ENHANCED PROCESSING OF USER PROFILES USING DATA STRUCTURES SPECIALIZED FOR GRAPHICAL PROCESSING UNITS (GPUs)

Abstract

Disclosed are techniques for processing user profiles using data structures that are specialized for processing by a GPU. More particularly, the disclosed techniques relate to systems and methods for evaluating characteristics of user profiles to determine whether to offload certain user profiles to the GPU for processing or to process the user profiles locally by one or more central processing units (CPUs). Processing user profiles may include comparing the interest tags included in the user profiles with logic trees, for example, logic trees representing marketing campaigns, to identify user profiles that match the campaigns.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: accessing a set of user profiles stored at a user profile database, each user profile of the set of user profiles including one or more interest tags; determining, by a cloud-based application, whether one or more characteristics of a user profile satisfy an offloading condition that is a condition to transfer processing of the user profile from a CPU of a cloud-based server to a graphical processing unit (GPU); in response to determining that the offloading condition is not satisfied, evaluating, using the CPU of the cloud-based server, the one or more interest tags of the user profile against one or more campaign logic trees; in response to determining that the offloading condition is satisfied, offloading the user profile to the GPU and evaluating, by warps of threads of the GPU, the one or more interest tags of the user profile against operand values of a campaign operand value array and operator values of a campaign operator array of the one or more campaign logic trees; and storing one or more responsible tags that cause the user profile to satisfy a campaign logic tree in a GPU-specialized data structure and a CPU-oriented data structure.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the offloading condition comprises a threshold number of interest tags included in the user profile.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein when a threshold number of interest tags is above the threshold, the cloud-based application offloads the user profile to the GPU, and when the threshold number of interest tags is equal to or below the threshold, the cloud-based application evaluates the user profile against the one or more campaign logic trees using the CPU of the cloud-based server.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the CPU initiates segmentation of the set of user profiles into subsets, and the GPU evaluates the subsets of user profiles in parallel across the warps of threads of the GPU.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more responsible tags are stored in both the GPU-specialized data structure and the CPU-oriented data structure.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the operand values and the operators of the one or more campaign logic trees are stored in reverse-polish notation to simplify the evaluation of the one or more campaign logic trees.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the threads of the GPU of a warp evaluate the operand values of the campaign operand value array and the operator values of the campaign operator array in lock-step.

8. A system comprising: one or more data processors; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions which, when executed on the one or more data processors, cause the one or more data processors to perform a set of operations including: accessing a set of user profiles stored at a user profile database, each user profile of the set of user profiles including one or more interest tags; determining, by a cloud-based application, whether one or more characteristics of a user profile satisfy an offloading condition that is a condition to transfer processing of the user profile from a CPU of a cloud-based server to a graphical processing unit (GPU); in response to determining that the offloading condition is not satisfied, evaluating, using the CPU of the cloud-based server, the one or more interest tags of the user profile against one or more campaign logic trees; in response to determining that the offloading condition is satisfied, offloading the user profile to the GPU and evaluating, by warps of threads of the GPU, the one or more interest tags of the user profile against operand values of a campaign operand value array and operator values of a campaign operator array of the one or more campaign logic trees; and storing one or more responsible tags that cause the user profile to satisfy a campaign logic tree in a GPU-specialized data structure and a CPU-oriented data structure.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the offloading condition comprises a threshold number of interest tags included in the user profile.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein when a threshold number of interest tags is above the threshold, the cloud-based application offloads the user profile to the GPU, and when the threshold number of interest tags is equal to or below the threshold, the cloud-based application evaluates the user profile against the one or more campaign logic trees using the CPU of the cloud-based server.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the CPU initiates segmentation of the set of user profiles into subsets, and the GPU evaluates the subsets of user profiles in parallel across the warps of threads of the GPU.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more responsible tags are stored in both the GPU-specialized data structure and the CPU-oriented data structure.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the operand values and the operators of the one or more campaign logic trees are stored in reverse-polish notation to simplify the evaluation of the one or more campaign logic trees.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the threads of the GPU of a warp evaluate the operand values of the campaign operand value array and the operator values of the campaign operator array in lock-step.

15. A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions configured to cause one or more data processors to perform a set of operations comprising: accessing a set of user profiles stored at a user profile database, each user profile of the set of user profiles including one or more interest tags; determining, by a cloud-based application, whether one or more characteristics of a user profile satisfy an offloading condition that is a condition to transfer processing of the user profile from a CPU of a cloud-based server to a graphical processing unit (GPU); in response to determining that the offloading condition is not satisfied, evaluating, using the CPU of the cloud-based server, the one or more interest tags of the user profile against one or more campaign logic trees; in response to determining that the offloading condition is satisfied, offloading the user profile to the GPU and evaluating, by warps of threads of the GPU, the one or more interest tags of the user profile against operand values of a campaign operand value array and operator values of a campaign operator array of the one or more campaign logic trees; and storing one or more responsible tags that cause the user profile to satisfy a campaign logic tree in a GPU-specialized data structure and a CPU-oriented data structure.

16. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the offloading condition comprises a threshold number of interest tags included in the user profile.

17. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein when a threshold number of interest tags is above the threshold, the cloud-based application offloads the user profile to the GPU, and when the threshold number of interest tags is equal to or below the threshold, the cloud-based application evaluates the user profile against the one or more campaign logic trees using the CPU of the cloud-based server.

18. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the CPU initiates segmentation of the set of user profiles into subsets, and the GPU evaluates the subsets of user profiles in parallel across the warps of threads of the GPU.

19. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the one or more responsible tags are stored in both the GPU-specialized data structure and the CPU-oriented data structure.

20. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the operand values and the operators of the one or more campaign logic trees are stored in reverse-polish notation to simplify the evaluation of the one or more campaign logic trees.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] The specification makes reference to the following appended figures, in which use of like reference numerals in different figures is intended to illustrate like or analogous components.

[0031] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a network environment, in which a cloud-based application evaluates one or more characteristics of a user profile to determine whether or not to offload the user profile to a GPU for processing, according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0032] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process for offloading user profiles to a GPU for processing, according to some aspects.

[0033] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process for evaluating a set of user profiles against campaign logic trees, according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0034] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process for determining interest tags that are responsible for causing a campaign logic tree to be satisfied, according to some aspects of the present disclosure.

[0035] FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram illustrating a distributed system for implementing one of the embodiments.

[0036] FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram illustrating one or more components of a system environment.

[0037] FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary computer system, in which various embodiments of the present invention may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0038] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a network environment, in which a cloud-based application evaluates one or more characteristics of a user profile to determine whether or not to offload the user profile to a GPU for processing, according to some aspects. Network environment 100 may include cloud network 110. Could network 110 may be a cloud-based network that includes any number of cloud services, such as cloud service 130 (e.g., Oracle Data Cloud). Cloud service 130 may be a cloud-based application that enables users to perform functionality, for example, on user profiles stored in user profile database 150. As a non-limiting example, cloud services 130 may include business intelligence analytics, user profile querying, web analytics, and other suitable web analytics functionality.

[0039] Cloud service 130 may be configured to execute one or more functions using cloud-based server 140. Cloud-based server 140 may be a server that includes one or more local CPUs supporting the functionality of cloud service 130. In some implementations, cloud server 130 may be configured to offload the processing of certain computation tasks to GPU 160 for efficient parallel processing, instead of processing the computational task using cloud-based server 140. For example, cloud service 130 may be configured to provide the functionality of evaluating campaign logic trees to determine which user profiles satisfy the campaign logic trees. In this example, cloud-based server 140 may be configured to use the local CPU to execute the functionality of comparing user profiles to campaign logic trees.

[0040] In some implementations, cloud-based service 130 may evaluate one or more characteristics of a user profile stored in user profile database 150 to determine whether or not to offload the processing of the user profile to GPU 160. Non-limiting examples of the characteristics may include a number of interest tags included in the user profile, a user location indicated by information included in the user profile, or any suitable information included in the user profile or associated with the user profile. If the user profile satisfies an offloading condition (e.g., the number of interest tags included in the use profile exceeds a threshold number, such as 66), then the cloud service may offload the computational tasks involved with processing the user profile to GPU 160. The GPU 160 may perform a matching protocol as described herein (e.g., in the Summary above) and other steps also described above to process the user profile. Further, the cloud service 130 may pre-process the user profiles and the campaign logic trees database 170 also stored within cloud network 110 so as to store the user profiles and campaign logic trees in data structures specialized for GPU processing. If the user profile does not satisfy the offloading condition, then the cloud-based server 140 may perform one or more computational tasks involved with processing the user profile.

[0041] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example process. Process 200 may be performed, for example, by any of the components described herein, for example, cloud-based application 120, cloud service 130, cloud-based server 140, and/or GPU 160. Further, process 200 may be performed to enhance the computational efficiency of performing functionality supported by the cloud-based application 120.

[0042] Process 200 begins at block 210 where the cloud-based application 120 or the cloud service 130 evaluates one or more characteristics of a user profile to determine whether or not to offload the processing tasks associated with that user profile to a GPU. Non-limiting examples of the characteristics may include a number of interest tags included in the user profile, a user location indicated by information included in the user profile, or any suitable information included in the user profile or associated with the user profile.

[0043] At block 220, the cloud-based application 120, for example, may determine whether or not an offloading condition has been satisfied. The offloading condition may be a threshold associated with a characteristic of the user profile. For example, the offloading condition may be a threshold number of interest tags included in the user profile. If the threshold number of interest tags is exceeded, for example, then at block 240, the cloud-based application may offload processing of the user profile to the GPU. If the offloading condition is not satisfied, then at block 230, the cloud-based application 120 may execute the function for determining matches between campaigns and the user profile using the local CPUs of the cloud-based server 140. At block 240, when the cloud-based application has determined to offload the processing of the user profile to the GPU, the GPU may perform a matching protocol (and other related tasks) to process the user profile.

[0044] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process for evaluating a set of user profiles against campaign logic trees, according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Process 300 may be performed, for example, by any of the components described herein, for example, cloud-based application 120, cloud service 130, cloud-based server 140, and/or GPU 160. Further, process 300 may be performed to evaluate interest tags of user profiles against a campaign logic tree to identify which user profiles satisfy the logic of the campaign logic tree in a computationally efficient manner.

[0045] Process 300 begins at block 310 where cloud-based application 120 accesses or retrieves a set of user profiles. Each user profile can include any number of interest tags. The interest tags included in a user profile are determined based on interactions between the user and a website or a native application.

[0046] At block 320, cloud-based application 120 can pre-process the user profiles for consuming by a GPU. Pre-processing the user profiles may include generating a specialized data structure for storing the interest tags of the set of user profiles. The specialized data structure can be configured so that the threads of a warp of the GPU can access memory adjacent to the one user profile's interest tag. Thus, the pre-processing can include organizing the interest tags included in each user profile in an interleaved manner to facilitate the coalescing of read and write requests from the GPU processing cores.

