Controlling Xen Cloud platform via smart phones

Abstract

This paper proposes the XCP Mobile Manager (iXMM): a new framework for remote management of Xen Cloud Platform (XCP) via mobile smart phones as an example of wearable computing. Mobile smart phones provide an opportunity to easily manage cloud virtualization, creating new forms of interactions. iXMM enhances both the portability and the usability of XCP management over the existing management tools. New forms of interactions, such as touch interfaces, are expected to emerge. For example, system administrators can control XCP remotely using smart phones with minimum Internet connection (i.e. 2G mobile internet connection). The implementation installs iXMM client as a native mobile application (currently iOS application) and allows access to iXMM through mobile web browsers. The evaluation shows that iXMM is very efficient in terms of the required computational resources including processing, memory, and Internet connection bandwidth; this makes it suitable for mobile computing environments. Even though full functionalities have not been implemented, iXMM provides an opportunity to complete similar tasks using smart phones, a trend which is expected to benefit aged population with minimal mobility.