# US 12,120,194 B2 · Tags for automatic cloud resource provisioning

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- Number: US 12,120,194 B2
- Document ID: US12120194B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/943,349
- Filed: 2020-07-30
- Published: 2020-11-12
- Granted: 2024-10-15
- Earliest claimed: 2017-04-07
- Assignees: Accenture Global Solutions Limited
- Applicants: Accenture Global Solutions Limited
- Inventors: Catherine Ruth Gulsvig Wood; Billie John Criddle; Roberto Javier Torres Sovero; Hariharan Venkataramani; Sanjana Aggarwal
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12120194B2

## CPC

- H04L 67/561: Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
- G06F 3/04817: using icons (graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34)
- G06F 3/0638: {Organizing or formatting or addressing of data}
- G06F 8/60: Software deployment
- G06F 8/71: Version control (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57); Configuration management
- G06F 9/45558: {Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects}
- G06F 9/5077: {Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources (specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455)}
- G06F 11/3006: {where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50)}
- G06F 11/301: {where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems (virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077)}
- G06F 11/3055: {Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available (error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16)}
- G06F 11/328: {Computer systems status display (G06F11/327 takes precedence)}
- G06F 16/122: {using management policies (point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185)}
- G06F 16/24573: {using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata}
- G06F 16/5866: {using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information}
- G06F 16/81: Indexing, e.g. XML tags; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
- G06Q 10/10: Office automation; Time management
- H04L 41/0895: Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
- H04L 41/40: using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
- G06F 2009/45562: {Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances}
- G06F 2009/4557: {Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing}
- G06F 2009/45575: {Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances}
- H04L 67/10: in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46)
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

## Abstract

A dynamic tagging system facilitates the control, monitoring, and operation of technical components, such as virtual machines, in cloud environments. The dynamic tagging system performs an analysis on unstructured metadata tags linked to the technical components. The unstructured metadata tags may be created for technical components by authorized operators of the technical components, for instance. The dynamic tagging system may analyze an individual unstructured metadata tag or a combination of unstructured metadata tags assigned to a technical component to automatically trigger any pre-configured control, monitoring or operational actions for the technical component. As one example, the dynamic tagging system detects a trigger condition for an action trigger to perform automated electronic communications between any selected entities to convey information about the technical component.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system comprising:
a tag database, stored in a tangible storage medium, configured to store metadata tags comprising free-form notes descriptive of evaluation of an operating configuration of a virtual machine instantiated in a virtual hosting platform; and
a central computing resource controller for provisioning the operating configuration of the virtual machine, the central computing resource controller comprising:
communication circuitry including a processor operable to establish a data connection with the virtual hosting platform, a plurality of remote operators authorized to manage operation of the virtual machine, and the tag database; and
control circuitry including a processor configured to:
transmit, via a communication network, a user interface to a plurality of remote operator devices operated by the plurality of remote operators respectively for entry of a free-form note associated with the virtual machine;
receive, via the communication network, a plurality of free-form notes from the plurality of remote operator devices;
store the plurality of free-form notes as metadata tags to the tag database;
automatically generate classifications of the stored metadata tags among a plurality of classes based on processing the stored metadata tags using a semantic classifier comprising a natural language model based on a machine learning algorithm;
determine whether a number of the stored metadata tags belonging to a class among the plurality of classes exceeds a predetermined threshold; and
in response to the determined number of the stored metadata tags belonging to the class exceeding the predetermined threshold, automatically execute instructions for performing a control task corresponding to the class to modify a resource allocation or operation of the virtual machine via the virtual hosting platform.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, further comprising a policy repository, stored in memory, to store a correspondence between the plurality of classes and a plurality of control tasks.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the control task comprises at least one of decommissioning of the virtual machine after a specified period of time, placement of the virtual machine on a watch list for later review by another remote operator, or placement of the virtual machine in a resource group with restricted access.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, where the control circuitry is further configured to:
detect an input of a predefined symbol by the user interface while the free-form note is being input;
generate a menu containing data items as options selectable by the plurality of remote operators to include in the free-form note upon detecting the predefined symbol; and
provide the selectable data items to the menu at the user interface for user selection.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:
detect an input of a predefined symbol by the user interface while the free-form note is being input;
generate an action trigger upon detecting the predefined symbol at the user interface; and
automatically perform a pre-configured action corresponding to the action trigger.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The system of claim 5, where the pre-configured action comprises automatically sending an email derived from the metadata tags to an entity associated with the plurality of remote operators.

