Efficient image deployment in cloud environments

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method combining BitTorrent and local caching to reduce VM image transfer times in cloud environments, improving efficiency for large concurrent VM requests.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach that enhances VM image distribution using BitTorrent and local caching, addressing transfer overheads in cloud deployments.

Findings

Reduced VM image transfer times with the proposed method

Improved efficiency for large VM deployment requests

Effective use of BitTorrent and caching in cloud environments

Abstract

The biggest overhead for the instantiation of a virtual machine in a cloud infrastructure is the time spent in transferring the image of the virtual machine into the physical node that executes it. This overhead becomes larger for requests composed of several virtual machines to be started concurrently, and the illusion of flexibility and elasticity usually associated with the cloud computing model may vanish. This poses a problem for both the resource providers and the software developers, since tackling those overheads is not a trivial issue. In this work we implement and evaluate several improvements for virtual machine image distribution problem in a cloud infrastructure and propose a method based on BitTorrent and local caching of the virtual machine images that reduces the transfer time when large requests are made