising a real-world entity and a virtual entity configured to perform management tasks for the real-world entity, wherein the hybrid cell is configured to provide a service to customers of the requesting tenant ([0006] A user will subscribe to the cloud computing environment by providing identifying information and an intent to utilize one or more services in the future. Once the subscriber is defined, the subscriber can request access to a service instance. When a request for access to the service is received from a remote device, an instance of the service is created on-demand and executed. On-demand creation and execution of the instance is triggered when the cloud computing environment receives the request for access to the service. A service instance (hereinafter “instance”) is a collection of one or more computing resource(s) interrelated in a way defined by the particular service and comprising an orderable and provisionable unit of the service. The instance can be hosted within a virtual machine that executes software of the service using processor, memory, and storage resources of the cloud computing environment. The instance can be comprised of a collection of virtual machines of diverse shapes.);
allocating, by the one or more computing devices implementing the hybrid cell management system, to the requesting tenant, from an inventory of pre-established real-world entities, a given one of a plurality of pre-established real-world entities to function as the real-world entity of the hybrid cell requested by the requesting tenant ([0024] As used herein, a “pre-provisioned instance” includes a configured collection of Virtual Machines (VMs) and service-supporting dependencies including computer resources. This is an initial resource configuration but has no specific application software loaded. The pre-provisioned instance is proactively constructed in advance of an anticipated demand for a service so the system can more quickly setup and provide the service when needed. The pre-provisioned instance does not include application software (executable code) of a service and is not yet assigned to a customer in production; [0025] A “provisioned instance” is a pre-provisioned instance that includes the application software for a requested service. The provisioned instance is also uniquely assigned by the system to a customer and is executing in a production setting (referred to as a production instance); Examiner’s Note: The pre-provisioned instances are pre-established and are configured to execute a service based on user request.);
selecting, by the one or more computing devices implementing the hybrid cell management system, from a plurality of types of templates for a plurality of types of real-world entities, a given template for a type of real-world entity allocated to the requesting client ([0024] As used herein, a “pre-provisioned instance” includes a configured collection of Virtual Machines (VMs) and service-supporting dependencies including computer resources. This is an initial resource configuration but has no specific application software loaded. The pre-provisioned instance is proactively constructed in advance of an anticipated demand for a service so the system can more quickly setup and provide the service when needed. The pre-provisioned instance does not include application software (executable code) of a service and is not yet assigned to a customer in production; [0025] A “provisioned instance” is a pre-provisioned instance that includes the application software for a requested service. The provisioned instance is also uniquely assigned by the system to a customer and is executing in a production setting (referred to as a production instance); Examiner’s Note: The pre-provisioned service acts as a template to execute and provide a service (real-world entity) when requested by a user.);
automatically provisioning, by the one or more computing devices implementing the hybrid cell management system, on behalf of the requesting tenant, computing and/or storage capacity at a cloud-based service provider to be used to instantiate one or more virtual resources that implement the virtual entity; causing, by the one or more computing devices implementing the hybrid cell management system, the one or more virtual resources to be launched using a machine image or container included in the given template, wherein the machine image configures the one or more virtual resources for performing the management tasks for the type of real-world entity allocated to the requesting client ([0034] An instance of a service is provisioned by configuring one or more VM shapes (e.g., based on specifications of CPU, CPU cycles, a number of processors, memory resources, storage resources, and networking resources) to a computing environment. The computing environment, such as a virtual machine, is configured to execute the executable code of the service through the provisioned instance. That is, a provisioning system determines an appropriate shape and uses resources to create one or more virtual machines to execute a service instance being provisioned. In one embodiment, resources include instances of other services. For example, a service requires a network load balancer and a database. The service will make use of a Load Balancer as a Service (LBaaS) and a DataBase as a Service (DBaaS) as ready, separately provisionable, service instances. The provisioning system may be called (e.g., recursively) to provision lower level services for use by the new service instance being provisioned. In this way, a remote device can access functionality of the service through the executing provisioned instance hosted by the cloud computing environment.); and
automatically providing, for the requesting tenant, management services for the allocated real-world entity, allocated to the requesting tenant, using the launched one or more virtual resources ([0043] With reference to FIG. 1, one embodiment of a system 100 associated with modifying a service is illustrated and summarized. A more detailed description is provided with reference to FIG. 2. The system 100 is implemented as a management module 105 hosted on a computing device. In one embodiment, the management module 105 is associated with a cloud computing environment that hosts services made accessible to remote devices. Such services can correspond to application hosting services, Software as a Service (SaaS), network storage, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and a wide variety of other software applications and computer implemented services. Such instances of services are executed using computing resources of the cloud computing environment; [0046] The management module 105 maintains a first pool 125 of pre-provisioned instances within the zone 110. For example, the management module 105 constructs pre-provisioned instances 130 of a service within the first pool 125 (e.g., represented by pre-provision function block 120 in FIG. 1). A pre-provisioned instance is a proactively constructed configuration of computing resources of the zone 110 as a computing environment that can be subsequently used to execute executable code of the service. The computing environment may comprise processor, memory, storage, and network resources, a virtual machine, and/or other computing resources used to execute the executable code.).