[0047] Within block 320, cloud-based application 120 may also perform blocks 322, 324, and 326. At block 322, cloud-based application 120 can segment the set of user profiles into one or more subsets of user profiles. For example, the set of user profiles (e.g., a batch of 256 user profiles) are split up into subsets, such that each subset is of a size that matches the warp size (e.g., 32 user profiles in a subset of user profiles). At block 324, cloud-based application 120 can create at least two arrays for storing interest tags of user profiles in an arrangement that is consumable by a warp of the GPU. In some implementations, pre-processing the user profiles can include creating a first array, which is an array of all unique interest tags associated with the set of user profiles. The unique interest tags can be stored in a sorted order. For example, if there are N unique interest tags across the set of user profiles, then the first array includes [interest_id_1 interest_id_2 interest_id_3 . . . interest_id_N]. Additionally, pre-processing the user profiles can include creating a second array of interest tags that are interleaved over the set of user profiles. For example, if there are 32 user profiles in a subset of user profiles, then the second array may be a 2D array that includes

TABLE-US-00001 [interest_id_1_applies_to_consumer_1 interest_id_1_applies_to_consumer_2 . . . interest_id_1_applies_to_consumer_32 interest_id_2_applies_to_consumer_1 interest_id_2_applies_to_consumer_2 . . . interest_id_2_applies_to_consumer_32 . . . interest_id_N_applies_to_consumer_1 interest_id_N_applies_to_consumer_2 . . . interest_id_N_applies_to_consumer_32].

[0048] Organizing the specialized data structure storing interest tags of user profiles enables each GPU thread in the warp to iterate in lock-step through the interest tags stored in the user interest array (e.g., a first interest tag stored in the array through the last interest tag stored in the array). For each interest tag stored in the array, the GPU thread may determine whether the user profile (that corresponds to the GPU thread) includes that interest tag. If the user profile includes that interest tag, then the GPU thread may set a bit corresponding to that particular interest tag's slot in an array corresponding to the user profile (e.g., the user interests array) as true. Each GPU thread may access memory adjacent to the memory associated with the other user profiles, and as such, the read requests from the GPU are coalesced (e.g., if the GPU reads in one user's interest tag bit, the GPU will likely already be loading the other interest tags of the other user profiles in that GPU warp for that particular interest tag). At block 326, cloud-based application 120 can generate the specialized data structure using the first array and the second array. The specialized data structure can then store the various interest tags of the set of user profiles.

[0049] At block 330, the warp of the GPU can read from the specialized data structure to evaluate whether the interest tags of user profiles satisfy the logic of campaign logic trees. In some implementations, the evaluation at block 330 may be performed using a matching protocol, which can be executed by warp of the GPU. The matching protocol is described in greater detail with respect to FIG. 4.

[0050] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process for determining interest tags that are responsible for causing a campaign logic tree to be satisfied, according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Process 400 may be performed, for example, by any of the components described herein, for example, cloud-based application 120, cloud service 130, cloud-based server 140, and/or GPU 160. Further, process 400 may be performed to identify interest tags that are responsible (e.g., responsible tags) for causing a campaign logic tree to be satisfied as true, and to store the responsible tags in a GPU-specialized data structure and a CPU-oriented data structure.

[0051] Process 400 begins at block 410 where the GPU accesses a set of campaign logic trees. For example, the GPU can retrieve the set of campaign logic trees from a GPU-specialized data structure configured to store flattened versions of the campaign logic trees in a sequential order. At block 420, the GPU can also access a set of user profiles to evaluate against the campaign logic trees. For example, the GPU can retrieve the set of user profiles from another GPU-specialized data structure that is configured to store the interest tags of various user profiles.

[0052] At block 430, the GPU evaluates each campaign logic tree using the interest tags of a user profile to determine which interest tags are responsible for causing the user profile to match or satisfy the campaign logic tree as true. Block 430 can include blocks 432, 434, 436, and 438. At block 430, the set of threads of the GPU can be segmented into subsets of threads. For example, a subset of threads can correspond to a warp of the GPU, and thus, can include 32 threads. At block 434, the GPU can retrieve the campaign logic trees from the GPU-specialized data structure that is configured to store flattened versions of the campaign logic trees. For example, the GPU can load data from the campaign operand values array and the campaign operator array (as described above in the present disclosure) for each campaign logic tree. At block 436, the GPU can iteratively process the retrieved campaign logic trees using the interest tags of user profiles accessed at block 420. Lastly, at block 438, the GPU can determine which interest tags of a user profile cause the logic of campaign logic trees to be satisfied as true.

[0053] Blocks 436 and 438 may represent an example of a matching protocol that is performed by the GPU to evaluate the user profiles against the campaign logic trees to determine which user profiles match the campaign logic trees. As an illustrative example, the matching protocol may include the steps described below. Each thread of the warp can retrieve an interest tag from the second array (e.g., the user interest array as describe with respect to FIG. 3). For every interest tag, the thread can identify the operand values of various campaign logic trees that reference the interest tag (e.g., using the interest map array, which maps interest tags to offset operand values identifying the position of operands relating to each campaign logic tree). The thread can mark that operand as true by setting a bit in another array to 1 for example. Additionally, the thread can mark the campaign logic tree that references that operand as a possible match by setting a bit to 1 in yet another array. For every campaign logic tree marked as a possible match, the thread can evaluate the logic of the campaign logic tree to determine if the logic has been satisfied as true. If the logic has been satisfied, then the thread sets another bit in another array to indicate that the campaign logic tree has been satisfied.