### Claim 7 (depends on 5)

The system of claim 5, where the predefined symbol is used as a preceding indicator of an identification of an entity associated with the plurality of remote operators and included in the metadata tags, and where the pre-configured action comprises automatically sending by the system an email derived from the metadata tags to the entity.

### Claim 8 (depends on 5)

The system of claim 5, where the predefined symbol is used as a preceding indicator of a hashtag included in a metadata tag, and where the metadata tag comprises the hashtag.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, where the control circuitry is further configured to extract a portion of the metadata tags and include the extracted portion into a service item.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9, where the tag database comprises:
a metadata tag database for storing the metadata tags; and
a service item database for storing the service item.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9, where the control circuitry is further configured to obtain a statistical property of the service item and communicate the statistical property to the user interface for display.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to automatically generate classifications of the metadata tags among the plurality of classes based on at least one other metadata tag being entered by another remote operator and targeting the same virtual machine in addition to the metadata tags.

### Claim 13

A method for tagging and controlling a virtual machine instantiated in a virtual hosting platform by a central computing resource controller, the method comprising:
providing a tag database, stored in a tangible storage medium, configured to store metadata tags comprising free-form notes descriptive of evaluation of an operating configuration of the virtual machine;
transmitting, via a communication network, a user interface to a plurality of remote operator devices operated by the plurality of remote operators respectively for entry of a free-form note associated with the virtual machine, the plurality of remote operators being authorized to manage operation of the virtual machine;
receiving, via the communication network, a plurality of free-form notes from the plurality of remote operator devices;
storing the plurality of free-form notes as metadata tags to the tag database;
automatically generating classifications of the stored metadata tags among a plurality of classes based on processing the stored metadata tags using a semantic classifier comprising a natural language model based on a machine learning algorithm; and
determining whether a number of the stored metadata tags belonging to a class among the plurality of classes exceeds a predetermined threshold; and
in response to the determined number of the stored metadata tags belonging to the class exceeding the predetermined threshold, automatically executing instructions for performing a control task corresponding to the class to modify a resource allocation or operation of the virtual machine via the virtual hosting platform.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein the control task comprises at least one of decommissioning of the virtual machine after a specified period of time, placement of the virtual machine on a watch list for later review by another remote operator, or placement of the virtual machine in a resource group with restricted access.

### Claim 15 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, further comprising:
detecting an input of a predefined symbol by the user interface while the free-form note is being input;
generating a menu containing data items as options selectable by the plurality of remote operators to include in the free-form note upon detecting the predefined symbol; and
providing the selectable data items to the menu at the user interface for user selection.

### Claim 16 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, further comprising:
detecting an input of a predefined symbol by the user interface while the free-form note is being input;
generating an action trigger upon detecting the predefined symbol at the user interface; and
automatically performing a pre-configured action corresponding to the action trigger.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, where the pre-configured action comprises automatically sending an email derived from the metadata tags to an entity associated with the plurality of remote operators.

### Claim 18 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, where the predefined symbol is used as a preceding indicator of a hashtag included in a metadata tag, and where the metadata tag comprises the hashtag.

### Claim 19 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein automatically generating the classifications of the metadata tags comprises automatically generating classifications of the metadata tags among the plurality of classes based on at least one other metadata tag being entered by another remote operator and targeting the same virtual machine in addition to the metadata tags.