Continuous Availability for Cloud Based Applications

Towards business continuity for applications using clouds

The aim of this research is to develop mechanisms enabling software applications that were not originally developed for high availability in the cloud to provide its users continuous availability in the face of unavoidable and unpredictable outages. The focus is not on the availability on the provider side (big cloud providers already have reusults in this direction), but on the availability of the "middle tier" companies that use a combination of various clouds and in-house systems and provide software services to their own users (incl. other companies).

The Expected Contributions to Knowledge

• Novel design-time software architecture mechanisms (principles, templates, processes, etc.) for wrapping existing non-highly available software systems so that they can provide continuous availability and adapt seamlessly to diverse outages/faults/problems during run-time
• Application and evaluation of the above software architecture mechanisms
• Novel run-time adaptation mechanisms (algorithms, protocols, architectures, etc.) for configuration, fault, and performance (both reactive and proactive, both technical and business) management in multi-tier multi-organization hybrid cloud systems
• Prototypes and evaluation of the above configuration/fault/performance management adaptation mechanisms
• Exploratory extension of the above design-time software architecture and run-time configuration/fault/performance management adaptation mechanisms to other complex distributed software systems (particularly the ones yet to emerge as answers to the shortcomings of cloud computing)

Practical Application

This research continues and significantly extends the NICTA results built into Yuruware Switch. Yuruware Switch is a service that directly addresses concerns about random outages and associated downtime, loss of data, and loss of online presence in the public cloud. Its capabilities include replication of running systems and data, continuous synchronisation, real-time status monitoring, backup testing, failover switching and restoration. Read further information about Yuruware Switch at: http://www.yuruware.com/switch

Related Projects

• (Current) Adaptive Cloud Technologies
• (Past) Business Adaptation and Interoperation (e.g., the Business-IT Adaptation technology)

People

• Jorke Odolphi
• Graduate and undergraduate students

Activity

At the ATP Research Lab