[0054] For every campaign logic tree that has been satisfied as true, the thread can determine, for every operand in the campaign logic tree, whether that operand was responsible for satisfying the logic as true. For example, in a campaign logic tree with (OR cars (AND drinks food)) and a user profile that includes the interest tag of likes cars and another interest tag of likes drinks, but not food, then only the cars branch of the campaign logic tree would be responsible for satisfying the logic as true. Thus, the interest tag of likes cars would be responsible for satisfying the logic as true. If the operand is responsible for satisfying the logic as true, the thread can mark the operand as a responsible tag by setting a bit in yet another array and store the integer representing that interest (e.g., the integer representing cars in the example above) in an array of responsible interests for that campaign logic tree. Further, for example, if an operand targets cars, and a user profile is flagged for cars, pickup trucks, and sports cars, the thread can record all three operands as a responsible interest for that operand. Lastly, for every campaign logic tree that was evaluated to a true result, and for every operand value of the campaign logic tree, the thread can append the array of interests for that operand to a list of interests responsible for causing the campaign to evaluate as true.

[0055] FIG. 5 depicts a simplified diagram of a distributed system 500 for implementing one of the embodiments. In the illustrated embodiment, distributed system 500 includes one or more client computing devices 502, 504, 506, and 508, which are configured to execute and operate a client application such as a web browser, proprietary client (e.g., Oracle Forms), or the like over one or more network(s) 510. Server 512 may be communicatively coupled with remote client computing devices 502, 504, 506, and 508 via network 510.

[0056] In various embodiments, server 512 may be adapted to run one or more services or software applications provided by one or more of the components of the system. In some embodiments, these services may be offered as web-based or cloud services or under a Software as a Service (SaaS) model to the users of client computing devices 502, 504, 506, and/or 508. Users operating client computing devices 502, 504, 506, and/or 508 may in turn utilize one or more client applications to interact with server 512 to utilize the services provided by these components.

[0057] In the configuration depicted in the figure, the software components 518, 520 and 522 of system 500 are shown as being implemented on server 512. In other embodiments, one or more of the components of system 500 and/or the services provided by these components may also be implemented by one or more of the client computing devices 502, 504, 506, and/or 508. Users operating the client computing devices may then utilize one or more client applications to use the services provided by these components. These components may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or combinations thereof. It should be appreciated that various different system configurations are possible, which may be different from distributed system 500. The embodiment shown in the figure is thus one example of a distributed system for implementing an embodiment system and is not intended to be limiting.

[0058] Client computing devices 502, 504, 506, and/or 508 may be portable handheld devices (e.g., an iPhone, cellular telephone, an iPad, computing tablet, a personal digital assistant (PDA)) or wearable devices (e.g., a Google Glass head mounted display), running software such as Microsoft Windows Mobile, and/or a variety of mobile operating systems such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry 10, Palm OS, and the like, and being Internet, e-mail, short message service (SMS), Blackberry, or other communication protocol enabled. The client computing devices can be general purpose personal computers including, by way of example, personal computers and/or laptop computers running various versions of Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, and/or Linux operating systems. The client computing devices can be workstation computers running any of a variety of commercially-available UNIX or UNIX-like operating systems, including without limitation the variety of GNU/Linux operating systems, such as for example, Google Chrome OS. Alternatively, or in addition, client computing devices 502, 504, 506, and 508 may be any other electronic device, such as a thin-client computer, an Internet-enabled gaming system (e.g., a Microsoft Xbox gaming console with or without a Kinect gesture input device), and/or a personal messaging device, capable of communicating over network(s) 510.

[0059] Although exemplary distributed system 500 is shown with four client computing devices, any number of client computing devices may be supported. Other devices, such as devices with sensors, etc., may interact with server 512.

[0060] Network(s) 510 in distributed system 500 may be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the art that can support data communications using any of a variety of commercially-available protocols, including without limitation TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol), SNA (systems network architecture), IPX (Internet packet exchange), AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way of example, network(s) 510 can be a local area network (LAN), such as one based on Ethernet, Token-Ring and/or the like. Network(s) 510 can be a wide-area network and the Internet. It can include a virtual network, including without limitation a virtual private network (VPN), an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network (PSTN), an infra-red network, a wireless network (e.g., a network operating under any of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics (IEEE) 802.11 suite of protocols, Bluetooth, and/or any other wireless protocol); and/or any combination of these and/or other networks.

[0061] Server 512 may be composed of one or more general purpose computers, specialized server computers (including, by way of example, PC (personal computer) servers, UNIX servers, mid-range servers, mainframe computers, rack-mounted servers, etc.), server farms, server clusters, or any other appropriate arrangement and/or combination. In various embodiments, server 512 may be adapted to run one or more services or software applications described in the foregoing disclosure. For example, server 512 may correspond to a server for performing processing described above according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0062] Server 512 may run an operating system including any of those discussed above, as well as any commercially available server operating system. Server 512 may also run any of a variety of additional server applications and/or mid-tier applications, including HTTP (hypertext transport protocol) servers, FTP (file transfer protocol) servers, CGI (common gateway interface) servers, JAVA servers, database servers, and the like. Exemplary database servers include without limitation those commercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, IBM (International Business Machines), and the like.

