Lightweight Virtualization Cluster How to Overcome Cloud Vendor Lock-In

Nane Kratzke

doi:10.4236/jcc.2014.212001

Abstract

To overcome vendor lock-in obstacles in public cloud computing, the capability to define transferable cloud-based services is crucial but has not yet been solved satisfactorily. This is especially true for small and medium sized enterprises being typically not able to operate a vast staff of cloud service and IT experts. Actual state of the art cloud service design does not systematically deal with how to define, deploy and operate cross-platform capable cloud services. This is mainly due to inherent complexity of the field and differences in details between a plenty of existing public and private cloud infrastructures. One way to handle this complexity is to restrict cloud service design to a common subset of commodity features provided by existing public and private cloud infrastructures. Nevertheless these restrictions raise new service design questions and have to be answered in ongoing research in a pragmatic manner regarding the limited IT-operation capabilities of small and medium sized enterprises. By simplifying and harmonizing the use of cloud infrastructures using lightweight virtualization approaches, the transfer of cloud deployments between a variety of cloud service providers will become possible. This article will discuss several aspects like high availability, secure communication, elastic service design, transferability of services and formal descriptions of service deployments which have to be addressed and are investigated by our ongoing research.

Highlights

IntroductionCloud computing can be seen as a new IT service delivery paradigm often called a “programmable data center”
Cloud computing can be seen as a new IT service delivery paradigm often called a “programmable data center”How to cite this paper: Kratzke, N. (2014) Lightweight Virtualization Cluster How to Overcome Cloud Vendor Lock-In
To overcome subliminal generated vendor lock-ins, this paper proposes a concept called lightweight virtualization cluster (LVC) relying on operating system virtualization

Summary

Introduction

Cloud computing can be seen as a new IT service delivery paradigm often called a “programmable data center”. Vendor lock-in is defined to make a customer dependent on a vendor for products and services, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs This is exactly the actual state of the art of IaaS (infrastructure as a service) cloud computing. A lot of cloud computing services are commodity services, a switch from one service provider to another service provider is in most cases not as easy as buying coffee from a different supplier This is mainly due to inherent dependencies on underlying cloud infrastructures. These dependencies are often subliminal generated by cloud service provider’s specific (non-standardized) service APIs. To overcome subliminal generated vendor lock-ins, this paper proposes a concept called lightweight virtualization cluster (LVC) relying on operating system virtualization. The intent of this paper is to structure our research and foster discussions

How Vendor Lock-In Emerges Technically in Cloud Computing

Avoid Vendor Lock-In Using a Operating System Virtualization Approach

Requirements of a Lightweight Virtualization Cluster

Conclusions and Outlook