LAVA: Lightweight Application Virtualization Architecture

ABSTRACT: Cloud computing is an attractive platform architecture for many IT applications, particularly because of its support for elastic scaling in response to changing loads. However, adoption of cloud computing is hampered by reduced computing efficiency, higher management cost, and greater vulnerability to attack, as compared with traditional dedicated servers. ATC-NY"s Lightweight Application Virtualization Architecture (LAVA) provides a much more efficient platform for deploying cloud applications while preserving the application isolation features of traditional cloud systems and shrinking the attack surface. LAVA operates by combining existing, mature operating system-level virtualization (OSLV) technologies with portable, cross-platform LLVM"bitcode"and flexible, secure inter-process communication (IPC) within and across cloud nodes. Developers use the LAVA Toolchain to create packages of LLVM bitcode that can run efficiently as processes on a wide range of hardware and operating systems. The LAVA Infrastructure virtualizes these packages while transparently configuring strong isolation and protected communications between them using OSLV. OSLV, in turn, relies on native OS mechanisms. The LAVA Management Web User Interface configures system-wide resource limits, and monitors and controls the individual LAVA nodes. BENEFIT: LAVA will enable the Air Force, and other customers, to deploy scalable cloud-based applications securely, efficiently, and with fine-grained management of resource consumption. LAVA provides superior performance and efficient use of computing resources by virtualizing at the process granularity rather than using less efficient virtual machines. Process-level virtualization, and inter-process communications that are customized to each LAVA node and host operating system enable strong security with reduced attack surface in this setting compared with conventional VM-based clouds. LAVA nodes run optimized native code for high performance; while just-in-time compilation from architecture-independent LLVM bitcode enables complete runtime flexibility. The LAVA Management system will conveniently control allocation of resources to missions, and thus prevent critical missions from being starved for resources. With these capabilities, LAVA tackles the key roadblocks to cloud deployment for mission-critical Air Force applications.