SYBL: An Extensible Language for Controlling Elasticity in Cloud Applications

Elasticity in cloud computing is a complex problem, regarding not only resource elasticity but also quality and cost elasticity, and most importantly, the relations among the three. Therefore, existing support for controlling elasticity in complex applications, focusing solely on resource scaling, is not adequate. In this paper we present SYBL - a novel language for controlling elasticity in cloud applications - and its runtime system. SYBL allows specifying in detail elasticity monitoring, constraints, and strategies at different levels of cloud applications, including the whole application, application component, and within application component code. Based on simple SYBL elasticity directives, our runtime system will perform complex elasticity controls for the client, by leveraging underlying cloud monitoring and resource management APIs. We also present a prototype implementation and experiments illustrating how SYBL can be used in real-world scenarios.