15. Regarding claim 18, it is rejected under the same reasoning as claim 14 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
16. Claims 9 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Greenstein et al. US 20200007418 A1 and Bryant et al. US 20180129524 A1, as applied in claim 1, in further view of Tucker et al. US 20220318921 A1.
17. With regard to claim 9, Greenstein teaches the system of claim 8 and but fails to explicitly teach wherein the one or more virtual resources instantiated using the given template are further configured to: identify in one or more public data sources additional information about the potential customers of the requesting tenant; and generate offers for services to be provided, by the requesting tenant, to the potential customers of the requesting tenant, using the hybrid cell, wherein the offers are generated based on the received information from the requesting tenant about the potential customers and the identified public data about the potential customers, and wherein the offers are configured to be accepted, to implement a service of a service type of the hybrid cell for the potential customers of the requesting tenant, in response to a single indication of acceptance by a given customer without requiring the given customer to supply additional customer information.
However, in analogous art, Tucker teaches:
wherein the one or more virtual resources instantiated using the given template are further configured to:
identify in one or more public data sources additional information about the potential customers of the requesting tenant ([0025] Using the candidate user's data (e.g., geolocation and/or telematics data) and the model generated based upon other users' historical data, the insurance policy and associated premium offered to the candidate user are more precise and relevant to the particular user. Moreover, the insurance policy and associated premium can be offered based upon minimal data (e.g., a user's opt-in and user data automatically retrieved from a user computing device such as through an app or application operating on the user computing device and configured to capture the user data, third-party server, database storing user data, etc.), which may accelerate and/or otherwise make an underwriting or policy-offer process more efficient.); and
generate offers for services to be provided, by the requesting tenant, to the potential customers of the requesting tenant, using the hybrid cell, wherein the offers are generated based on the received information from the requesting tenant about the potential customers and the identified public data about the potential customers, and wherein the offers are configured to be accepted, to implement a service of a service type of the hybrid cell for the potential customers of the requesting tenant, in response to a single indication of acceptance by a given customer without requiring the given customer to supply additional customer information ([0067] The modeling computing device may transmit a notification to a user computing device of the candidate user including the generated insurance policy and associated premium for the candidate user by the modeling computing device. In some embodiments, the notification may include a pre-populated registration form that easily allows (e.g., with “one-click”) the candidate user to register (e.g., accept or agree to) for the insurance policy and immediately begin receiving coverage after registration [...] In other embodiments, the modeling computing device may generate the insurance policy and associated premium automatically (e.g., without user input) as part of an advertising or marketing campaign for an insurance company. In some cases, the modeling computing device is able to predict the modes of transportation of a user, predict the likelihood of that user incurring losses while using those modes of transportation, estimate insurance premiums based upon the loss prediction, generate an insurance policy covering that user for those modes of transportation, transmit the insurance policy to the user's computing device, and register the user for the policy all in a matter of minutes, and in some cases, in a matter of seconds, which could not be done using conventional practices.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Greenstein and Bryant with the teachings of Tucker wherein the one or more virtual resources instantiated using the given template are further configured to: identify in one or more public data sources additional information about the potential customers of the requesting tenant; and generate offers for services to be provided, by the requesting tenant, to the potential customers of the requesting tenant, using the hybrid cell, wherein the offers are generated based on the received information from the requesting tenant about the potential customers and the identified public data about the potential customers, and wherein the offers are configured to be accepted, to implement a service of a service type of the hybrid cell for the potential customers of the requesting tenant, in response to a single indication of acceptance by a given customer without requiring the given customer to supply additional customer information. Greenstein teaches of a computer implemented service, which can include insurance administration ([0115]). When the computer implemented services is initiated by a request from a user to execute a service, corresponding virtual resources are also initiated. These resources can include virtual machines. Similarly, Tucker teaches of a computing system that prompts a user to automatically enroll in an insurance policy by monitoring user data. By generating an insurance policy offer to a user based on user data, the insurance policy can be transmitted to the user's computing device, and allow the user to register for the policy all in a matter of minutes, and in some cases, in a matter of seconds, which could not be done using conventional practices, as discussed in Tucker ([0067]). Therefore, streamlining the delivery of services to users.
