SBIR Phase I: Investigating the Feasibility of a Real-time Cloud Computing Application Performance Management Tool

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to enable the global acceptance of cloud computing. Infrastructure outsourcing has become increasingly profitable and efficient for IT departments, but it has also birthed a new problem. Online application developers are left almost entirely unable to manage or even track the real-time performance of their applications as a user would experience it. Cloud computing is under particular scrutiny concerning its performance. The company has conceived a tool to give full visibility into outsourced infrastructure performance, considering performance from a user's perspective. The research objectives are threefold: 1. transition the analysis from offline methods into real-time, streaming methods, 2. automate and extend the basic diagnostic methods and 3. reduce the time taken to create a profile of normal server performance Research will involve experimentation, manual analysis of statistical assumptions, and field testing in a large network. New data structures and algorithms will be created to represent and track performance data. In the end, Altometrics anticipates having an analysis software that automatically identifies and diagnoses server performance issues in an outsourced infrastructure. If successfully deployed, this innovation has the potential to foster the widespread acceptance of cloud computing, making the Internet more capable and less expensive. For cloud computing in particular, lack of service assurance is one of the two big barriers keeping the cloud from widespread acceptance. This innovation has the potential to open the market and offer a distinctive edge for the company. The commercial opportunities in this emerging space are significant.