Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to improve cluster efficiency. An example apparatus includes a cluster manager to identify cluster resource details to execute a workload, a workload manager to parse the workload to identify services to be executed by cluster resources, and an optimization formula manager to identify service optimization formulas associated with respective ones of the identified services, and improve cluster resource efficiency by generating a cluster formula configuration to calculate cluster parameter values for the cluster resources.

Approaches presented herein enable intelligent service request classification and assignment learning. More specifically, a request comprising a free form text or spoken description is received from a user. The request description is parsed and classified by a regression-based classifier. The regression-based classifier classifies based on, for example: the description itself; the requestor's history of requests, and/or supplemental demographics about a requestor. Optionally, a user may verify the classification or select from a plurality of returned classifications. A service provider or administrator confirms that a classification is correct. If not, the incorrectly classified request is queued. If so, the correctly classified request is added to a set of training data to be used in classifying future requests.

A method performed by a network node for handling one or more upcoming requests for one or more services from a communication device in a communications network using a cloud infrastructure is provided. The network node obtains (301) a prediction of an amount of instances needed for the one or more upcoming requests for the one or more services, based on historical data of previous requests for services, and obtains (304) network connections needed for the one or more upcoming requests for the one or more services, taking the prediction into account. Furthermore, the network node decides (307) to instantiate a service with the obtained network connections and/or the amount of instances as predicted.

A transport network slice subset management entity is configured to provide an NSSMF of a TN, wherein the transport network slice subset management entity is configured to receive from or send messages to a network slice management entity and to provide configuration information to entities of a transport network. A method for interfacing with a transport network slice subset management entity, comprises the steps receiving, from a request originator, a message comprising a request relating to a network slice subset instance, updating a network slice database of a transport network, according to said request and configuring an entity of a transport network according to said request. A network slice management entity configured to provide an NSMF is configured to send messages to or receive messages from a transport network slice subset management entity.

A file is created in a standardized format that defines a type of a containerized application and includes information for deployment of the containerized application. A single parser of the standardized format is thus enabled to deploy different types of containerized applications. The standardized file format includes an application definition. The application definition includes a service, a port list, a container list, a volume mount list, an access mode list, a resource usage list, or any suitable combination thereof. A client device presents a user interface that allows a user to select a containerized application to execute. An application server parses an application template file for the selected containerized application and, based on the information in the application template file, causes one or more servers (e.g., one or more Kubernetes cluster nodes) to execute the containerized application.

This disclosure describes techniques that include adding information to a network service header in packets being processed by a set of compute nodes in a service chain. The information added to the network service header can be used during selection of the next hop in a service chain, and may be used to help ensure that service level agreements (SLA) are met with respect to one or more metrics. In one example, this disclosure describes a method that includes receiving, by a service complex having a plurality of service nodes, a packet associated with a service chain representing a series of services to be performed on the packet by one or more of the plurality of service nodes; identifying, by the service complex, one or more service chain constraints associated with the service chain; and modifying the packet, by the service complex, to include information about the service chain constraints.

A file is created in a standardized format that defines a type of a containerized application and includes information for deployment of the containerized application. A single parser of the standardized format is thus enabled to deploy different types of containerized applications. The standardized file format includes an application definition. The application definition includes a service, a port list, a container list, a volume mount list, an access mode list, a resource usage list, or any suitable combination thereof. A client device presents a user interface that allows a user to select a containerized application to execute. An application server parses an application template file for the selected containerized application and, based on the information in the application template file, causes one or more servers (e.g., one or more Kubernetes cluster nodes) to execute the containerized application.

In one embodiment, a resource allocation process determines a plurality of service levels of applications (e.g., business transactions) during a monitored period, and examines infrastructure performance data (utilization of a plurality of resources and a plurality of performance metrics) of a plurality of services in a microservices architecture in relation to each of the plurality of service levels of the applications. Accordingly, a resource capacity model can be generated for the microservices architecture based on the service dependency and the infrastructure performance data across the plurality of service levels, the resource capacity model defining a required capacity of resources to satisfy specified performance metric constraints during operation of the applications at given service levels. As such, the resource allocation process can effectuate, based on the resource capacity model, a specific capacity of resources required for a particular time of operation of the applications at a particular service level.

Systems and methods for ticket-based provisioning of cloud infrastructure from one or more cloud providers to build one or more computing workspaces of an enterprise. A provisioning platform provides a module catalog having one or more infrastructure-as-code (IAC) modules, each including code that is executable to provision cloud computing resources for the cloud infrastructure from the cloud providers to build the computing workspaces of the enterprise. A service catalog has one or more electronic entries mapped to and corresponding with the IAC modules of the module catalog. The service catalog receives one or more tickets that each specify at least one of the electronic entries in the service catalog, to bind each specified electronic entry with a corresponding IAC module, causing the provisioning platform to instantiate on the more cloud providers the computing resources for the cloud infrastructure corresponding to the ticket.

The present application describes a standardized application programming interface for network service devices. The application programming interface may be provided to network service devices of different manufacturers. Each network service device may, upon an initial boot sequence, perform a self-discovery process and gather information in a standardized format required by the application programming interface. The standardized information may then be made available to a network service provider and to other network service devices on the network.