18. Regarding claim 20, it is rejected under the same reasoning as claim 9 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
19. Claims 10, 12-13, 15-16, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Greenstein et al. US 20200007418 A1 and Bryant et al. US 20180129524 A1, as applied in claim 1, in further view of Denning et al. US 9972053 B2.
20. With regard to claim 10, Greenstein teaches the system of claim 2 and but fails to explicitly teach wherein the real-world entity cells comprise: cells of a sponsored captive insurance pool, and wherein the different types of real-world entity cells correspond to cells of different sponsored captive insurance pools.
However, in analogous art, Denning teaches:
wherein the real-world entity cells comprise:
cells of a sponsored captive insurance pool, and wherein the different types of real-world entity cells correspond to cells of different sponsored captive insurance pools (Col. 2, lines 13-27, Pursuant to some embodiments, a computer implemented processing method is provided which includes receiving, at an insurance processing platform, information identifying at least a first characteristic of a virtual affinity group, receiving, at the insurance processing platform, information identifying at least a first feature of the virtual affinity group and at least a first insurance related benefit to be offered to the virtual affinity group, automatically identifying at least a first individual matching the at least first characteristic, and communicating to the at least first individual information allowing the at least first individual to participate in the virtual affinity group. In some embodiments, the at least first characteristic of the virtual affinity group is selected from a known aggregated group of insurance characteristics; Examiner’s Note: The affinity groups act as captive insurance pools.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Greenstein and Bryant with the teachings of Denning wherein the real-world entity cells comprise: cells of a sponsored captive insurance pool, and wherein the different types of real-world entity cells correspond to cells of different sponsored captive insurance pools. Together, Greenstein and Bryant teach of a computer implemented service that uses resources, which can be VMs to execute a user’s requested service. Greenstein mentions that this service can be a type of insurance administration. Similarly, Denning teaches of a computer implemented method for creating virtual affinity groups. As discussed in Denning, “by creating such benefits based on the characteristics of individuals who will be invited to participate in the virtual affinity group, insurance benefits may be designed which closely match the interests of the group and that are priced based on attributes of the group. Insurance offers may thus be created that are priced based on the relative risk of a group of individuals having known characteristics. In some embodiments, the benefits may include group insurance benefits that are targeted to the affinity group” (Col. 13, lines 39-48). Captive insurance is when a business creates their own insurance policies to cover specific risks, as taught in Denning. An affinity group would have specific policies to target their demographic. Therefore, ensuring insurance policies and claims can be better customized towards group needs.
21. With regard to claim 12, Greenstein teaches the system of claim 2 but fails to explicitly teach wherein the real-world entity cells comprise: respective pure captive insurance pools, and wherein the different types of real-world entity cells correspond to different types of pure captive insurance pools.
