2010/02/25 by Graham Kirby, Alan Dearle, Kirby, Graham +5
Computer Science · #Advanced Data Storage Technologies #Cloud Computing and Resource Management #Distributed #Distributed and Parallel Computing Systems #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Parallel #and Cluster Computing (cs.DC)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1002.4738
openalex publication_date 2010/02/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We consider how underused computing resources within an enterprise may be harnessed to improve utilization and create an elastic computing infrastructure. Most current cloud provision involves a data center model, in which clusters of machines are dedicated to running cloud infrastructure software. We propose an additional model, the ad hoc cloud, in which infrastructure software is distributed over resources harvested from machines already in existence within an enterprise. In contrast to the data center cloud model, resource levels are not established a priori, nor are resources dedicated exclusively to the cloud while in use. A participating machine is not dedicated to the cloud, but has some other primary purpose such as running interactive processes for a particular user. We outline the major implementation challenges and one approach to tackling them.