System and method for cloud provisioning and application deployment
Embodiments described herein provide systems and methods for installing or otherwise supporting applications in a cloud environment and systems and methods for provisioning a cloud environment. One embodiment includes abstracting a set of configuration information associated with a first environment into a set of environment independent attributes and a set of environment dependent attributes. A second environment may then be configured using the mapped environment independent attributes and the values for the set of environment dependent attributes. If the second environment is a cloud environment, embodiments described herein can include provisioning the cloud environment by mapping hardware and/or software characteristics of the first environment and/or user selected characteristics to abstractions of the characteristics and sending API calls to a cloud environment interface based on the abstractions of the characteristics to provision a selected target environment in the cloud environment.
1. A computer program product, the computer program product being tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and comprising instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause at least one computing device to implement:
a snapshot engine to capture hardware characteristics and software characteristics from a user-selected physical environment and to create abstractions from the hardware characteristics and the software characteristics, wherein the abstractions include classes of hardware and classes of software;
a provisioning engine to provision a cloud environment, wherein:
the provisioning engine interacts with an application programming interface (API) of the cloud environment using configuration information,
the configuration information includes the abstractions created by the snapshot engine and user changes to the abstractions through a user interface,
the provisioning engine maps the configuration information to calls to the API of the cloud environment, and
the provisioning engine is separate from a provider of the cloud environment and is separate from a runtime engine; and
the runtime engine to receive application configuration information and to deploy an application in the cloud environment using the application configuration information.
2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the provider of the cloud environment is selected from Amazon Web Services and VMWare.
3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the configuration information provisions a modified machine image for the cloud environment.
4. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the configuration information provisions a new machine image for the cloud environment.
5. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein once a machine image is established, any number of instances of the machine image may be invoked in the cloud environment.
6. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the provisioning engine further provides information to the runtime engine.
7. The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the information provided to the runtime engine by the provisioning engine is dynamic information.
8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the dynamic information is used for one or more of installing, updating, uninstalling, rolling back or otherwise changing an application in the cloud environment.
9. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the provisioning engine further provides information to components other than the runtime engine.
10. A computer-implemented method for provisioning a cloud environment including executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the method comprising:
capturing, by a snapshot engine, hardware characteristics and software characteristics from a user-selected physical environment;
creating, by the snapshot engine, abstractions from the hardware characteristics and the software characteristics, wherein the abstractions include classes of hardware and classes of software;
provisioning, by a provisioning engine, a cloud environment, the provisioning including:
interacting, by the provisioning engine, with an application programming interface (API) of the cloud environment using configuration information, wherein the configuration information includes the abstractions created by the snapshot engine and user changes to the abstractions through a user interface, and
mapping, by the provisioning engine, the configuration information to calls to the API of the cloud environment, wherein the provisioning engine is separate from a provider of the cloud environment and is separate from a runtime engine;
receiving, from the runtime engine, application configuration information; and
deploying, by the runtime engine, an application in the cloud environment using the application configuration information.
11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein the provider of the cloud environment is selected from Amazon Web Services and VMWare.
12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein the configuration information provisions a modified machine image for the cloud environment.
13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein the configuration information provisions a new machine image for the cloud environment.
14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein once a machine image is established, any number of instances of the machine image may be invoked in the cloud environment.
15. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , further comprising providing, by the provisioning engine, information to the runtime engine.
16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein the information provided to the runtime engine by the provisioning engine is dynamic information.
17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , wherein the dynamic information is used for one or more of installing, updating, uninstalling, rolling back or otherwise changing an application in the cloud environment.
18. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , further comprising providing, by the provisioning engine, information to components other than the runtime engine.
19. A system for provisioning a cloud environment, the system comprising:
at least one memory including instructions on a computing device; and
at least one processor on the computing device, wherein the processor is operably coupled to the at least one memory and is arranged and configured to execute the instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to implement:
a snapshot engine to capture hardware characteristics and software characteristics from a user-selected physical environment and to create abstractions from the hardware characteristics and the software characteristics, wherein the abstractions include classes of hardware and classes of software;
a provisioning engine to provision a cloud environment, wherein:
the provisioning engine interacts with an application programming interface (API) of a cloud environment using configuration information,
the configuration information includes the abstractions created by the snapshot engine and user changes to the abstractions through a user interface,
the provisioning engine maps the configuration information to calls to the API of the cloud environment, and
the provisioning engine is separate from a provider of the cloud environment and is separate from a runtime engine; and
the runtime engine to receive application configuration information and to deploy an application in the cloud environment using the application configuration information.
20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the provider of the cloud environment is selected from Amazon Web Services and VMWare.
21. The system of claim 19 , wherein the configuration information provisions a modified machine image for the cloud environment.
22. The system of claim 19 , wherein the configuration information provisions a new machine image for the cloud environment.
23. The system of claim 19 , wherein once a machine image is established, any number of instances of the machine image may be invoked in the cloud environment.
24. The system of claim 19 , wherein the provisioning engine further provides information to the runtime engine.
25. The system of claim 24 , wherein the information provided to the runtime engine by the provisioning engine is dynamic information.
26. The system of claim 25 , wherein the dynamic information is used for one or more of installing, updating, uninstalling, rolling back or otherwise changing an application in the cloud environment.
27. The system of claim 19 , wherein the provisioning engine further provides information to components other than the runtime engine.