However, in analogous art, Denning teaches:
wherein the real-world entity cells comprise:
respective pure captive insurance pools, and wherein the different types of real-world entity cells correspond to different types of pure captive insurance pools (Col. 13, lines 31-39, For example, continuing the illustrative example, the benefits associated with the “AUDI A4 Group” may include one or more insurance benefits designed to appeal to AUDI A4 automobile aficionados who have an annual household income in excess of $100,000 and who are over 21 years of age. The insurance benefits may include offers of personal lines insurance targeted to AUDI automobile owners or related insurance products; Examiner’s Note: The pure captive insurance pool is the AUDI A4 Group.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Greenstein and Bryant with the teachings of Denning wherein the real-world entity cells comprise: respective pure captive insurance pools, and wherein the different types of real-world entity cells correspond to different types of pure captive insurance pools. Together, Greenstein and Bryant teach of a computer implemented service that uses resources, which can be VMs to execute a user’s requested service. Greenstein mentions that this service can be a type of insurance administration. Similarly, Denning teaches of a computer implemented method for creating virtual affinity groups. As discussed in Denning, “by creating such benefits based on the characteristics of individuals who will be invited to participate in the virtual affinity group, insurance benefits may be designed which closely match the interests of the group and that are priced based on attributes of the group. Insurance offers may thus be created that are priced based on the relative risk of a group of individuals having known characteristics. In some embodiments, the benefits may include group insurance benefits that are targeted to the affinity group” (Col. 13, lines 39-48). Therefore, ensuring insurance policies and claims can be better customized towards group needs.
22. With regard to claim 13, Greenstein teaches the system of claim 2 and but fails to explicitly teach wherein the one or more computing devices configured to implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to: receive information from the requesting tenant regarding types of risks and/or types of potential customers of the requesting tenant; and make a recommendation to the requesting tenant of a type of pure captive insurance pool or a type of sponsored captive insurance pool that is to be used for the requesting tenant’s real world entity cell.
However, in analogous art, Denning further teaches:
wherein the one or more computing devices configured to implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to:
receive information from the requesting tenant regarding types of risks and/or types of potential customers of the requesting tenant (Col. 13, lines 49-63, Processing continues at 408 where a process is launched or initiated to identify eligible individuals for participation in the virtual affinity group. Eligible individuals are identified by applying one or more characteristics (defined at 402) to data collected or otherwise processed by the virtual affinity group processing platform 110. For example, once the characteristics of a group are defined, an automated process may be initiated which searches for information about individuals meeting those characteristics. In the illustrative embodiment, posts, comments, profiles, search queries, and other data may be processed to identify adult individuals in the U.S. who have an annual household income in excess of $100,000 and who have made more than 5 recent comments or posts involving certain keywords associated with “AUDI A4” topics.); and
make a recommendation to the requesting tenant of a type of pure captive insurance pool or a type of sponsored captive insurance pool that is to be used for the requesting tenant’s real world entity cell (Col. 14, lines 28-42, In embodiments where eligible individuals are notified regarding their eligibility for participation in a virtual affinity group, the notification may be performed by an email, direct message, mail, or telephone call in which details of the features and benefits of participating in the virtual affinity group are communicated to each eligible individual. The notification may include information for accessing and interacting with the virtual affinity group and, in some embodiments, may include a unique identifier, code or other identifier used to access the virtual affinity group and identify the individual. The information communicated may include instructions for accessing the virtual affinity group (including user names and passwords) as well as information identifying the nature of the insurance benefits available to the individual through their participation in the group.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Greenstein and Bryant with the teachings of Denning wherein the one or more computing devices configured to implement the hybrid cell management system are further configured to: receive information from the requesting tenant regarding types of risks and/or types of potential customers of the requesting tenant; and make a recommendation to the requesting tenant of a type of pure captive insurance pool or a type of sponsored captive insurance pool that is to be used for the requesting tenant’s real world entity cell. Together, Greenstein and Bryant teach of a computer implemented service that uses resources, which can be VMs to execute a user’s requested service. Greenstein mentions that this service can be a type of insurance administration. Similarly, Denning teaches of a computer implemented method for creating virtual affinity groups. Individual user data is collected, which allows the system to invite target consumers to join the affinity group. As discussed in Denning, “by creating such benefits based on the characteristics of individuals who will be invited to participate in the virtual affinity group, insurance benefits may be designed which closely match the interests of the group and that are priced based on attributes of the group. Insurance offers may thus be created that are priced based on the relative risk of a group of individuals having known characteristics. In some embodiments, the benefits may include group insurance benefits that are targeted to the affinity group” (Col. 13, lines 39-48). Therefore, ensuring insurance policies and claims can be better customized towards group needs.
