Centralized rate limiters for services in cloud based computing environments

A computer-implemented method (CIM) for use with a computer system including a centralized rate limiting machine and a plurality of host machines that respectively host a plurality of interrelated SOA services, the method comprising:

• receiving, by the centralized rate limiting machine, over a computer network and from the plurality of host machines, a service oriented architecture (SOA) services interdependency data set that includes information indicative of:
• (i) identity of the plurality of interrelated SOA services, (ii) dependencies among and between the SOA services of the plurality of interrelated SOA services;
• and (iii) capacity information for each SOA service of the plurality of interrelated SOA services;
• determining, by the centralized rate limiting machine, a set of rate limit value(s) respectively for at least some of the SOA services of the plurality of interrelated SOA services based upon the service oriented architecture (SOA) services interdependency data set;
• sending, by the centralized rate limiting machine, over the computer network and to at least some of the plurality of host machines, the set of rate limiting value(s) corresponding to the SOA service hosted on the host machine;
• and
• operating the plurality of interrelated services by servicing user requests to top level SOA services in a manner that is governed by the set of rate limit value(s).

A computer-implemented method (CIM) for use with a computer system including a centralized rate limiting machine and a plurality of host machines that respectively host a plurality of interrelated SOA services, the method comprising:

• receiving, by the centralized rate limiting machine, over a computer network and from the plurality of host machines, a service oriented architecture (SOA) services interdependency data set that includes information indicative of:
• (i) identity of a plurality of interrelated SOA services, (ii) dependencies among and between the SOA services of the plurality of interrelated SOA services;
• (iii) identification of top level SOA services of the plurality of interrelated SOA services that may be directly called by clients, and (iv) capacity information for each SOA service of the plurality of interrelated SOA services;
• for each given top level SOA service of the plurality of SOA services and only for top level SOA services of the plurality of SOA services, determining, by the centralized rate limiting machine, a set of rate limit value(s) for the given top level SOA service based upon:
• (i) capacity information for the given top level SOA service, (ii) capacity information for any SOA services of the plurality of interrelated services upon which the given top level service directly depends, and (iii) capacity information for any SOA services of the plurality of interrelated services upon which the given top level service indirectly depends;
• sending, by the centralized rate limiting machine, over the computer network and each given host machine that hosts a given top level SOA service, the set of rate limiting value(s) corresponding to the given top level SOA service;
• and
• operating the plurality of interrelated services by servicing user requests to the top level SOA services in a manner that:
• (i) is governed by the set of rate limit value(s) for the top level SOA services, and (ii) does not apply rate limiting at the SOA services of the plurality of SOA services that are not top level SOA services.