[0063] In some implementations, server 512 may include one or more applications to analyze and consolidate data feeds and/or event updates received from users of client computing devices 502, 504, 506, and 508. As an example, data feeds and/or event updates may include, but are not limited to, Twitter feeds, Facebook updates or real-time updates received from one or more third party information sources and continuous data streams, which may include real-time events related to sensor data applications, financial tickers, network performance measuring tools (e.g., network monitoring and traffic management applications), clickstream analysis tools, automobile traffic monitoring, and the like. Server 512 may also include one or more applications to display the data feeds and/or real-time events via one or more display devices of client computing devices 502, 504, 506, and 508.

[0064] Distributed system 500 may also include one or more databases 514 and 516. Databases 514 and 516 may reside in a variety of locations. By way of example, one or more of databases 514 and 516 may reside on a non-transitory storage medium local to (and/or resident in) server 512. Alternatively, databases 514 and 516 may be remote from server 512 and in communication with server 512 via a network-based or dedicated connection. In one set of embodiments, databases 514 and 516 may reside in a storage-area network (SAN). Similarly, any necessary files for performing the functions attributed to server 512 may be stored locally on server 512 and/or remotely, as appropriate. In one set of embodiments, databases 514 and 516 may include relational databases, such as databases provided by Oracle, that are adapted to store, update, and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands.

[0065] FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram of one or more components of a system environment 600 by which services provided by one or more components of an embodiment system may be offered as cloud services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the illustrated embodiment, system environment 600 includes one or more client computing devices 604, 606, and 608 that may be used by users to interact with a cloud infrastructure system 602 that provides cloud services. The client computing devices may be configured to operate a client application such as a web browser, a proprietary client application (e.g., Oracle Forms), or some other application, which may be used by a user of the client computing device to interact with cloud infrastructure system 602 to use services provided by cloud infrastructure system 602.

[0066] It should be appreciated that cloud infrastructure system 602 depicted in the figure may have other components than those depicted. Further, the embodiment shown in the figure is only one example of a cloud infrastructure system that may incorporate an embodiment of the invention. In some other embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 602 may have more or fewer components than shown in the figure, may combine two or more components, or may have a different configuration or arrangement of components.

[0067] Client computing devices 604, 606, and 608 may be devices similar to those described above for 502, 504, 506, and 508.

[0068] Although exemplary system environment 600 is shown with three client computing devices, any number of client computing devices may be supported. Other devices such as devices with sensors, etc. may interact with cloud infrastructure system 602.

[0069] Network(s) 610 may facilitate communications and exchange of data between clients 604, 606, and 608 and cloud infrastructure system 602. Each network may be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the art that can support data communications using any of a variety of commercially-available protocols, including those described above for network(s) 510.

[0070] Cloud infrastructure system 602 may comprise one or more computers and/or servers that may include those described above for server 512.

[0071] In certain embodiments, services provided by the cloud infrastructure system may include a host of services that are made available to users of the cloud infrastructure system on demand, such as online data storage and backup solutions, Web-based e-mail services, hosted office suites and document collaboration services, database processing, managed technical support services, and the like. Services provided by the cloud infrastructure system can dynamically scale to meet the needs of its users. A specific instantiation of a service provided by cloud infrastructure system is referred to herein as a service instance. In general, any service made available to a user via a communication network, such as the Internet, from a cloud service provider's system is referred to as a cloud service. Typically, in a public cloud environment, servers and systems that make up the cloud service provider's system are different from the customer's own on-premises servers and systems. For example, a cloud service provider's system may host an application, and a user may, via a communication network such as the Internet, on demand, order and use the application.

[0072] In some examples, a service in a computer network cloud infrastructure may include protected computer network access to storage, a hosted database, a hosted web server, a software application executing on an application server, or other service provided by a cloud vendor to a user, or as otherwise known in the art. For example, a service can include password-protected access to remote storage on the cloud through the Internet. As another example, a service can include a web service-based hosted relational database and a script-language middleware engine for private use by a networked developer. As another example, a service can include access to an email software application hosted on a cloud vendor's web site.

[0073] In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 602 may include a suite of applications, middleware, and database service offerings that are delivered to a customer in a self-service, subscription-based, elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. An example of such a cloud infrastructure system is the Oracle Public Cloud provided by the present assignee.

[0074] In various embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 602 may be adapted to automatically provision, manage and track a customer's subscription to services offered by cloud infrastructure system 602. Cloud infrastructure system 602 may provide the cloud services via different deployment models. For example, services may be provided under a public cloud model in which cloud infrastructure system 602 is owned by an organization selling cloud services (e.g., owned by Oracle) and the services are made available to the general public or different industry enterprises. As another example, services may be provided under a private cloud model in which cloud infrastructure system 602 is operated solely for a single organization and may provide services for one or more entities within the organization. The cloud services may also be provided under a community cloud model in which cloud infrastructure system 602 and the services provided by cloud infrastructure system 602 are shared by several organizations in a related community. The cloud services may also be provided under a hybrid cloud model, which is a combination of two or more different models.

[0075] In some embodiments, the services provided by cloud infrastructure system 802 may include one or more services provided under Software as a Service (Saas) category, Platform as a Service (PaaS) category, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) category, or other categories of services including hybrid services. A customer, via a subscription order, may order one or more services provided by cloud infrastructure system 602. Cloud infrastructure system 602 then performs processing to provide the services in the customer's subscription order.

