Patent Issued for Application health monitoring and reporting (USPTO 11061755)

2021 AUG 03 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Cisco, Shane (Bloomington, IL, US), Craft, Thad G (Heyworth, IL, US), Dorn, Brandon (Bloomington, IL, US), Lay, Chris (Bloomington, IL, US), Skinner, Chad (Normal, IL, US), Steers, Cory (Bloomington, IL, US), Weston, Garrett (Bloomington, IL, US), filed on July 10, 2019, was published online on July 13, 2021, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11061755 is assigned to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Currently, a variety of tools are available that allow developers, administrators, etc. to examine specific data related to the availability or performance of an application implemented in a computing environment. In particular, developers of applications implemented in a computing environment or parties administrating a computing environment may utilize certain tools to analyze log files generated by applications, monitor web pages generated by applications, and identify errors or erratic behavior of applications.

“However, to assess the health of a variety of types of applications implemented across geographically or technically distinct portions of a computing environment, administrators or developers typically need to employ a number of dissimilar tools. Often, each of these dissimilar tools measures application health, such as availability and/or performance of an application, differently than other of the multiple tools, and each of these dissimilar tools presents indications of measured application health via an interface or output type unique to the respective tool. As such, generated indications of health for the variety of types of applications are not directly comparable, and administrators and developers are forced to familiarize themselves with many different metrics and interfaces.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may, inter alia, assess and present information about the health of a plurality of applications implemented across geographically and/or technically distinct portions of a computing environment. The present embodiments may automatically aggregate comparable health information for the plurality of applications and/or allow developers and/or administrators to efficiently view, filter, and search for relevant health information for a single application, multiple applications implemented in a particular portion of the computing environment, and/or all applications implemented across all portions of a computing environment.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method may include retrieving, via a computer network, data about the health of a plurality of applications executing in a computing environment, wherein at least some of the data about the health of the plurality of applications may be generated while at least some of the plurality of applications are performing respective functions in the computing environment. The computer-implemented method may also include determining, by a one or more processors, a plurality of indications of health based upon the data about the health of the plurality of applications, each of the plurality of indications of health may correspond to one of the plurality of applications, and each of the plurality of indications of health may indicate one of: (i) an availability of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications to perform the respective functions of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications, or (ii) a performance of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications in performing the respective functions of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications. Still further, the computer-implemented method may include determining, by the one or more processors, an indication of an overall health of a portion of the computing environment based upon the plurality of indications of health of the plurality of applications. The portion of the computing environment may implement two or more of the plurality of applications. The computer-implemented method may further include generating, by the one or more processors, a plurality of visual elements to be displayed on remote user devices. One of the plurality of visual elements may present the indication of the overall health of the portion of the computing environment, and other of the plurality of visual elements may present at least some of the plurality of indications of health of the plurality of applications. Still further, the computer-implemented method may include sending, via the computer network, the plurality of visual elements to at least one of the remote user devices. The computer-implemented method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer device may include one or more processors and one or more non-transitory memories coupled to the one or more processors. The one or more non-transitory memories may include computer executable instructions stored therein that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to receive, from one or more monitoring devices via a computer network, data about the health of a plurality of applications executing in a computing environment. At least some of the data about the health of the plurality of applications may be generated while the plurality of applications are performing respective functions in the computing environment. Further, the computer executable instructions may cause the one or more processors to determine, based upon the data about the health of the plurality of applications, a value of at least one standard health metric for each of the plurality of applications. The at least one standard health metric may be defined in the same manner for all of the plurality of applications, and the at least one standard health metric may be a measure of one of: (i) an availability to perform the respective functions in the computing environment, or (ii) a performance in performing the respective functions in the computing environment. The computer executable instructions may also cause the one or more processors to receive, from a remote user device, a request for a health report summarizing the health of one of one or more of the plurality of applications or a portion of the computing environment, generate the health report based upon the values of the at least one standard health metric for the plurality of applications, and/or send, via the computer network, the generated health report to the remote user device. The computer device may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“The figures depict a preferred embodiment of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method comprising: retrieving, via a computer network, data about the health of a plurality of applications executing in a computing environment, wherein at least some of the data about the health of the plurality of applications is generated while at least some of the plurality of applications are performing respective functions in the computing environment; determining, by one or more processors, a plurality of indications of health based upon the data about the health of the plurality of applications, each of the plurality of indications of health corresponding to one of the plurality of applications, at least one of the plurality of indications of health based upon data generated directly by a corresponding one of the plurality of applications, and each of the plurality of indications of health indicating one of: (i) an availability of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications to perform the respective functions of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications, or (ii) a performance of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications in performing the respective functions of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications; determining, by the one or more processors, an indication of an overall health of a portion of the computing environment based upon the plurality of indications of health of the plurality of applications, the portion of the computing environment implementing two or more of the plurality of applications; generating, by the one or more processors, a plurality of visual elements to be displayed on remote user devices, wherein one of the plurality of visual elements presents the indication of the overall health of the portion of the computing environment, and wherein other of the plurality of visual elements present at least some of the plurality of indications of health of the plurality of applications; and sending, via the computer network, the plurality of visual elements to at least one of the remote user devices.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the plurality of visual elements includes generating the plurality of visual elements such that each of the visual elements is selectable.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising: receiving, from one of the remote user devices via the computer network, a selection of a first visual element of the plurality of visual elements, wherein the first visual elements presents a first indication of health corresponding to a first application; generating, by the one or more processors, a second visual element different from the first visual element, the second visual element presenting a second indication of health corresponding to the first application, wherein the second indication of health is different than the first indication of health; and in response to the selection of the first visual element, sending, via the computer network, the second visual element to the one of the remote user devices.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the first indication of health indicates the availability or the performance of the first application over a first time period, wherein the second indication of health indicates the availability or the performance of the first application over a second time period, and wherein the second time period is longer than the first time period.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the first indication of health is a single numerical value representing the availability or the performance of the first application, and wherein the second indication of health includes multiple numerical values representing the availability or the performance of the first application.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the multiple numerical values represent at least two or more of a frequency of certain events, a count of certain events, a rate, or a throughput corresponding to the first application.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of visual elements presenting the indication of the overall health of the portion of the computing environment is expandable, upon a selection by a user of one of the remote user devices, to present details about the performance or the availability of subdivisions of the portion of the computing environment.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the performance of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications is a time taken by the corresponding one of the plurality of application to complete some or all of the corresponding functions of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the performance of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications is at least one of a frequency of certain events, a count of certain events, a rate, or a throughput measured while the corresponding one of the plurality of applications completes some or all of the corresponding functions of the corresponding one of the plurality of applications.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the computing environment is one of a plurality of data centers.

