Inter-cloud mobility of virtual machines

Abstract

Cloud computing is increasingly gaining inroads among a variety of organizational users. As clouds are introduced for use by enterprises, service providers, and governmental and educational entities, new challenges related to the interconnection between such clouds emerge. Cloud administrators seek to maintain acceptable levels of autonomy and control over their cloud infrastructure, while ensuring the integrity of the cloud services. At the same time, they are expected to enable cross-cloud services, including mobility of workloads between clouds. We present the design and implementation of a technology that enables live mobility of virtual machines between clouds, while enforcing the cloud insularity requirements of autonomy, privacy, and security. We also provide an empirical evaluation of our solution, demonstrating its viability and compliance with requirements. Copyright 2011 ACM.