Cloud Computing: Principles and Paradigms

Chapter 5. VIRTUAL MACHINES PROVISIONING AND MIGRATION SERVICES

MOHAMED EL-REFAEY

INTRODUCTION AND INSPIRATION

Cloud computing is an emerging research infrastructure that builds on the achievements of different research areas, such as service-oriented architecture (SOA), grid computing, and virtualization technology. It offers infrastructure as a service that is based on pay-as-you-use and on-demand computing models to the end users (exactly the same as a public utility service like electricity, water, gas, etc.). This service is referred to as Infrastructure as a Service (laaS). To provide this cloud computing service, the provisioning of the cloud infrastructure in data centers is a prerequisite. However, the provisioning for systems and applications on a large number of physical machines is traditionally a time-consuming process with low assurance on deployment's time and cost.

In this chapter, we shall focus on two core services that enable the users to get the best out of the IaaS model in public and private cloud setups. These services are named virtual machine provisioning and migration services. We will also cover their concepts, techniques, and research directions, along with an introductory overview about virtualization technology and its role as a fundamental component/block of the cloud computing architecture stack.

To make the concept clearer, consider this analogy for virtual machine provisioning, to know its value: Historically, when there is a need to install a new server ...