Cloud Query Manager: Using Semantic Web Concepts to Avoid IaaS Cloud Lock-In

The cloud lock-in problem is commonly addressed by three strategies: (i) use of intermediate layer between cloud services consumers and providers, (ii) use of standardized interfaces to access cloud services, or (iii) use of models with open specifications. This paper evaluated these strategies and concluded that despite the advances they introduced, none of them actually solves the cloud lock-in problem. To address this issue, this paper proposes the use of Semantic Web concepts to avoid cloud lock-in. The strategy consists of using RDF models to specify the features of a cloud service, which are managed by SPARQL queries. The contribution of this paper is fourfold: (i) to evaluate three multi-cloud solutions for the cloud lock-in problem in the context of three cloud platforms, (ii) to propose a strategy using RDF and SPARQL for managing cloud resources, (iii) to present the Cloud Query Manager (CQM), an SPARQL server that implements the proposal, and (vi) to compare three multi-cloud solutions with CQM in terms of response time and the effectiveness in the resolution of the cloud lock-in problem.