Vmware, Inc.

Ricky Trigalo

Daniel James Beveridge

Joerg Lew

Anil Kumar Sharma

Jivan Madtha

The current document is directed a resource-exchange system that facilitates resource exchange and sharing among computing facilities. The currently disclosed methods and systems employ efficient, distributed-search methods and subsystems within distributed computer systems that include large numbers of geographically distributed data centers to locate resource-provider computing facilities that match the resource needs of resource-consumer computing-facilities based on attribute values associated with the needed resources, the resource providers, and the resource consumers. Nested-hypervisor technology is employed, in disclosed implementations, to guarantee data security for, and prevent monitoring of operational states and characteristics of, resource-consumer virtual machines and virtual applications while they execute above leased computational resources in remote computing facilities. Nested-hypervisor technology is additionally employed to facilitate installation of resource-exchange system management components in participant computing facilities as well as to guarantee data and operational security for the management components.

Use of nested hypervisors by a resource-exchange system to enhance data and operational security and to facilitate component installation

The current document is directed to a resource-exchange system that facilitates resource exchange and sharing among computing facilities. The currently disclosed methods and systems employ efficient, distributed-search methods and subsystems within distributed computer systems that include large numbers of geographically distributed data centers to locate resource-provider computing facilities that match the resource needs of resource-consumer computing-facilities based on attribute values associated with the needed resources, the resource providers, and the resource consumers. The resource-exchange system organizes and tracks operations related to a resource exchange using a resource-exchange context. In one implementation, each resource-exchange context represents the stages of, and information related to, placement of one or more computational-resources-consuming entities on behalf of a resource consumer within a resource-provider computing facility and execution of the one or more computational-resources-consuming entities within the resource-provider computing facility.

Policy-based resource-exchange life-cycle in an automated resource-exchange system

The current document is directed a resource-exchange system that facilitates resource exchange and sharing among computing facilities. The currently disclosed methods and systems employ efficient, distributed-search methods and subsystems within distributed computer systems that include large numbers of geographically distributed data centers to locate resource-provider computing facilities that match the resource needs of resource-consumer computing-facilities based on attribute values associated with the needed resources, the resource providers, and the resource consumers. The resource-exchange system monitors and controls resource exchanges on behalf of participants in the resource-exchange system in order to optimize resource usage within participant data centers and computing facilities. By optimizing resource usage, the resource-exchange system drives participant data centers and computing facilities towards maximum operational efficiency.

Capacity optimization in an automated resource-exchange system

The current document is directed a resource-exchange system that facilitates resource exchange and sharing among computing facilities. The currently disclosed methods and systems employ efficient, distributed-search-based auction methods and subsystems within distributed computer systems that include large numbers of geographically distributed data centers to locate resource-provider computing facilities that match the resource needs of resource-consumer computing facilities. Multiple security methods and subsystems are employed to prevent unauthorized access to resource-exchange-system services, to secure resource-exchange-system-participant data from unauthorized access, and to prevent hosted virtual machines and other hosted computational entities from interfering with operation of native virtual machines and other native computational entities within hosting resource-provider computing facilities.

Secure automated resource-exchange system

The current document is directed a resource-exchange system that facilitates resource exchange and sharing among computing facilities. The currently disclosed methods and systems employ efficient, distributed-search methods and subsystems within distributed computer systems that include large numbers of geographically distributed data centers to locate resource-provider computing facilities that match the resource needs of resource-consumer computing-facilities based on attribute values associated with the needed resources, the resource providers, and the resource consumers. The resource-exchange system monitors and controls resource exchanges on behalf of participants in the resource-exchange system in order to optimize resource usage within participant data centers and computing facilities. The resource-exchange system automatically determines resource pricing on behalf of participant resource-provider computing facilities and subsequently recalibrates resource pricing on behalf of participant resource-provider computing facilities to steer hosting requests towards proportionate consumption of resources allocated by the resource-provider computing facilities to the resource-exchange system.

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Ricky Trigalo