Intermediary Manager for Virtual Data Center Guest Services
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cloud services pose challenges such as increased security risks and inconsistent performance for clients using virtual data centers, requiring solutions that minimize these disadvantages while maintaining low implementation costs and effort.
Innovation Solution
An intermediary manager operates within a virtual machine, managing guest operating systems and providing services like data encryption, antivirus monitoring, and data throttling, which enhance guest utilization of virtual data center resources by intercepting hypercalls and providing access to remote management systems, allowing incompatible guest operating systems to run on various hypervisors without additional configuration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If cloud services are used for virtual data centers, then scalability and reduced costs are improved, but security risks and performance consistency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary manager that operates between the guest operating system and the hypervisor. This intermediary layer provides security services (antivirus monitoring, data encryption, data throttling) and performance management without requiring changes to the guest OS or hypervisor, thus maintaining scalability while improving security and performance consistency
2Ease of operation
If cloud services are used for virtual data centers, then administrative burden is reduced, but security risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The intermediary manager acts as a security intermediary that automatically provides antivirus monitoring, data encryption, and data throttling services. These security measures are implemented without requiring additional administrative configuration by the client, thus maintaining ease of operation while reducing security risks
Solution Approach 2:
The intermediary manager enables the virtual machine to self-protect by implementing security services internally. The system automatically monitors and protects data without requiring external administrative intervention, reducing administrative burden while enhancing security
3Adaptability or versatility
If guest operating systems are made compatible with various hypervisors, then versatility is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The intermediary manager serves as a compatibility layer between guest operating systems and different hypervisors. It intercepts hypercalls from the guest OS and translates them appropriately for different hypervisor environments, enabling universal compatibility without requiring complex modifications to the guest OS or multiple hypervisor implementations
Solution Approach 2:
The intermediary manager provides universal compatibility functionality that works across different hypervisor platforms. By implementing a single intermediary layer that can adapt to various hypervisors, the system achieves multi-hypervisor compatibility without increasing overall system complexity
Data Source
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AI summary
One or more services for enhancing guest utilization of a virtual machine and other VDC resources may be provided at the intermediary manager. In an embodiment, the intermediary manager intercepts a hypercall from a guest operating system that is separate from the intermediary manager. The intermediary manager determines that a particular intermediary service is associated with the hypercall and causes execution of service instructions associated with the particular intermediary service. The intermediary manager and guest operating systems may operate within a virtual machine hosted by a host machine and managed by a hypervisor. Embodiments may be useful in any of a virtualized enterprise computer system; a virtual machine infrastructure in a private data center; computing, storage or networking resources in a private cloud; computing, storage or networking resources of cloud service provider; and a hybrid cloud computing environment.