Elements and composition of software-defined data centers

We have designed and implemented a software stack, "Kumoi" for accelerating cloud middleware research and development. Kumoi first treats cloud resources such as virtual machines (VMs), physical machines and networks as first-class objects. This provides a means for uniform access to various distributed resources while hiding details without compromising functionalities. A scripting environment for making these objects together greatly simplifies the building of a cloud system. Use of this environment should improve efficiency and flexibility in research and development.