“11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the computing environment corresponds to one of a plurality of divisions of a company.

“12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the computing environment corresponds to one of a plurality of sections of the computing environment, each of the plurality of sections of the computing environment devoted to a stage of development of ones of the plurality of applications implemented in the section of the computing environment.

“13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from one of the remote user devices via the computer network, a request to filter the plurality of visual elements; determining, by the one or more processors, a subset of the plurality of visual elements based upon the request to filter the plurality of visual elements; and in response to the selection of the request to filter the plurality of visual elements, sending, via the computer network, the subset of the plurality of visual element to the one of the remote user devices.

“14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the request to filter the plurality of visual elements includes an identification of one of a plurality of data centers, and wherein the subset of the plurality of visual elements presents only ones of the plurality of indications of health corresponding to ones of the plurality of applications implemented at the one of the plurality of data centers.

“15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the request to filter the plurality of visual elements includes an identification of one of a plurality of data centers and one or more modular components of the one of the plurality of data centers, and wherein the subset of the plurality of visual elements presents only ones of the plurality of indications of health corresponding to ones of the plurality of applications implemented at the one of the plurality of data centers on the one or more modular components.

“16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from one of the remote user devices via the computer network, one or more search variables; matching, by the one or more processors, a subset of the plurality of visual elements to the one or more search variables; and in response to the received one or more search variables, sending, via the computer network, the subset of the plurality of visual element to the one of the remote user devices.

“17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the one or more search variables include one or more keywords, and wherein matching the subset of the plurality of visual elements to the one or more search variables includes: matching at least one of application identifications, server identifications, company division identifications, development stage identifications, or functionality identifications indicated in the one or more keywords with one or more of the plurality of applications or one or more portions of the computing environment, and identifying the subset of the plurality of visual elements that present ones of the plurality of indications of health corresponding to the one or more of the plurality of applications or the one or more portions of the computing environment.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

URL and more information on this patent, see: Cisco, Shane. Application health monitoring and reporting. U.S. Patent Number 11061755, filed July 10, 2019, and published online on July 13, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11061755.PN.&OS=PN/11061755RS=PN/11061755

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