Portable and flexible deployment of servers

1. A method of portable and flexible deployment of dedicated servers in cloud computing, said method comprising:

receiving, at a user interface, a user input of an order requesting the deployment of a dedicated server at a specified data center location, wherein the dedicated server is a physical server having dedicated access for a particular end user;

receiving, at a first screen at the user interface, a user input of a selection, from a list of server image templates presented to the user in the first screen, of a server image template pertaining to the dedicated server to be deployed, said server image templates in the list presented to the user in the first screen comprising both (i) standard image templates applicable or deployable to virtual servers only and (ii) flex image templates applicable or deployable to both virtual servers and dedicated physical servers, said list presented to the user in the first screen naming each server image template and identifying each server image template as being either a standard image template or a flex image template;

in response to said receiving the selection of the server image template, presenting to the user at the user interface a second screen and subsequently receiving from the user a selection of one or more geographic locations from a menu of two or more distinct geographic locations displayed on the second screen, for storing and deploying the selected server image in a data center at each selected geographic location;

selecting a dedicated server according to the user input of the selected server image template; and

deploying, in cloud computing, the selected dedicated server including a specification of an operating system to the selected server in response to having deployed a server image associated with the selected server image template in the data center at each selected geographic location; said deploying the selected dedicated server comprising booting the selected dedicated server using the selected operating system.

2. The method of claim 1 , said method further comprising:

receiving, at the user interface, a user input of an order requesting the capturing of a server image;

receiving a user selection of at least one data center location for storing the captured image;

capturing the server image; and

storing the captured image at the at least one data center location according to the user selection.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said receiving the user selection of at least one data center location for storing the captured server image comprises receiving the user selection of two or more different data center locations for storing the captured server image, and wherein said storing the captured server image comprises storing the captured server image at the two or more different data center locations.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein said capturing the server image comprises capturing the server image from a first data center location, wherein said storing the captured image at the at least one data center location comprises storing the captured image at a second data center location, wherein the specified data center location is a third data center location, wherein said deploying the selected dedicated server comprises deploying the selected dedicated server at the third data center location, wherein the first data center location, the second data center location, and the third data center location are different data center locations.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the method comprises:

a data center at the second or third data center location controlling said capturing the server image from the first data center location.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the selected server image comprises a root file system, a kernel, applications, and data of the dedicated server.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, at the user interface, a specification of bus speed, cache capacity, random access memory (RAM), a number of processors, and a manufacturer, type, and processor speed of each processor, for the dedicated server.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein the menu displayed on the second screen of two or more distinct geographic locations is a menu of two or more different cities.

9. A computer system, comprising a user interface and an integrated management system which, upon executing application software stored within the integrated management system, implements a method of portable and flexible deployment of dedicated servers in cloud computing, said method comprising:

receiving, at the user interface, a user input of an order requesting the deployment of a dedicated server at a specified data center location, wherein the dedicated server is a physical server having dedicated access for a particular end user;

receiving, at a first screen at the user interface, a user input of a selection, from a list of server image templates presented to the user in the first screen, of a server image template pertaining to the dedicated server to be deployed, said server image templates in the list presented to the user in the first screen comprising both (i) standard image templates applicable or deployable to virtual servers only and (ii) flex image templates applicable or deployable to both virtual servers and dedicated physical servers, said list presented to the user in the first screen naming each server image template and identifying each server image template as being either a standard image template or a flex image template;

in response to said receiving the selection of the server image template, presenting to the user at the user interface a second screen and subsequently receiving from the user a selection of one or more geographic locations from a menu of two or more distinct geographic locations displayed on the second screen, for storing and deploying the selected server image in a data center at each selected geographic location;

selecting a dedicated server according to the user input of the selected server image template; and

deploying, in cloud computing, the selected dedicated server including a specification of an operating system to the selected server in response to having deployed a server image associated with the selected server image template in the data center at each selected geographic location; said deploying the selected dedicated server comprising booting the selected dedicated server using the selected operating system.

10. The computer system of claim 9 , said method further comprising:

receiving, at the user interface, a user input of an order requesting the capturing of a server image;

receiving a user selection of at least one data center location for storing the captured image;

capturing the server image; and

storing the captured image at the at least one data center location according to the user selection.

11. The computer system of claim 10 , wherein said receiving the user selection of at least one data center location for storing the captured server image comprises receiving the user selection of two or more different data center locations for storing the captured server image, and wherein said storing the captured server image comprises storing the captured server image at the two or more different data center locations.

12. The computer system of claim 10 , wherein said capturing the server image comprises capturing the server image from a first data center location, wherein said storing the captured image at the at least one data center location comprises storing the captured image at a second data center location, wherein the specified data center location is a third data center location, wherein said deploying the selected dedicated server comprises deploying the selected dedicated server at the third data center location, wherein the first data center location, the second data center location, and the third data center location are different data center locations.

13. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the method comprises:

a data center at the second or third data center location controlling said capturing the server image from the first data center location.

14. The computer system of claim 10 , wherein the selected server image comprises a root file system, a kernel, applications, and data of the dedicated server.

15. The computer system of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, at the user interface, a specification of bus speed, cache capacity, random access memory (RAM), a number of processors, and a manufacturer, type, and processor speed of each processor, for the dedicated server.

16. The computer system of claim 10 , wherein the menu displayed on the second screen of two or more distinct geographic locations is a menu of two or more different cities.

17. The method of claim 1 , said method further comprising:

creating, at an integrated management system, a deployment transaction based on data relating to the server image and collected from the user as a response by the user to an option presented to the user at the user interface for capturing the server image.

18. The computer system of claim 9 , said method further comprising:

creating, at an integrated management system, a deployment transaction based on data relating to the server image and collected from the user as a response by the user to an option presented to the user at the user interface for capturing the server image.