FAST PROVISIONING VIRTUALIZATION NETWORK SERVICE FOR CLOUD COMPUTING
A cloud-based system and method for provisioning IT infrastructure systems is disclosed. The system and method provided constructs an infrastructure generally comprised of a processing component supplying the computational capacity for a platform element, comprising one or more processing elements, memory and I/O subsystems, a storage component utilizing commodity disk drives and comprised of one or more physical storage devices, and a network component providing a high speed connection among processing elements and the processing component to storage components. In addition, the system and method provide all features required for a complete, immediately usable infrastructure system including registration of IP addresses and domain names so that the user may have the system completely up and running without the aid of an administrator.
1 . A cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform, comprising:
a physical layer component supplying the computational capacity for a platform element, comprising one or more processing elements, memory and I/O subsystems and high speed network devices;
a virtualization layer component comprising a system virtualization element, a storage virtualization element, and a network virtualization element; and
a service container level comprising a collection of one or more virtual appliances containing applications and services and a communication fabric accessing services.
2 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 1 where the processing elements in the physical layer are pooled to increase the capacity of the resources being virtualized.
3 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform system, comprising one or more of the units in claim 1 , interconnected via the internet.
4 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 1 where the processing elements used by the one or more virtual appliances are pooled.
5 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 1 wherein the physical layer further comprises at least one storage, the storage used by the one or more virtual appliances is clustered.
6 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 1 wherein the network devices are teamed.
7 . The cloud-based system of claim 1 with an intelligent DNS system operatively configured to (i) minimize the network distance between a client and a cloudbank resident resource and (ii) to avoid giving a client the address of a “dead” resource.
8 . The cloud-based system of claim 5 with an intelligent DNS system operatively configured to (i) minimize the network distance between a client and a cloudbank resident resource and (ii) to avoid giving a client the address of a “dead” resource.
9 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform system, comprising one or more of the units in claim 1 , interconnected via an intranet using standard networking protocols.
10 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 1 wherein the processing elements used by the one or more virtual appliances of the service container layer are pooled.
11 . The cloud-based system of claim 1 further comprising:
a cloudbank that includes a cloudbank resident resource; and
an intelligent DNS system operatively configured to (i) minimize the network distance between a client and the cloudbank resident resource and (ii) avoid provide the client the address of a “dead” resource.
12 . A cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform, comprising:
a physical layer component further comprising
one or more processing elements;
a memory;
an I/O subsystems; and
a high speed network device, the physical layer providing computational capacity for the hardware platform;
a virtualization layer component operatively coupled to the physical layer component, and further comprising:
a system virtualization element;
a storage virtualization element; and
a network virtualization element; and
a service container level operatively connected to the virtualization layer, the service container level comprising a plurality of virtual appliances containing applications and services, the service container level further comprising a communication fabric coupled to at least some of the virtual appliances, the communication fabric enabling access to the services provided in the service container level.
13 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 12 wherein the virtualization layer includes instruction sets for a plurality of operating systems so that the virtual appliances of the service container layer can be formed in the service container level for the plurality of operating systems.
14 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 12 wherein the physical layer includes a plurality of cloudlets representing a unit of capacity in the hardware platform.
15 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 14 wherein the cloudlets include a portion of shared storage in the physical layer.
16 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 14 wherein the cloudlets include a portion of pooled processing in the physical layer.
17 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 14 wherein the cloudlets include a portion of a load balancer associated with the physical layer.
18 . The cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 14 wherein the cloudlets include a portion of a firewall and a router associated with the physical layer.
19 . The cloud-infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform of claim 14 further comprising:
a cloudbank that includes a plurality of cloudlets, the cloudbank including an intelligent DNS system operatively configured to (i) minimize the network distance between a client and the cloudbank resident resource and (ii) avoid provide the client the address of a “dead” resource.