[0076] In some embodiments, the services provided by cloud infrastructure system 602 may include, without limitation, application services, platform services and infrastructure services. In some examples, application services may be provided by the cloud infrastructure system via a SaaS platform. The SaaS platform may be configured to provide cloud services that fall under the SaaS category. For example, the SaaS platform may provide capabilities to build and deliver a suite of on-demand applications on an integrated development and deployment platform. The SaaS platform may manage and control the underlying software and infrastructure for providing the SaaS services. By utilizing the services provided by the SaaS platform, customers can utilize applications executing on the cloud infrastructure system. Customers can acquire the application services without the need for customers to purchase separate licenses and support. Various different SaaS services may be provided. Examples include, without limitation, services that provide solutions for sales performance management, enterprise integration, and flexibility for large organizations.

[0077] In some embodiments, platform services may be provided by the cloud infrastructure system via a PaaS platform. The PaaS platform may be configured to provide cloud services that fall under the PaaS category. Examples of platform services may include without limitation services that enable organizations (such as Oracle) to consolidate existing applications on a shared, common architecture, as well as the ability to build new applications that leverage the shared services provided by the platform. The PaaS platform may manage and control the underlying software and infrastructure for providing the PaaS services. Customers can acquire the PaaS services provided by the cloud infrastructure system without the need for customers to purchase separate licenses and support. Examples of platform services include, without limitation, Oracle Java Cloud Service (JCS), Oracle Database Cloud Service (DBCS), and others.

[0078] By utilizing the services provided by the PaaS platform, customers can employ programming languages and tools supported by the cloud infrastructure system and also control the deployed services. In some embodiments, platform services provided by the cloud infrastructure system may include database cloud services, middleware cloud services (e.g., Oracle Fusion Middleware services), and Java cloud services. In one embodiment, database cloud services may support shared service deployment models that enable organizations to pool database resources and offer customers a Database as a Service in the form of a database cloud. Middleware cloud services may provide a platform for customers to develop and deploy various cloud applications, and Java cloud services may provide a platform for customers to deploy Java applications, in the cloud infrastructure system.

[0079] Various different infrastructure services may be provided by an IaaS platform in the cloud infrastructure system. The infrastructure services facilitate the management and control of the underlying computing resources, such as storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources for customers utilizing services provided by the SaaS platform and the PaaS platform.

[0080] In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 602 may also include infrastructure resources 630 for providing the resources used to provide various services to customers of the cloud infrastructure system. In one embodiment, infrastructure resources 630 may include pre-integrated and optimized combinations of hardware, such as servers, storage, and networking resources to execute the services provided by the PaaS platform and the SaaS platform.

[0081] In some embodiments, resources in cloud infrastructure system 602 may be shared by multiple users and dynamically re-allocated per demand. Additionally, resources may be allocated to users in different time zones. For example, cloud infrastructure system 630 may enable a first set of users in a first time zone to utilize resources of the cloud infrastructure system for a specified number of hours and then enable the re-allocation of the same resources to another set of users located in a different time zone, thereby maximizing the utilization of resources.

[0082] In certain embodiments, a number of internal shared services 632 may be provided that are shared by different components or modules of cloud infrastructure system 602 and by the services provided by cloud infrastructure system 602. These internal shared services may include, without limitation, a security and identity service, an integration service, an enterprise repository service, an enterprise manager service, a virus scanning and white list service, a high availability, backup and recovery service, service for enabling cloud support, an email service, a notification service, a file transfer service, and the like.

[0083] In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 602 may provide comprehensive management of cloud services (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services) in the cloud infrastructure system. In one embodiment, cloud management functionality may include capabilities for provisioning, managing and tracking a customer's subscription received by cloud infrastructure system 602, and the like.

[0084] In one embodiment, as depicted in the figure, cloud management functionality may be provided by one or more modules, such as an order management module 620, an order orchestration module 622, an order provisioning module 624, an order management and monitoring module 626, and an identity management module 628. These modules may include or be provided using one or more computers and/or servers, which may be general purpose computers, specialized server computers, server farms, server clusters, or any other appropriate arrangement and/or combination.

[0085] In exemplary operation 634, a customer using a client device, such as client device 604, 606 or 608, may interact with cloud infrastructure system 602 by requesting one or more services provided by cloud infrastructure system 602 and placing an order for a subscription for one or more services offered by cloud infrastructure system 602. In certain embodiments, the customer may access a cloud User Interface (UI), cloud UI 612, cloud UI 614 and/or cloud UI 616 and place a subscription order via these UIs. The order information received by cloud infrastructure system 602 in response to the customer placing an order may include information identifying the customer and one or more services offered by the cloud infrastructure system 602 that the customer intends to subscribe to.

[0086] After an order has been placed by the customer, the order information is received via the cloud UIs, 612, 614 and/or 616.

[0087] At operation 636, the order is stored in order database 618. Order database 618 can be one of several databases operated by cloud infrastructure system 618 and operated in conjunction with other system elements.

[0088] At operation 638, the order information is forwarded to an order management module 620. In some instances, order management module 620 may be configured to perform billing and accounting functions related to the order, such as verifying the order, and upon verification, booking the order.

[0089] At operation 640, information regarding the order is communicated to an order orchestration module 622. Order orchestration module 622 may utilize the order information to orchestrate the provisioning of services and resources for the order placed by the customer. In some instances, order orchestration module 622 may orchestrate the provisioning of resources to support the subscribed services using the services of order provisioning module 624.

