Internet-based Virtual Computing Environment: Beyond the data center as a computer

The two dominating characteristics of new and emerging Internet applications are ultra-large scales and utility. Centralized data centers alone are often inadequate for running such applications. In this paper we introduce the concept of an Internet-based Virtual Computing Environment (iVCE), which aims to provide Cloud services by a dynamic combination of data centers and other multi-scale computing resources on the Internet. We present a model that addresses two critical challenges in iVCE: multiscale resource aggregation and elastic binding. We then describe the design and implementation of our iVCE software platform that embodies the model. Comprehensive experiments show that iVCE provides a novel, promising way to deal with scalability and utility, thereby enabling economical and elastic Cloud Computing. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.