The NIC Is the Hypervisor: Bare-Metal Guests in IaaS Clouds

Authors: 

Jeffrey C. Mogul, Jayaram Mudigonda, Jose Renato Santos, and Yoshio Turner, HP Labs

Abstract: 

Cloud computing does not inherently require the use of virtual machines, and some cloud customers prefer or even require “bare metal” systems, where no hypervisor separates the guest operating system from the CPU. Even for bare-metal nodes, the cloud provider must find a means to isolate the guest system from other cloud resources, and to manage the instantiation and removal of guests. We argue that an enhanced NIC, together with standard features of modern servers, can provide all of the functions for which a hypervisor would normally be required.

Open Access Media

USENIX is committed to Open Access to the research presented at our events. Papers and proceedings are freely available to everyone once the event begins. Any video, audio, and/or slides that are posted after the event are also free and open to everyone. Support USENIX and our commitment to Open Access.

BibTeX
@inproceedings {181907,
author = {Jeffrey C. Mogul and Jayaram Mudigonda and Jose Renato Santos and Yoshio Turner},
title = {The {NIC} Is the Hypervisor: {Bare-Metal} Guests in {IaaS} Clouds},
booktitle = {14th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems (HotOS XIV)},
year = {2013},
address = {Santa Ana Pueblo, NM},
url = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/hotos13/session/mogul},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = may,
}
Download
Mogul PDF