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The Open Data Center Alliance Input/Output Controls is a short document that references one of the big problems raised by increased virtual machine density in a cloud environment: I/O contention.
The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) uses the Input/Output Controls (I/O) usage model to weigh in on the side of work being done my NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and the DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force) when it comes to I/O bottlenecks. To control for I/O bottlenecks, the I/O Controls publication focuses on monitoring, SLA metrics, APIs, timeslice controls, and I/O reservations. The fundamental expectation of the I/O Control publication is that all of these requirements could be met in multi-vendor environments using non-proprietary protocols.
IT managers should look at the underlying monitoring and reporting capabilities as a basis for setting appropriate SLAs. When combined with information from the Service Catalog, the two publications together give a good overview of what cloud computing is capable of delivering today.
As I conclude this series of blog entries, it’s important to remember that these are the first versions of the ODCA usage models. I recommend that IT managers should look through all of the publications and see where the specific measures and requirements can be added to vendor requests. I think the ODCA is on the right track in coming together to promote ways to make it easier for cloud consumers to make better choices among the vendors who offer cloud services.
Table of Contents for the Series:
1. IT Users Band Together: a brief introduction to the ODCA 2. Virtual Machine Interoperability 3. Carbon Footprint 4. Security Monitoring 5. Security Provider Assurance 6. Regulatory Framework 7. Standard Units of Measure for IaaS 8. Service Catalog 9. I/O Controls