23. Regarding claim 15, it is rejected under the same reasoning as claim 13 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
24. With regard to claim 16, Greenstein teaches the method of 14 but fails to explicitly teach wherein the recommendation further comprises a recommendation of a domicile for the tenant’s real world entity cell, wherein the hybrid cell management system maintains pre-established real-world entities in a plurality of domiciles.
However, in analogous art, Denning teaches:
wherein the recommendation further comprises a recommendation of a domicile for the tenant’s real world entity cell, wherein the hybrid cell management system maintains pre-established real-world entities in a plurality of domiciles (Col. 12, lines 3-13, Those known characteristics may be used as a seed or a starting point for an administrator to define the set of characteristics required for participation in the virtual affinity group. The administrator may be presented with a set of characteristics to be selected from one or more predetermined characteristics that may be used across different virtual affinity groups (such as geographical characteristics, demographic characteristics or the like), and/or they may be custom attributes defined for each virtual affinity group; Col. 14, lines 43-50, Pursuant to some embodiments, the communication performed at 410 may be performed by providing a highly segmented list of participants to one or more insurance agents or brokers for use in contacting the participants to make one or more insurance-related offers. For example, a file or feed of data of participants may be provided to agents or brokers in different geographical areas for their use in communicating offers to participants; Examiner’s Note: The geographical characteristics are similar to domiciles.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Greenstein and Bryant with the teachings of Denning wherein the recommendation further comprises a recommendation of a domicile for the tenant’s real world entity cell, wherein the hybrid cell management system maintains pre-established real-world entities in a plurality of domiciles. Together, Greenstein and Bryant teach of a computer implemented service that uses resources, which can be VMs to execute a user’s requested service. Greenstein mentions that this service can be a type of insurance administration. Similarly, Denning teaches of a computer implemented method for creating virtual affinity groups. Individual user data is collected, which allows the system to invite target consumers to join the affinity group. User data includes geographical data, which includes residential characteristics (i.e. income is over $100,000) (Col. 3, lines 45-49). A domicile, according to dictionary.com, is a “place of residence; house or home; abode.” As discussed in Denning, “by creating such benefits based on the characteristics of individuals who will be invited to participate in the virtual affinity group, insurance benefits may be designed which closely match the interests of the group and that are priced based on attributes of the group. Insurance offers may thus be created that are priced based on the relative risk of a group of individuals having known characteristics. In some embodiments, the benefits may include group insurance benefits that are targeted to the affinity group” (Col. 13, lines 39-48). Therefore, ensuring insurance policies and claims can be better customized towards group needs.
25. Regarding claim 19, it is rejected under the same reasoning as claim 12 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
26. Claims 11 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Greenstein et al. US 20200007418 A1 and Bryant et al. US 20180129524 A1, as applied in claim 1, in further view of Potter et al. US 11257163 B1.
27. With regard to claim 11, Denning teaches the system of claim 10 and Greenstein teaches a pool administration service configured to automatically perform, on behalf of the requesting tenant, administrative tasks for the cell of the sponsored captive insurance pool allocated to the requesting tenant ([0043] The system 100 is implemented as a management module 105 hosted on a computing device. In one embodiment, the management module 105 is associated with a cloud computing environment that hosts services made accessible to remote devices. Such services can correspond to application hosting services, Software as a Service (SaaS), network storage, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and a wide variety of other software applications and computer implemented services. Such instances of services are executed using computing resources of the cloud computing environment; [0046] The management module 105 maintains a first pool 125 of pre-provisioned instances within the zone 110. For example, the management module 105 constructs pre-provisioned instances 130 of a service within the first pool 125 (e.g., represented by pre-provision function block 120 in FIG. 1). A pre-provisioned instance is a proactively constructed configuration of computing resources of the zone 110 as a computing environment that can be subsequently used to execute executable code of the service. The computing environment may comprise processor, memory, storage, and network resources, a virtual machine, and/or other computing resources used to execute the executable code).
