An interoperable and self-adaptive approach for SLA-based service virtualization in heterogeneous Cloud environments

• Published in: Future generation computer systems Vol. 32; pp. 54 - 68
• Main Authors: Kertesz, A., Kecskemeti, G., Brandic, I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.03.2014
• Subjects: Cloud computing; On-demand deployment; Self-management; Service brokering; Service virtualization; SLA negotiation; Service virtualization; Self-management; Cloud computing; SLA negotiation; Service brokering; On-demand deployment
• ISSN: 0167-739X; 1872-7115
• DOI: 10.1016/j.future.2012.05.016

Cloud computing is a newly emerged computing infrastructure that builds on the latest achievements of diverse research areas, such as Grid computing, Service-oriented computing, business process management and virtualization. An important characteristic of Cloud-based services is the provision of non-functional guarantees in the form of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), such as guarantees on execution time or price. However, due to system malfunctions, changing workload conditions, hard- and software failures, established SLAs can be violated. In order to avoid costly SLA violations, flexible and adaptive SLA attainment strategies are needed. In this paper we present a self-manageable architecture for SLA-based service virtualization that provides a way to ease interoperable service executions in a diverse, heterogeneous, distributed and virtualized world of services. We demonstrate in this paper that the combination of negotiation, brokering and deployment using SLA-aware extensions and autonomic computing principles are required for achieving reliable and efficient service operation in distributed environments. ► Heterogeneous Cloud environments need business-oriented autonomic service executions. ► A novel approach called Service-level agreement-based Service Virtualization. ► Built on three areas: agreement negotiation, brokering and service deployment. ► Principles of autonomic computing are used to cope with failures in Clouds. ► Validated in a simulation environment using a biochemical application.