Dissertation to obtain the Master's Degree in Computer Engineering with the title "Framework for the construction of 'business portals' for managing IaaS consumer requests in HP Cloud"

Summary

HP CloudSystem Matrix (CSM) is part of HP’s cloud computing software stack, which spans all major service layers: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). As the foundation of this stack—responsible for delivering IaaS—CSM is an inherently complex product because it interacts with every layer of the underlying infrastructure: compute resources (physical and virtual servers), storage systems (from local disks to enterprise storage arrays), and interconnection networks (Ethernet and Fibre Channel).

Despite the complexity of the real and virtual infrastructure it manages, CSM provides a conceptually simple workflow for delivering infrastructure to application consumers:

• Administrators define the infrastructure resources available for inclusion in the cloud offering.

• Architects design templates that represent suitable architectures for consumer needs (e.g., a 3‑tier architecture for an ERP solution).

• Consumers select the template that best matches their requirements and submit a request for infrastructure provisioning.

Interaction between these roles and CSM occurs primarily through portals. However, the consumer‑facing portal provided by the product is often perceived as overly technical, rigid (lacking customization options such as hiding technical details), and limited in terms of fine‑grained configuration (e.g., it allows adjusting CPU and memory but not selecting disk technologies such as SSD vs. FC, or 15K vs. 10K RPM drives).

The goal of this dissertation is to develop a framework that enables the creation of customizable, extensible portals that integrate with HP CloudSystem Matrix. These portals aim to provide consumers with an interaction model that is not only simpler but also more flexible and aligned with their specific needs.

This work explores cloud service and deployment models; virtualization technologies (servers, storage, and networks), which form the foundation of cloud computing; and the modules and APIs available for interoperability with CSM, including API‑MOE and API‑VMware. The proposed framework adopts a multilayer (N‑tier) architecture implemented using standard technologies: TCP/IP for communication, REST (Representational State Transfer) for client/server interaction, and XML and JSON as data exchange formats.

Keywords: Cloud Computing, Interaction Portal, Binary Translation, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization, Network Virtualization.