Both Greenstein and Denning fail to explicitly teach wherein to perform the management operations, the one or more virtual resources instantiated using the given template are configured to implement: a policy administration service configured to automatically perform, on behalf of the requesting tenant, policy administrative tasks for administering insurance policies of customers of the requesting tenant; a claims administration service configured to automatically perform, on behalf of the requesting tenant, claims administration tasks for claims made by customers of the requesting tenant; and a metrics service configured to automatically generate and provide metrics to the requesting tenant with regard to the policies and claims administered by the policy administration service and the claims administered by the claims administration service.
However, in analogous art, Potter teaches:
wherein to perform the management operations, the one or more virtual resources instantiated using the given template are configured to implement:
a policy administration service configured to automatically perform, on behalf of the requesting tenant, policy administrative tasks for administering insurance policies of customers of the requesting tenant (Col. 17, lines 48-59, The method 100 may also include adjusting, generating and/or updating one or more insurance-related items (block 114). The insurance-related item(s) may include, for example, parameters of the insurance policy (e.g., a deductible), a premium, a rate, a discount, and/or a reward. The adjustment, generation and/or update may be based upon the fault determined at block 110, or based upon the driver having the emergency assistance functionality that allows the method 100 to be performed (e.g., a mobile device application that enables the driver to receive the communication sent at block 108 and/or to send the wireless communication received at block 108), for example.);
a claims administration service configured to automatically perform, on behalf of the requesting tenant, claims administration tasks for claims made by customers of the requesting tenant (Col. 19 lines 66 – Col. 20, lines 22, (2) analyzing the telematics and/or other data at or via the remote server; (3) determining, at or via the remote server, a likely severity of the vehicle accident from the analysis of the telematics and/or other data; (4) generating an estimated insurance claim, at or via the remote server, based upon the severity of the vehicle accident determined from the analysis of the telematics and/or other data; (5) transmitting, via wireless communication, the estimated insurance claim from the remote server to a mobile device associated with the specific driver and/or insured (e.g., mobile device 10 of FIG. 1) to facilitate presenting all, or a portion of, the estimated insurance claim to the specific driver and/or insured; (6) receiving, at or via the remote server, a wireless communication from the specific driver and/or insured indicating approval, rejection, or modification of the estimated insurance claim; and/or (7) handling or addressing the estimated insurance claim, at or via the remote server, in accordance with the specific driver and/or insured's approval, rejection, or modification of the estimated insurance claim. The method may further include (8) adjusting, generating, and/or updating, at or via the remote server, an insurance policy, premium, rate, discount, and/or reward for the specific driver and/or the insured (or insured vehicle) based upon the estimated insurance claim.); and
a metrics service configured to automatically generate and provide metrics to the requesting tenant with regard to the policies and claims administered by the policy administration service and the claims administered by the claims administration service (Col. 19, lines 55-66, In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of generating an insurance claim for an insured may be provided. The method may include: (1) collecting or receiving telematics and/or other data (e.g., any of the telematics and/or other data described above in Section I and/or Section II) at or via a remote server associated with an insurance provider (e.g., server 40 of FIG. 1), the telematics and/or other data being associated with a vehicle accident involving a specific driver and/or an insured, the insured owning an insurance policy issued by the insurance provider and the telematics and/or other data being gathered before, during, and/or after the vehicle accident; ).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Greenstein, Bryant, and Denning with the teachings of Potter wherein to perform the management operations, the one or more virtual resources instantiated using the given template are configured to implement: a policy administration service configured to automatically perform, on behalf of the requesting tenant, policy administrative tasks for administering insurance policies of customers of the requesting tenant; a claims administration service configured to automatically perform, on behalf of the requesting tenant, claims administration tasks for claims made by customers of the requesting tenant; and a metrics service configured to automatically generate and provide metrics to the requesting tenant with regard to the policies and claims administered by the policy administration service and the claims administered by the claims administration service. Greenstein teaches of a computer implemented service, which can include insurance administration ([0115]). When the computer implemented services is initiated by a request from a user to execute a service, corresponding virtual resources are also initiated. These resources can include virtual machines. Similarly, Potter teaches of a computer-implemented method of generating insurance claims. In order to implement the specific services dealing with insurance, Potter teaches of services regarding insurance claims, policies, and metric collection. These services help adjust insurance policies and claims according to user metrics and data, as discussed in Potter (Col. 19, lines 9-32). Therefore, ensuring that insurance policies and claims reflect accurately on user needs.