[0090] In certain embodiments, order orchestration module 622 enables the management of processes associated with each order and applies logic to determine whether an order should proceed to provisioning. At operation 642, upon receiving an order for a new subscription, order orchestration module 622 sends a request to order provisioning module 624 to allocate resources and configure those resources needed to fulfill the subscription order. Order provisioning module 624 enables the allocation of resources for the services ordered by the customer. Order provisioning module 624 provides a level of abstraction between the cloud services provided by cloud infrastructure system 600 and the physical implementation layer that is used to provision the resources for providing the requested services. Order orchestration module 622 may thus be isolated from implementation details, such as whether or not services and resources are actually provisioned on the fly or pre-provisioned and only allocated/assigned upon request.

[0091] At operation 644, once the services and resources are provisioned, a notification of the provided service may be sent to customers on client devices 604, 606 and/or 608 by order provisioning module 624 of cloud infrastructure system 602.

[0092] At operation 646, the customer's subscription order may be managed and tracked by an order management and monitoring module 626. In some instances, order management and monitoring module 626 may be configured to collect usage statistics for the services in the subscription order, such as the amount of storage used, the amount data transferred, the number of users, and the amount of system up time and system down time.

[0093] In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 600 may include an identity management module 628. Identity management module 628 may be configured to provide identity services, such as access management and authorization services in cloud infrastructure system 600. In some embodiments, identity management module 628 may control information about customers who wish to utilize the services provided by cloud infrastructure system 602. Such information can include information that authenticates the identities of such customers and information that describes which actions those customers are authorized to perform relative to various system resources (e.g., files, directories, applications, communication ports, memory segments, etc.) Identity management module 628 may also include the management of descriptive information about each customer and about how and by whom that descriptive information can be accessed and modified.

[0094] FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary computer system 700, in which various embodiments of the present invention may be implemented. The system 700 may be used to implement any of the computer systems described above. As shown in the figure, computer system 700 includes a processing unit 704 that communicates with a number of peripheral subsystems via a bus subsystem 702. These peripheral subsystems may include a processing acceleration unit 706, an I/O subsystem 708, a storage subsystem 718 and a communications subsystem 724. Storage subsystem 718 includes tangible computer-readable storage media 722 and a system memory 710.

[0095] Bus subsystem 702 provides a mechanism for letting the various components and subsystems of computer system 700 communicate with each other as intended. Although bus subsystem 702 is shown schematically as a single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilize multiple buses. Bus subsystem 702 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. For example, such architectures may include an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which can be implemented as a Mezzanine bus manufactured to the IEEE P1386.1 standard.

[0096] Processing unit 704, which can be implemented as one or more integrated circuits (e.g., a conventional microprocessor or microcontroller), controls the operation of computer system 700. One or more processors may be included in processing unit 704. These processors may include single core or multicore processors. In certain embodiments, processing unit 704 may be implemented as one or more independent processing units 732 and/or 734 with single or multicore processors included in each processing unit. In other embodiments, processing unit 704 may also be implemented as a quad-core processing unit formed by integrating two dual-core processors into a single chip.

[0097] In various embodiments, processing unit 704 can execute a variety of programs in response to program code and can maintain multiple concurrently executing programs or processes. At any given time, some or all of the program code to be executed can be resident in processor(s) 704 and/or in storage subsystem 718. Through suitable programming, processor(s) 704 can provide various functionalities described above. Computer system 700 may additionally include a processing acceleration unit 706, which can include a digital signal processor (DSP), a special-purpose processor, and/or the like.

[0098] I/O subsystem 708 may include user interface input devices and user interface output devices. User interface input devices may include a keyboard, pointing devices such as a mouse or trackball, a touchpad or touch screen incorporated into a display, a scroll wheel, a click wheel, a dial, a button, a switch, a keypad, audio input devices with voice command recognition systems, microphones, and other types of input devices. User interface input devices may include, for example, motion sensing and/or gesture recognition devices such as the Microsoft Kinect motion sensor that enables users to control and interact with an input device, such as the Microsoft Xbox 360 game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands. User interface input devices may also include eye gesture recognition devices such as the Google Glass blink detector that detects eye activity (e.g., blinking while taking pictures and/or making a menu selection) from users and transforms the eye gestures as input into an input device (e.g., Google Glass). Additionally, user interface input devices may include voice recognition sensing devices that enable users to interact with voice recognition systems (e.g., Siri navigator), through voice commands.

[0099] User interface input devices may also include, without limitation, three dimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointing sticks, gamepads and graphic tablets, and audio/visual devices such as speakers, digital cameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams, image scanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode reader 3D scanners, 3D printers, laser rangefinders, and eye gaze tracking devices. Additionally, user interface input devices may include, for example, medical imaging input devices such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, position emission tomography, medical ultrasonography devices. User interface input devices may also include, for example, audio input devices such as MIDI keyboards, digital musical instruments and the like.

[0100] User interface output devices may include a display subsystem, indicator lights, or non-visual displays such as audio output devices, etc. The display subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), a flat-panel device, such as that using a liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma display, a projection device, a touch screen, and the like. In general, use of the term output device is intended to include all possible types of devices and mechanisms for outputting information from computer system 700 to a user or other computer. For example, user interface output devices may include, without limitation, a variety of display devices that visually convey text, graphics and audio/video information such as monitors, printers, speakers, headphones, automotive navigation systems, plotters, voice output devices, and modems.

[0101] Computer system 700 may comprise a storage subsystem 718 that comprises software elements, shown as being currently located within a system memory 710. System memory 710 may store program instructions that are loadable and executable on processing unit 704, as well as data generated during the execution of these programs.

