On the Management of Cloud Non-Functional Properties: The Cloud Transparency Toolkit

The cloud computing paradigm supports a vision of IT where virtual resources are distributed as commodities on either a subscription or a pay-per-use price model, without the need for any upfront investment in hardware or software assets for its tenants (i.e., customers and service providers). Since these resources, as well as data and applications moved to the cloud, are no longer directly controlled by their owners under tenancy, there is an increasing need for new solutions that reduce the uncertainty of tenants about the status of their data and applications in the cloud. In this paper, we present the architecture of the Cloud Transparency Toolkit (CTT), whose goal is to provide a general purpose and interoperable approach that increases the transparency of the cloud, improving the effectiveness of non-functional property verification and management.