Systems and methods for IT intelligence and management based on container-level metering

1. A system for containerized Information Technology (IT) resource management, comprising:

a meter platform and at least one analytics platform;

wherein the meter platform comprises at least one collector, at least one meter application programing interface (API), and at least one connector;

wherein the at least one collector comprises an inventory collector container;

wherein the at least one collector is customized for at least one container application platform with information comprising a unique name to be applied to a container cluster in a container environment, a domain name for a dedicated cluster in the container environment, a log level indicating a verbosity of a collector log, whether to use an Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), whether to verify the SSL, an age period of data for clean cache, a fallback value for Local Area Network (LAN) Input/Output (I/O) speed per node if the at least one collector cannot determine an actual LAN speed, a fallback value for Wide Area Network (WAN) I/O speed per node if the at least one collector cannot determine an actual WAN speed, and a fallback value for disk I/O speed per node if the collector cannot determine the actual disk speed;

wherein the inventory collector container is operable to retrieve a list of application containers for metering from each of the at least one container application platform;

wherein the at least one meter API is configured to measure consumption of the at least one container application platform, thereby creating meter data;

wherein the at least one connector is configured to extract, transform, and load the meter data to the at least one analytics platform; and

wherein the at least one analytics platform is configured to track computing resource usage of the at least one container application platform and optimize the computing resource usage of the at least one container application platform in real time.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one collector further comprises a local database container operable for storing the list of application containers, a metered state of each application container in the list of application containers, and associated metadata.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one meter API comprises a Workload Allocation Cube (WAC) calculator container operable for calculating processor usage, memory usage, storage usage, Disk I/O, LAN I/O, and WAN I/O with weighting factors based on computing resource types for the at least one container application platform.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one meter API is configured with information comprising an organization ID, an Open Authorization token, a host address, a port, whether to use an SSL for the at least one meter API, and whether to verify the SSL for the at least one meter API, wherein the organization ID is a unique ID of the meter platform to submit inventory under, wherein the Open Authorization token is for accessing the meter platform, wherein the host address is an address of the meter platform, wherein the port is a port of the at least one meter API, wherein whether to use an SSL for the at least one meter API indicates accessing the meter platform over the SSL or not, and wherein whether to verify the SSL for the at least one meter API indicates verifying an SSL certificate for the at least one meter API or not.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one collector further comprises a metrics collector container operable to collect sample data of computing resource usage by application containers not metered yet, and wherein the sample data comprises processor usage data, memory usage data, storage usage data, Disk I/O data, LAN I/O data, and WAN I/O data.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one collector further comprises an on-premises connector operable for transmitting the sample data to the at least one meter API, and wherein the at least one meter API is configured to measure the consumption of the at least one container application platform based on the sample data.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the meter platform is constructed as a Kubernetes node, wherein the at least one collector is constructed as a Kubernetes pod, wherein the at least one connector is constructed as a Kubernetes pod, and wherein the at least one meter API is constructed as a Kubernetes pod.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the meter platform further comprises a reporting dashboard providing access to operational status and configuration of the at least one container application platform.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one analytics platform is operable to create and deliver consumption reports for at least one of billing, cost recovery, and showback for the at least one container application platform.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one software-based operator in network communication with the meter platform operable to adjust IT infrastructure usage by the at least one container application platform.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one analytics platform comprises a contract calculator for consumers to maximize savings from consumption.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one analytics platform comprises a finance calculator for computing resource providers to track and optimize Return on Investment (ROI) based on at least one of consumption patterns, contract rates, and estimated growth cycles.

13. A system for containerized Information Technology (IT) resource management, comprising:

at least one collector, at least one meter, and at least one connector, and at least one analytics platform;

wherein the at least one collector comprises an inventory collector container;

wherein the at least one collector is customized for at least one container application platform with information comprising a unique name to be applied to a container cluster in a container environment, a domain name for a dedicated cluster in the container environment, a log level indicating a verbosity of a collector log, whether to use an Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), whether to verify the SSL, an age period of data for clean cache, a fallback value for Local Area Network (LAN) Input/Output (I/O) speed per node if the at least one collector cannot determine an actual LAN speed, a fallback value for Wide Area Network (WAN) I/O speed per node if the at least one collector cannot determine an actual WAN speed, and a fallback value for disk I/O speed per node if the collector cannot determine the actual disk speed;

wherein the inventory collector container is operable to retrieve a list of application containers for metering from each of the at least one container application platform;

wherein the at least one meter is configured to measure consumption of the at least one container application platform, thereby creating meter data;

wherein the at least one connector is configured to extract, transform, and load the meter data to the at least one analytics platform; and

wherein the at least one analytics platform is configured to track computing resource usage and optimize the computing resource usage of the at least one container application platform in real time.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one collector comprises at least one first level specific collector operable for collecting data from the at least one container application platform and at least one second level general collector operable for transmitting the data from the at least one first level specific collector to the at least one meter.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one meter is operable to measure consumption of the at least one container application platform and create readings every 5 minutes in an internal datastore, and wherein the at least one meter is operable to aggregate the 5-minute readings and creates daily and/or monthly readings for the at least one container application platform.

16. A method for containerized Information Technology (IT) resource management, comprising:

providing at least one collector, at least one meter, at least one connector, and at least one analytics platform for at least one container application platform, wherein the at least one collector comprises an inventory collector container and a metrics collector container;

customizing the at least one collector with information comprising a unique name to be applied to a container cluster in a container environment, a domain name for a dedicated cluster in the container environment, a log level indicates a verbosity of a collector log, whether to use an Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), whether to verify the SSL, an age period of data for clean cache, a fallback value for Local Area Network (LAN) Input/Output (I/O) speed per node if the at least one collector cannot determine an actual LAN speed, a fallback value for Wide Area Network (WAN) I/O speed per node if the at least one collector cannot determine an actual WAN speed, a fallback value for disk I/O speed per node if the collector cannot determine the actual disk speed;

the inventory collector container retrieving a list of application containers for metering from the at least one container application platform;

the metrics collector container collecting sample data of computing resource usage by application containers not metered yet;

the at least one meter measuring consumption of the at least one container application platform based on the sample data, thereby creating meter data;

the at least one connector extracting, transforming, and loading the meter data to the at least one analytics platform; and

the at least one analytics platform tracking computing resource usage and optimizing the computing resource usage of the at least one container application platform based on the meter data in real time.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising storing a metered state of each application container in the list of application containers, and updating the metered state of each application container in the list of application containers.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising the inventory collector container updating the list of application containers when application containers are added or removed for consumption.

19. The method of claim 16 , further comprising the at least one analytics platform creating and delivering consumption reports for at least one of billing, cost recovery, and showback for the at least one container application platform.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the at least one meter comprises at least one meter application programing interface (API), and further comprising configuring the at least one meter API with information comprising an organization ID, an Open Authorization token, a host address, a port, whether to use an SSL for the at least one meter API, and whether to verify the SSL for the at least one meter API, wherein the organization ID is a unique ID of the meter platform to submit inventory under, wherein the Open Authorization token is for accessing the meter platform, wherein the host address is an address of the meter platform, wherein the port is a port of the at least one meter API, wherein whether to use an SSL for the at least one meter API indicates accessing the meter platform over the SSL or not, and wherein whether to verify the SSL for the at least one meter API indicates verifying an SSL certificate for the at least one meter API or not.