[0102] Depending on the configuration and type of computer system 700, system memory 710 may be volatile (such as random access memory (RAM)) and/or non-volatile (such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.) The RAM typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated and executed by processing unit 704. In some implementations, system memory 710 may include multiple different types of memory, such as static random access memory (SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (DRAM). In some implementations, a basic input/output system (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer system 700, such as during start-up, may typically be stored in the ROM. By way of example, and not limitation, system memory 710 also illustrates application programs 712, which may include client applications, Web browsers, mid-tier applications, relational database management systems (RDBMS), etc., program data 714, and an operating system 716. By way of example, operating system 716 may include various versions of Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, and/or Linux operating systems, a variety of commercially-available UNIX or UNIX-like operating systems (including without limitation the variety of GNU/Linux operating systems, the Google Chrome OS, and the like) and/or mobile operating systems such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android OS, BlackBerry 10 OS, and Palm OS operating systems.

[0103] Storage subsystem 718 may also provide a tangible computer-readable storage medium for storing the basic programming and data constructs that provide the functionality of some embodiments. Software (programs, code modules, instructions) that when executed by a processor provide the functionality described above may be stored in storage subsystem 718. These software modules or instructions may be executed by processing unit 704. Storage subsystem 718 may also provide a repository for storing data used in accordance with the present invention.

[0104] Storage subsystem 700 may also include a computer-readable storage media reader 720 that can further be connected to computer-readable storage media 722. Together and, optionally, in combination with system memory 710, computer-readable storage media 722 may comprehensively represent remote, local, fixed, and/or removable storage devices plus storage media for temporarily and/or more permanently containing, storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer-readable information.

[0105] Computer-readable storage media 722 containing code, or portions of code, can also include any appropriate media known or used in the art, including storage media and communication media, such as but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmission of information. This can include tangible computer-readable storage media such as RAM, ROM, electronically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD), or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible computer readable media. This can also include nontangible computer-readable media, such as data signals, data transmissions, or any other medium which can be used to transmit the desired information and which can be accessed by computing system 700.

[0106] By way of example, computer-readable storage media 722 may include a hard disk drive that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk such as a CD ROM, DVD, and Blu-Ray disk, or other optical media. Computer-readable storage media 722 may include, but is not limited to, Zip drives, flash memory cards, universal serial bus (USB) flash drives, secure digital (SD) cards, DVD disks, digital video tape, and the like. Computer-readable storage media 722 may also include, solid-state drives (SSD) based on non-volatile memory such as flash-memory based SSDs, enterprise flash drives, solid state ROM, and the like, SSDs based on volatile memory such as solid state RAM, dynamic RAM, static RAM, DRAM-based SSDs, magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSDs, and hybrid SSDs that use a combination of DRAM and flash memory based SSDs. The disk drives and their associated computer-readable media may provide non-volatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data for computer system 700.

[0107] Communications subsystem 724 provides an interface to other computer systems and networks. Communications subsystem 724 serves as an interface for receiving data from and transmitting data to other systems from computer system 700. For example, communications subsystem 924 may enable computer system 700 to connect to one or more devices via the Internet. In some embodiments communications subsystem 724 can include radio frequency (RF) transceiver components for accessing wireless voice and/or data networks (e.g., using cellular telephone technology, advanced data network technology, such as 3G, 4G or EDGE (enhanced data rates for global evolution), WiFi (IEEE 1202.11 family standards, or other mobile communication technologies, or any combination thereof), global positioning system (GPS) receiver components, and/or other components. In some embodiments communications subsystem 724 can provide wired network connectivity (e.g., Ethernet) in addition to or instead of a wireless interface.

[0108] In some embodiments, communications subsystem 724 may also receive input communication in the form of structured and/or unstructured data feeds 726, event streams 728, event updates 730, and the like on behalf of one or more users who may use computer system 700.

[0109] By way of example, communications subsystem 724 may be configured to receive data feeds 726 in real-time from users of social networks and/or other communication services such as Twitter feeds, Facebook updates, web feeds such as Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, and/or real-time updates from one or more third party information sources.

[0110] Additionally, communications subsystem 724 may also be configured to receive data in the form of continuous data streams, which may include event streams 728 of real-time events and/or event updates 730, that may be continuous or unbounded in nature with no explicit end. Examples of applications that generate continuous data may include, for example, sensor data applications, financial tickers, network performance measuring tools (e.g. network monitoring and traffic management applications), clickstream analysis tools, automobile traffic monitoring, and the like.

[0111] Communications subsystem 724 may also be configured to output the structured and/or unstructured data feeds 726, event streams 728, event updates 730, and the like to one or more databases that may be in communication with one or more streaming data source computers coupled to computer system 700.

[0112] Computer system 700 can be one of various types, including a handheld portable device (e.g., an iPhone cellular phone, an iPad computing tablet, a PDA), a wearable device (e.g., a Google Glass head mounted display), a PC, a workstation, a mainframe, a kiosk, a server rack, or any other data processing system.

[0113] Due to the ever-changing nature of computers and networks, the description of computer system 700 depicted in the figure is intended only as a specific example. Many other configurations having more or fewer components than the system depicted in the figure are possible. For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, firmware, software (including applets), or a combination. Further, connection to other computing devices, such as network input/output devices, may be employed. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement the various embodiments.

[0114] In the foregoing specification, aspects of the invention are described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited thereto. Various features and aspects of the above-described invention may be used individually or jointly. Further, embodiments can be utilized in any number of environments and applications beyond those described herein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the specification. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.