Granted Patent B2

US 12,387,156 · App. 17/079,359 · Granted Aug 12, 2025

Inventors: Timothy A. Martin (Huntersville, NC); Myron L. Stewart (Harrisburg, NC)

Assignee: InfraSight Software Corporation

G06Q10/06315G06Q30/0283

Abstract

Claims (54)

1. A method comprising:

determining, using one or more processors, a user's demand for physical computing resources based on a consumption of a plurality of physical computing resources by the user's workload;

receiving a single usage value for the plurality of physical computing resources over a period of time, the single usage value being based at least in part on a utilization for each of the plurality of physical computing resources, each utilization based at least on one or more resource attributes of each respective physical computing resource of the plurality of physical computing resources;

receiving, via a network, a cost for the plurality of physical computing resources;

determining, using one or more processors, a normalized usage rate cost of the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time by normalizing the cost for the plurality of physical computing resources for a unit of the single usage value;

outputting, for display in a user interface configured for displaying resource usage for the plurality of physical computing resources, the normalized usage rate cost of the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time and the workload of the plurality of physical computing resources;

outputting, for display in the user interface, a comparison of the normalized usage rate cost to a price provided by one or more resource suppliers;

determining, using one or more processors, that a price of the one or more resource suppliers is less than the normalized usage rate cost;

responsive to determining that the price of the one or more resource suppliers is less than the normalized usage rate cost, automatically requesting, by an exchange in communication with the user interface, additional physical computing resources at the price from the one or more resource suppliers;

receiving confirmation of a contract entered into between the one or more resource suppliers and the user, the receipt of the confirmation being a triggering event;

automatically disabling use of at least a portion of the plurality of physical computing resources responsive to receiving the triggering event; and

utilizing the additional physical computing resources provided by the one more resource suppliers for the user's workload.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

comparing the normalized cost for a unit of the single usage value with a normalized cost index for a unit of the single usage value; and

calculating the normalized cost index for a unit of the single usage value based on a plurality of normalized costs for a unit of the single usage value for a plurality of computing environments.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising normalizing the normalized cost index for a unit of the single usage value by normalizing the plurality of normalized costs for a unit of the single usage value for the plurality of computing environments.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein normalizing the plurality of normalized costs for a unit of the single usage value for the plurality of computing environments modified is based on (i) a usage rate of respective computing environments of the plurality of computing environments or (ii) a total single usage value of respective computing environments of the plurality of computing environments.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising calculating the normalized cost index for a unit of the single usage value by normalizing the plurality of normalized costs for a unit of the single usage value for the plurality of computing environments modified based on a peak usage value of respective computing environments of the plurality of computing environments.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising calculating the normalized cost index for a unit of the single usage value based on a plurality of supply charge rates for a unit of the single usage value from a plurality of computing environment providers.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising calculating the normalized cost index for a unit of the single usage value by normalizing a plurality of supply charge rates from a plurality of computing environment providers based on respective maximum usage rate availability for a respective one or more computing systems.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing the normalized cost for a unit of the single usage value with one or more computing environment provider normalized supply charge rates from one or more computing environment providers.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a single usage value for the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time, wherein determining a single usage value for the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time comprises:

calculating, using the one or more processors, a utilization for each of the plurality of physical computing resources based at least on the one or more resource attributes of each respective physical computing resource of the plurality of physical computing resources;

generating, for each respective physical computing resource of the plurality of physical computing resources and based at least on a resource allocation and the resource compute portion of each respective physical computing resource, a conversion unit;

normalizing, for each respective physical computing resource of the plurality of physical computing resources and using at least a conversion unit associated with the respective physical computing resource, the utilization associated with the respective physical computing resource; and

summing normalized utilizations for each of the plurality of physical computing resources to generate the single usage value being representative of the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein determining a single usage value for the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time comprises:

calculating, using the one or more processors, a usage for each of the plurality of physical computing resources based at least on the one or more resource attributes of each respective physical computing resource of the plurality of physical computing resources over a plurality of sub-periods of the period of time;

normalizing the usage for each of the plurality of physical computing resources for a predetermined unit of the period of time;

generating, for each respective physical computing resource of the plurality of physical computing resources and based at least on a resource allocation and a resource compute portion of each respective physical computing resource, a conversion unit;

normalizing, for each respective physical computing resource of the plurality of physical computing resources and using at least a conversion unit associated with the respective physical computing resource, the usage associated with the respective physical computing resource; and

summing the normalized usages for each of the plurality of physical computing resources to generate the single usage value being representative of the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cost for the plurality of physical computing resources is either a total cost for the plurality of computing resources over the period of time or a cost per unit of time.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the normalized usage rate cost of the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time comprises:

calculating, using one or more processors, an average single unit usage rate for a predetermined unit of time over the period of time; and

normalizing the cost per unit of time for the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time for the average single unit usage rate of the single usage value.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the normalized usage rate cost of the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time comprises:

calculating, using one or more processors, a total cost for the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time based on the cost per unit of time; and

normalizing the total cost for the plurality of physical computing resources for a unit of the single usage value.

14. A method comprising:

receiving a single usage value for a plurality of physical computing resources of a user over a period of time, the single usage value being based at least in part on a utilization for each of the plurality of physical computing resources, each utilization based at least on one or more resource attributes of each respective physical computing resource of the plurality of physical computing resources;

receiving, via a network, a cost for the plurality of physical computing resources;

determining, using one or more processors, a normalized usage rate cost of the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time by normalizing the cost for the plurality of physical computing resources for a unit of the single usage value;

determining, using one or more processors, that the normalized usage rate cost of the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time is above a predetermined threshold;

outputting, for display in a user interface configured for displaying resource usage for the plurality of physical computing resources, the normalized usage rate cost of the plurality of physical computing resources over the period of time and an indication that a subset of the plurality of physical computing resources is idle;

determining, using one or more processors, a price for the subset of the plurality of physical computing resources;

outputting, for display in the user interface, a comparison of the price of the subset of the plurality of physical computing resources to a price provided by one or more resource suppliers;

determining, using one or more processors, that the price provided by the one or more resource suppliers is greater than the price of the subset of the plurality of physical computing resources;

responsive to determining that the price provided by the one or more resource suppliers is greater than the price of the subset of the plurality of physical computing resources, automatically selling, by an exchange in communication with the user interface, the subset of the plurality of physical computing resources at the price to the one or more resource suppliers; and

receiving confirmation of a contract entered into between the one or more resource suppliers and the user, the receipt of the confirmation being a triggering event;

automatically disabling for the user use of the subset of the plurality of physical computing resources responsive to receiving the triggering event; and

enabling access to the subset of the plurality of physical computing resources of the user to the one or more resource suppliers.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein responsive to receiving the triggering event automatically enabling access to the additional physical computing resources of the one or more resource suppliers to execute at least a portion of the user's workload.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the additional physical computing resources on the exchange is tokenized in the form of a smart contract that runs on a blockchain network.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (34)