28. With regard to claim 17, Greenstein teaches the method of 14 and but fails to explicitly teach wherein automatically providing the management services for the real-world entity, allocated to the requesting tenant, using the launched one or more virtual resources comprises: automatically issuing new polices to customers of the requesting tenant, wherein tasks of issuance are performed, at least in part, by the one or more virtual resources; and automatically administering claims submitted by customers of the requesting tenant, wherein tasks of claim administration are performed, at least in part, by the one or more virtual resources.
However, in analogous art, Potter teaches:
wherein automatically providing the management services for the real-world entity, allocated to the requesting tenant, using the launched one or more virtual resources comprises:
automatically issuing new polices to customers of the requesting tenant, wherein tasks of issuance are performed, at least in part, by the one or more virtual resources (Col. 8, lines 28-32, In some embodiments, the server 40 may be a remote server associated with or operated by or on behalf of an insurance provider. The server 40 may be configured to receive, collect, and/or analyze telematics and/or other data in accordance with any of the methods described herein; Col. 17, lines 48-59, The method 100 may also include adjusting, generating and/or updating one or more insurance-related items (block 114). The insurance-related item(s) may include, for example, parameters of the insurance policy (e.g., a deductible), a premium, a rate, a discount, and/or a reward. The adjustment, generation and/or update may be based upon the fault determined at block 110, or based upon the driver having the emergency assistance functionality that allows the method 100 to be performed (e.g., a mobile device application that enables the driver to receive the communication sent at block 108 and/or to send the wireless communication received at block 108), for example.); and
automatically administering claims submitted by customers of the requesting tenant, wherein tasks of claim administration are performed, at least in part, by the one or more virtual resources (Col. 8, lines 28-32, In some embodiments, the server 40 may be a remote server associated with or operated by or on behalf of an insurance provider. The server 40 may be configured to receive, collect, and/or analyze telematics and/or other data in accordance with any of the methods described herein; Col. 19 lines 66 – Col. 20, lines 22, (2) analyzing the telematics and/or other data at or via the remote server; (3) determining, at or via the remote server, a likely severity of the vehicle accident from the analysis of the telematics and/or other data; (4) generating an estimated insurance claim, at or via the remote server, based upon the severity of the vehicle accident determined from the analysis of the telematics and/or other data; (5) transmitting, via wireless communication, the estimated insurance claim from the remote server to a mobile device associated with the specific driver and/or insured (e.g., mobile device 10 of FIG. 1) to facilitate presenting all, or a portion of, the estimated insurance claim to the specific driver and/or insured; (6) receiving, at or via the remote server, a wireless communication from the specific driver and/or insured indicating approval, rejection, or modification of the estimated insurance claim; and/or (7) handling or addressing the estimated insurance claim, at or via the remote server, in accordance with the specific driver and/or insured's approval, rejection, or modification of the estimated insurance claim. The method may further include (8) adjusting, generating, and/or updating, at or via the remote server, an insurance policy, premium, rate, discount, and/or reward for the specific driver and/or the insured (or insured vehicle) based upon the estimated insurance claim.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Greenstein with the teachings of Potter wherein automatically providing the management services for the real-world entity, allocated to the requesting tenant, using the launched one or more virtual resources comprises: automatically issuing new polices to customers of the requesting tenant, wherein tasks of issuance are performed, at least in part, by the one or more virtual resources; and automatically administering claims submitted by customers of the requesting tenant, wherein tasks of claim administration are performed, at least in part, by the one or more virtual resources. Greenstein teaches of a computer implemented service, which can include insurance administration ([0115]). When the computer implemented services is initiated by a request from a user to execute a service, corresponding virtual resources are also initiated. These resources can include virtual machines. Similarly, Potter teaches of a computer-implemented method of generating insurance claims. In order to implement the specific services dealing with insurance, Potter teaches of services regarding insurance claims, policies, and metric collection. These services, which are executed by virtual resources, help adjust insurance policies and claims according to user metrics and data, as discussed in Potter (Col. 8, lines 28-32; Col. 19, lines 9-32). Therefore, ensuring that insurance policies and claims reflect accurately on user needs.
Conclusion
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/AN-AN NGOC NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2195
/Aimee Li/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2195
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