Virtual Cloud Service System for Building Effective Inter-Cloud Applications

High-performance R&E networks and clouds enable the construction of a secure virtual cloud environment over their resources. However, it is not easy for general users to construct such an environment and build an application over the environment, as this would require each user to not only have knowledge about the target application, but also about the cloud APIs and resource optimization. This prompted us to propose a Virtual Cloud Service System (VCSS), which allows general academic users to construct an application-specific virtual cloud environment. The system consists of the Virtual Cloud Provider (VCP) middleware and Application Templates. The VCP provides users with a simple service interface and enables them to construct a virtual cloud. The Application Templates provide Jupyter Notebook-based procedure manuals and a management environment for a virtual cloud constructed by the VCP for typical research and educational applications such as a learning management system. The experimental results show that the VCP can provide a secure and high-performance virtual cloud environment over academic and public clouds and the R&E network between them.