SYSTEMS, METHODS AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUMS FOR IMPLEMENTING CLOUD SERVICE BROKERAGE PLATFORM FUNCTIONALITIES

1 . A system having a plurality of interconnected platform engine portions for providing cloud service brokerage functionalities, comprising:

a first platform engine portion that enables selection of cloud service offerings available from one or more cloud service providers through assessment of cloud service criteria;

a second platform engine portion that enables demand for cloud services to be modeled using selected ones of the cloud service offerings; and

a third second platform engine portion that enables virtual data centers (VDCs) to be instantiated by provisioning resources of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings.

2 . The system of claim 1 wherein the first platform engine portion further enables a particular capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings to deploy to be determined.

3 . The system of claim 1 wherein assessment of cloud service criteria includes assessing a plurality of different cloud service criteria combinations.

4 . The system of claim 1 wherein the first platform engine portion further enables policies for scaling of capacity of the selected cloud service offerings based on business demand to be defined.

5 . The system of claim 4 wherein the first platform engine portion further enables a particular capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings to deploy to be determined.

6 . The system of claim 1 wherein the second platform engine portion further enables the selected ones of the cloud service offerings to be selected from within a platform-managed catalog of cloud service offerings that are available from the one or more cloud service providers.

7 . The system of claim 6 wherein:

the selected ones of the cloud service offerings are selected from a plurality of different ones of the cloud service providers; and

the second system platform portion further enables using the platform-managed catalog to identify one or more preferred cloud service provider from the plurality of different ones of the cloud service providers.

8 . The system of claim 6 wherein the first platform engine portion further enables:

policies for scaling of capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings based on business demand to be defined; and

a particular capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings to deploy to be determined.

9 . The system of claim 1 wherein the VDCs being instantiated by provisioning resources of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings includes provisioning the resources through a single interface.

10 . The system of claim 1 wherein the VDCs being instantiated further includes provisioning of resources from at least one of a private cloud, a public cloud, an internal data center, and cloud services supported by resources different than those of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings.

11 . The system of claim 10 wherein the VDCs being instantiated by provisioning the resources includes provisioning the resources through a single interface.

12 . The system of claim 11 wherein the first platform engine portion further enables policies for scaling of capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings based on business demand to be defined.

13 . The system of claim 12 wherein the first platform engine portion further enables a particular capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings to deploy to be determined.

14 . The system of claim 10 wherein the second platform engine portion further enables the selected ones of the cloud service offerings to be selected from within a platform-managed catalog of cloud services.

15 . The system of claim 14 wherein:

the selected ones of the cloud service offerings are available from a plurality of different ones of the cloud service providers;

the second platform engine portion further enables using the platform-managed catalog to identify one or more preferred cloud service providers from the plurality of different ones of the cloud service providers.

16 . The system of claim 14 wherein the first platform engine portion further enables:

policies for scaling of capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings based on business demand to be defined; and

a particular capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings to deploy to be determined.

17 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having tangibly embodied thereon and accessible therefrom instructions interpretable by at least one data processing device, the instructions are configured for causing the at least one data processing device to perform one or more operations for:

selecting cloud service offerings available from one or more cloud service providers through assessment of cloud service criteria;

modeling demand for cloud services using the selected cloud service offerings; and

instantiating virtual data centers (VDCs) by provisioning resources of the selected cloud service offerings.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the instructions are further configured for causing the at least one data processing device to perform one or more operations for determining a particular capacity of the selected cloud service offerings to deploy.

19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein assessment of cloud service criteria includes assessment of a plurality of different cloud service criteria combinations.

20 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the instructions are further configured for causing the at least one data processing device to perform one or more operations for defining policies for scaling of capacity of the selected cloud service offerings based on business demand.

21 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the instructions are further configured for causing the at least one data processing device to perform one or more operations for selecting the cloud service offerings from within a platform-managed catalog of cloud services.

22 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the VDCs being instantiated by provisioning resources of the selected cloud service offerings includes provisioning the resources of the selected cloud service offerings through a single interface.

23 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the VDCs being instantiated further includes provisioning of resources from at least one of a private cloud, a public cloud, an internal data center, and cloud services supported by resources different than those of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings.

24 . A system having a plurality of interconnected platform engine portions for providing cloud service brokerage functionalities, comprising:

a first platform engine portion for enabling a cloud service consumer to select cloud service offerings available from a plurality of different cloud service providers through assessment of cloud service criteria;

a second platform engine portion for enabling the cloud service consumer to model demand for cloud services using selected ones of the cloud service offerings;

a third platform engine portion for enabling the cloud service consumer to create and control virtual data centers (VDCs) by provisioning resources of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings;

a fourth platform engine portion for enabling the cloud service consumer to manage applications that are using the selected ones of the cloud service offerings;

a fifth platform engine portion for enabling the cloud service consumer to define application architectures configurations; and

a sixth platform engine portion for enabling the cloud service consumer to assess metrics for cloud service criteria associated with the provisioned resources of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings and with the application architectures configurations.

25 . The system of claim 24 wherein the first platform engine portion further enables:

policies for scaling of capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings based on business demand to be defined; and

a particular capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings to deploy to be determined.

26 . The system of claim 25 wherein the second platform engine portion further enables the selected ones of the cloud service offerings to be selected from within a platform-managed catalog of cloud services.

27 . The system of claim 26 wherein:

the VDCs being created further includes provisioning of resources from at least one of a private cloud, a public cloud, an internal data center, and cloud services of resources different than those of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings; and

the VDCs being instantiated by provisioning the resources includes provisioning the resources through a single interface.

28 . The system of claim 24 wherein:

enabling the cloud service consumer to manage the applications includes enabling the cloud service consumer to manage applications running across multiple cloud environments and internal data centers; and

the fifth platform engine portion further enables automated provisioning of cloud resource changes.

29 . The system of claim 28 wherein enabling the cloud service consumer to define application architectures configurations includes enabling the cloud service consumer to define application architectures configurations using virtual appliances and associated resource capacity models.

30 . The system of claim 24 wherein:

the first platform engine portion further enables policies for scaling of capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings based on business demand to be defined and enables a particular capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings to deploy to be determined;

enabling the cloud service consumer to manage the applications includes enabling the cloud service consumer to manage applications running across multiple cloud environments and internal data centers; and

enabling the cloud service consumer to define application architectures configurations includes enabling the cloud service consumer to define application architectures configurations using virtual appliances and associated resource capacity models.

31 . The system of claim 24 wherein application architecture configurations defined through use of the fifth platform engine portion and information generated by the sixth platform engine portion as a result of assessment of the metrics are jointly used by:

the first platform engine portion for determining one or more policies used in enabling the cloud service consumer to select the cloud service offerings;

the first platform engine portion to define the policies for scaling of capacity of the selected ones of the cloud service offerings; and

the fourth platform engine portion for enabling the cloud service consumer to manage the applications.