IP Library Granted Patent US 10,484,341
Granted Patent B1
US 10,484,341 · App. 15/499,224 · Granted Nov 19, 2019

Distributed ledger for multi-cloud operational state

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,484,341
App. No.
15/499,224
Granted
Nov 19, 2019
Kind
B1
Abstract

An apparatus comprises at least one processing device having a processor coupled to a memory. The processing device is configured to implement a first ledger node of a first cloud. The first ledger node of the first cloud is configured to communicate over one or more networks with a plurality of additional ledger nodes associated with respective additional clouds. The first ledger node is further configured to obtain a transaction associated with a cloud-related operational state. The first ledger node is further configured to broadcast the transaction to the additional ledger nodes. A cryptographic block characterizing at least the transaction is generated and entered into a blockchain distributed ledger collectively maintained by the first and additional ledger nodes. The first and additional ledger nodes collectively maintain the blockchain distributed ledger on a peer-to-peer basis without utilizing a centralized transaction authority.

Claims (43)

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory;

wherein the processing device is configured to implement a first ledger node of a first cloud;

the first ledger node of the first cloud being configured to:

communicate over one or more networks with a plurality of additional ledger nodes associated with respective additional clouds;

obtain a transaction associated with a cloud-related operational state, wherein the cloud-related operational state comprises status information associated within the deployment of a given application on the first cloud; and

broadcast the transaction to the additional ledger nodes;

wherein a cryptographic block characterizing at least the transaction is generated and entered into a blockchain distributed ledger collectively maintained by the first and additional ledger nodes; and

wherein the transaction is obtained from cloud application deployment software instantiated on the first cloud.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least a subset of the first and additional clouds comprise respective public clouds.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least a subset of the first and additional clouds comprise respective private clouds.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cloud application deployment software is configured to operate as a platform-as-a-service layer.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transaction is time stamped and a checksum hash function applied thereto in generating the cryptographic block.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the blockchain distributed ledger maintains an automatic aggregation of cloud application deployment operational states from the first and additional clouds.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the blockchain distributed ledger enables comparison of cloud-related operational states from the first and additional clouds.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the blockchain distributed ledger enables secure access to command line interfaces for the first and additional clouds.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the blockchain distributed ledger enables a determination of a distribution of multiple applications of a given enterprise across the first and additional clouds.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the distribution of multiple applications of the given enterprise is presented on a dashboard associated with the blockchain distributed ledger.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the distribution is representative of a percentage of the applications running on each of the first and additional clouds.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the first and additional ledger nodes are configured to operate in at least one of a public cloud environment or a private cloud environment or combinations thereof.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each one of the first and additional ledger nodes is configured to receive a network address associated with each of the other of the first and additional ledger nodes.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the blockchain distributed ledger enables a blockchain service accessible by cloud application deployment software components, instantiated on the first and additional clouds, through a blockchain application programming interface (API).

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein one or more of the cloud application deployment software components store log entries in the blockchain distributed ledger via the blockchain API.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transaction comprises one or more operational events that occur with respect to one or more of the first and additional clouds.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first and additional ledger nodes collectively maintain the blockchain distributed ledger on a peer-to-peer basis without utilizing a centralized transaction authority.

18. A method comprising:

implementing a first ledger node of a first cloud;

configuring the first ledger node to communicate over one or more networks with a plurality of additional ledger nodes associated with respective additional clouds;

obtaining in the first ledger node a transaction associated with a cloud-related operational state, wherein the cloud-related operational state comprises status information associated within the deployment of a given application on the first cloud; and

broadcasting the transaction to the additional ledger nodes;

wherein a cryptographic block characterizing at least the transaction is generated and entered into a blockchain distributed ledger collectively maintained by the first and additional ledger nodes;

wherein the transaction is obtained from cloud application deployment software instantiated on the first cloud; and

the method being performed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory.

19. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code when executed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory causes the processing device to:

implement a first ledger node of a first cloud;

configure the first ledger node to communicate over one or more networks with a plurality of additional ledger nodes associated with respective additional clouds;

obtain in the first ledger node a transaction associated with a cloud-related operational state, wherein the cloud-related operational state comprises status information associated within the deployment of a given application on the first cloud; and

broadcast the transaction to the additional ledger nodes;

wherein a cryptographic block characterizing at least the transaction is generated and entered into a blockchain distributed ledger collectively maintained by the first and additional ledger nodes; and

wherein the transaction is obtained from cloud application deployment software instantiated on the first cloud.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 wherein the program code when executed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory causes the processing device to perform at least one of:

maintain, with the blockchain distributed ledger, an automatic aggregation of cloud application deployment operational states from the first and additional clouds; or

enable, with the blockchain distributed ledger, a comparison of cloud-related operational states from the first and additional clouds.

Assignments (9)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (053546/0001) Recorded Jun 23, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: DELL MARKETING L.P. (ON BEHALF OF ITSELF AND AS SUCCESSOR-IN-INTEREST TO CREDANT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.); DELL INTERNATIONAL L.L.C.; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; DELL USA L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; DELL MARKETING CORPORATION (SUCCESSOR-IN-INTEREST TO FORCE10 NETWORKS, INC. AND WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.); EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 071642/0001 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (042769/0001) Recorded Apr 26, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC (ON BEHALF OF ITSELF AND AS SUCCESSOR-IN-INTEREST TO MOZY, INC.); DELL MARKETING CORPORATION (SUCCESSOR-IN-INTEREST TO WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.)
Reel/Frame 059803/0802 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST AT REEL 042768 FRAME 0585 Recorded Nov 2, 2021
From: CREDIT SUISSE AG, CAYMAN ISLANDS BRANCH
To: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; MOZY, INC.; WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.
Reel/Frame 058297/0536 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 22, 2020
From: CREDANT TECHNOLOGIES INC.; DELL INTERNATIONAL L.L.C.; DELL MARKETING L.P.; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; DELL USA L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; FORCE10 NETWORKS, INC.; WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A.
Reel/Frame 053546/0001 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 15, 2019
From: ROCHE, BRIAN
To: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 050720/0410 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 1, 2019
From: TODD, STEPHEN; HE, XUEBIN; NGUYEN, THINH L.
To: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 050582/0902 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Mar 21, 2019
From: CREDANT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.; DELL INTERNATIONAL L.L.C.; DELL MARKETING L.P.; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; DELL USA L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; FORCE10 NETWORKS, INC.; WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A.
Reel/Frame 049452/0223 →
PATENT SECURITY INTEREST (CREDIT) Recorded Jun 12, 2017
From: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; MOZY, INC.; WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.
To: CREDIT SUISSE AG, CAYMAN ISLANDS BRANCH, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 042768/0585 →
PATENT SECURITY INTEREST (NOTES) Recorded Jun 12, 2017
From: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; MOZY, INC.; WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 042769/0001 →