Policies based on combinations of atomic constraints

1. A method of configuring at least one virtual machine by at least one of a plurality of cloud orchestrators, the method comprising:

sending from a server to a client device, availability and pricing information pertaining to a plurality of constraints relating to a plurality of physical resources as managed by a plurality of cloud orchestrators, the plurality of physical resources including storage, network and processing resources, the availability and pricing information being arranged in a plurality of domains including storage, network and compute domains for respective ones of the plurality of constraints relating to the storage, network and processing resources, and indicating an association with respective ones of the plurality of cloud orchestrators according to what each cloud orchestrator supports;

receiving at the server, via the network, selection of individual constraints of the plurality of constraints in domains of the plurality of domains from the client device, the individual constraints including constraints relating to the storage, network and processing resources that are supported by a cloud orchestrator of the plurality of cloud orchestrators;

generating, at the server, a policy for the cloud orchestrator, based on the selection, each of the plurality of cloud orchestrators having a respective specified format for the policy that is specific thereto, and generating the policy includes generating the policy using the respective specified format that is specific to the cloud orchestrator, wherein the policy specifies how to provide the plurality of physical resources for a flexible pricing of using the plurality of physical resources, and wherein generating the policy using the respective specified format includes applying the selection to a template of the respective specified format to generate the policy in the respective specified format; and

allocating, coordinating or provisioning physical resources of the plurality of physical resources to configure at least one virtual machine, by the cloud orchestrator, in accordance with the policy.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

sending from the server to the client device, via the network, a total price based on the selection, wherein the total price is based on atomic constraints, from the plurality of constraints, associated to pricing.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

gathering, at the server, the availability and pricing information from the plurality of cloud orchestrators; and

writing the availability and pricing information to a data structure stored in the server.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the plurality of constraints as related to the storage resources includes storage size, storage type, thin or thick storage provisioning, a plurality of storage tiers, mirroring, or types of redundant array of independent disks (RAID).

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

formatting, on the server, the availability and pricing information to be sent to the client device to display in a graphical user interface (GUI), the GUI including a resource field indicating the plurality of physical resources and a constraints field indicating the plurality of constraints.

6. A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium having instructions thereupon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

sending from a server to a client device, availability and pricing information pertaining to a plurality of constraints relating to a plurality of physical resources as managed by a plurality of cloud orchestrators, the plurality of physical resources including storage, network and processing resources, the availability and pricing information being arranged in a plurality of domains including storage, network and compute domains for respective ones of the plurality of constraints relating to the storage, network and processing resources, and indicating an association with respective ones of the plurality of cloud orchestrators according to what each cloud orchestrator supports;

receiving at the server, via the network, selection of individual constraints of the plurality of constraints in domains of the plurality of domains from the client device, the individual constraints including constraints relating to the storage, network and processing resources that are supported by a cloud orchestrator of the plurality of cloud orchestrators;

generating, at the server, a policy for the cloud orchestrator, based on the selection, each of the plurality of cloud orchestrators having a respective specified format for the policy that is specific thereto, and generating the policy includes generating the policy using the respective specified format that is specific to the cloud orchestrator, wherein the policy specifies how to provide the plurality of physical resources for a flexible pricing of using the plurality of physical resources, and wherein generating the policy using the respective specified format includes applying the selection to a template of the respective specified format to generate the policy in the respective specified format; and

allocating, coordinating or provisioning physical resources of the plurality of physical resources to configure at least one virtual machine, by the cloud orchestrator, in accordance with the policy.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises:

storing, in a data structure, information relating to pricing and availability of the plurality of physical resources and the plurality of constraints of the plurality of physical resources, the pricing and availability relative to each of the plurality of cloud orchestrators;

identifying constraints of a domain relating to the plurality of physical resources, for each of the plurality of domains including the storage, network and compute domains;

identifying which of the constraints of the domain are supported by which of the plurality of cloud orchestrators, for each of the plurality of domains; and

associating the constraints of the domain to the plurality of cloud orchestrators according to such support, for each of the plurality of domains.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the policy includes a policy for the network resources, a policy for the storage resources, a policy for the processing resources, or a policy for the at least one virtual machine.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein generating the policy includes generating a plurality of policies including the policy, each of the plurality of policies directed to one or more of the plurality of physical resources and in the respective specified format that is specific to one of the plurality of cloud orchestrators.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises:

communicating to the client device, via the network, a total price of the selection, prior to generating the policy, wherein the total price is based on atomic constraints, from the constraints of the domain for each of the plurality of domains, associated to pricing.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of constraints relates to at least one of: security requirements, tenant requirements, compliance, performance, storage tiers, storage mirroring, redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID), network throughput, network priority, virtual machines, or operating systems.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises:

formatting, on the server, the availability and pricing information to be sent to the client device to display in a graphical user interface (GUI), the GUI including a resource field indicating the plurality of physical resources and a constraints field indicating the plurality of constraints.

13. A system for configuring at least one virtual machine by at least one of a plurality of cloud orchestrators, the system comprising:

a server, configured to communicate with a client device via a network, and having a policy generator and a data structure;

the data structure configured to consolidate pricing and availability information regarding a plurality of cloud orchestrators, a plurality of physical resources including physical storage, network and processing resources, and a plurality of constraints for the plurality of physical resources as configurable by the plurality of cloud orchestrators, the pricing and availability information being arranged in a plurality of domains including storage, network and compute domains for respective ones of the plurality of constraints relating to the storage, network and processing resources, and indicating an association with respective ones of the plurality of cloud orchestrators according to what each cloud orchestrator supports;

the policy generator configured to communicate with the client device regarding the pricing and availability information of the plurality of cloud orchestrators, the plurality of physical resources and the plurality of constraints, based on contents of the data structure; and

the policy generator configured to receive, from the client device, a selection regarding the plurality of physical resources, individual constraints of the plurality of constraints in domains of the plurality of domains, and a cloud orchestrator of the plurality of cloud orchestrators that supports the individual constraints, the policy generator configured to generate a policy directed to the cloud orchestrator based on the selection, each of the plurality of cloud orchestrators having a respective specified format for the policy that is specific thereto, and the policy generator being configured to generate the policy using the respective specified format that is specific to the cloud orchestrator, wherein the policy specifies how to provide the plurality of physical resources for a flexible pricing of using the plurality of physical resources, and the policy generator being configured to generate the policy using the respective specified format includes being configured to apply the selection to a template of the respective specified format to generate the policy in the respective specified format; and

the cloud orchestrator configured to allocate, coordinate or provision physical resources of the plurality of physical resources to configure at least one virtual machine, in accordance with the policy.

14. The system of claim 13 , further comprising:

the server having a pricing module, coupled to the data structure and the policy generator, the pricing module configured to coordinate with the policy generator to communicate to the client device a total price based on the selection, wherein the total price is based on atomic constraints, from the plurality of constraints, associated to pricing.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the policy generator is configured to generate the policy responsive to receiving a direction from the client device to proceed with policy generation based on the selection.

16. The system of claim 13 , further comprising:

the server configured to provide, via the network, a portal that presents in a graphical user interface (GUI) a real-time view of costs associated with policy constraints available from a plurality of vendors or providers via the plurality of cloud orchestrators, as communicated by the policy generator regarding the pricing and availability information.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein the server is further configured to format the availability and pricing information to be sent to the client device to display in a graphical user interface (GUI), the GUI including a resource field indicating the plurality of physical resources and a constraints field indicating the plurality of constraints.