Cloud computing is the use of computing resources (e.g., hardware, software, storage, computing power, etc.) which are available from a remote location and accessible over a network, such as the Internet. Cloud computing environments deliver the computing resources as a service rather than as a product, whereby shared computing resources are provided to user devices (e.g., computers, smart phones, etc.). Users may buy these computing resources and use the computing resources on an on-demand basis. Cloud computing environments provide services that do not require end-user knowledge of a physical location and configuration of a system that delivers the services.
The computing resources may include virtual machines (VMs) that provide software implementations of a machine and execute programs like a physical machine. The VMs may provide cloud computing services to the users. A user may create one or more VMs in the cloud computing environment. The user may also delete one or more VMs in the cloud computing environment.
A cloud computing environment may include a first set of computing resources (e.g., storage devices, servers, switches, hypervisors, etc.) that provide services for managing the cloud computing environment. Computing resources providing such management services may be referred to as management plane resources. The cloud computing environment may include a second set of computing resources, separate from the first set of computing resources, which provide user services (e.g., providing virtualized storage, executing VMs, etc.) for the cloud computing environment. Computing resources providing such user services may be referred to as user plane resources. The management plane resources may require a higher quality of service (QoS) (e.g., a bit rate, a delay, jitter, a packet dropping probability, a bit error rate, etc.) than the user plane resources since the management services may need to be safeguarded more than the user services. Such an arrangement may be inefficient since computing resources may be added to the management plane resources even when computing resources are available in the user plane resources.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds