RG Solutions® fully supports the sharing of resources, even if the resources provide different functions or have different processing capabilities (platform or system). This means that it is possible to allocate heterogeneous costs to a group or client that originated the action.

There are two types of resource sharing: Intra System Sharing and Inter System Sharing. The Intra System Sharing is generally associated with traditional mainframe systems where there is more than one group or client using the same system. In this case, the native processing for the system is allocated to the client or group based on the amount of resources used.

For open systems, the Intra / Inter System Sharing present a problem in the attributed use of a resource. In a tiered architecture, the processing for a single user will most likely occur on more than one system. The processing on one system (i.e. web server) may also need the processing of another system (i.e. file server). It is also likely that in an open system more than one user or group will be using a single system. This means that to truly attribute heterogeneous resource use to a single instance requires a smart data link. This is accomplished using dynamic manifests.

Activity Based Costing

The main vehicle for sharing resources is Activity Based Costing. For intra sharing, the processing uses ABC techniques to initially allocate the processing to the appropriate workloads. When the first pass is complete, the processing will then begin an iterative ABC “folding” process that will move workloads into their corresponding final workloads. Once complete, the workloads contain the true resource usage allocations.

For the inter sharing, the system processing uses ABC techniques to determine shared allocations of a dependent resource as it relates to the calling system. This is done by using the dynamic manifest information as the gateway to the shared resource. As the activity on the calling system requires, the appropriate manifest is interrogated and the corresponding dependent usage allocations (and cost) are applied to the calling process.

Dynamic Manifests

The key to Inter System Sharing is the use of dynamic manifests. These manifests provide the “profile” information for the shared resource. Manifests are application and business centric, and can include both operational (i.e. sql query, ftp, e-mail, etc.) and functional (i.e. claim, ATM transaction, teller session, etc.) orientations.

Due to the nature of computer processing, manifests will be different based on time-of-day or day-of-week. The product not only understands this constraint, but also adjusts these profiles as processing evolves. The dynamic manifests are continuously updated to remain current for shared resource processing.

Workload Sensing

One of the key abilities of the product is to perform dynamic workload sensing. This type of processing is part of the data formation process and allows for the varied use of shared resources. The inter system sharing is controlled by dynamic manifests and the dynamic workload sensing ensures the proper allocation of shared resources.