[one-users] application integration (service publishing) in OpenNebula?

[Fabian Wenk]

Hello Lehel

On 11.12.2011 09:42, biro lehel wrote:
> Hello Fabian. First of all, thanks for your answer.

You're welcome.

> So, are you telling me, that there is no way for an
> application to exploit the advantages of OpenNebula? What is

Not directly, but through the setup with pre-installed VMs which 
could be started on an as needed basis. But in this VMs your 
"(cloud) application" needs to be installed and able to run.

The misunderstanding probably comes from the term "Cloud" which 
is used for at least two different types of clouds. One type of 
Cloud is to offer a platform to distribute VMs (virtual machines) 
of pre-installed systems on a cluster of hardware servers which 
are able to run concurrent VMs. This is was OpenNebula can 
provide. And the other type of Cloud is an application cloud, 
like eg. Google Apps [1], which does offer applications (eg. 
mail, calendar, docs) for a certain user group, but on a shared 
bigger platform. I do not know if there are any frameworks around 
to create such application clouds. As far as I know, they are all 
custom built depending on the needed services.

   [1] http://www.google.com/apps/

Unfortunately the term "Cloud" is such a hype nowadays, that it 
is used for a lot of stuff and those helping to confuse many. For 
example Apples iCloud [2] actually is just a centralized storage 
with some added features to be able to sync apps or pictures to 
your other iDevices. But this is probably mostly done by the 
client device, which needs to also connect to the iCloud and 
waits for new content in your account.

   [2] http://www.apple.com/icloud/

> the use of it then? :) Basically, all I want to do is the
> following: when I will have OpenNebula set up and running (on
> a small scale), I will try to experiment and exemplify its
> benefits, by the means of an application that uses the private
> cloud. Tests, performance benefits, see how the nodes
> communicate, etc. But I don't understand exactly how a web
> application (for instance) is made and written such that it
> can use OpenNebula, it can exploit the benefits of the running
> VM's, so that it can be more performant. How is this whole
> integration done? How can an application make use of
> OpenNebula? Couldn't it be "published" somehow, such that its
> final users (clients) could use it as a service (through
> OpenNebula), in a way that is totally transparent to them? I
> think what I'm referring to is exactly this "communication
> with the outside world" that you were writing about.

Does this application which you would like to offer to clients 
already exist, or is this something you are developing?

As far as I understand it, you would like to create something 
like Google Apps and then offer it to potential customers, right?


bye
Fabian