2015 Innovation in the Cloud Conference Sessions
Hyper: Make VMs Run like Containers with a Hypervisor-Agnostic Docker Engine
Speaker: Thibault Bronchain
Thibault is a Developer Ambassador at HyperHQ Inc. in Beijing City, China
InterSign: Using the OSv Unikernel for Security Analysis of JVM Languages
Java, and other JVM languages, are protected against malicious code in three ways: (a) by the compiler; (b) by the bytecode verifier and (c) by runtime safety mechanisms. Static analysis [1,2] has made significant progress against attacks against the verifier, but dynamic analysis is still inefficient and largely ineffective against novel malware ("0 days"). This talk describes InterSign, a project to perform dynamic verification using a custom JVM running in the OSv unikernel. While this is still a work-in-progress, the project is sufficiently advanced to catch some common attack vectors, such as integer overflows and inappropriate type conversions.
Speaker: Mark C. Reynolds
Mark is a Research Scientist in the Hariri Institute of Computing at Boston University.
Look Ma, no OS! An Introduction to Unikernels
Unikernels present the next iteration on application packaging, deployment, and runtime after Linux containers. With the majority of our work taking place in a virtualized environment the need to support a vast array of hardware, software, and users in a single (though highly specialized) operating system is waning. In addition, the costs, complexity, and stability associated with our existing Linux based production environments leave much to be desired.
This presentation will attempt to answer the following questions:
- What is a unikernel and what types are there?
- How is a unikernel architecture different than a traditional Linux one?
- What benefits does a unikernel architecture provide?
- How can unikernels help solve our current problems?
- What unikernel projects exist in the wild?
- What would a unikernel application architecture look like?
Speaker: Matt Bajor
Matt Bajor is an Infrastructure Automation Engineer at Rally Software in Boulder, CO. He works primarily on build and test automation for Rally's SaaS microservice architecture and primary SaaS product. When he is not working with Jenkins or Docker, he can be found either in the whitewater rivers of Colorado or perhaps enjoying some fine Belgian Quads in downtown Denver.
The Bare-Metal Hypervisor as a Platform for Innovation
For many tasks, the choice between a Type 1 (bare metal) or Type 2 (hosted) hypervisor is a matter of task-based performance or even personal taste.
However, there is a growing breed of solutions which specifically leverage the architecture of a bare metal hypervisor to address new concepts. These tasks range from embedded applications to new types of cloud-hosted software appliances. All leverage the lightweight nature and securability of a Type 1 hypervisor, and most are fostered by the Xen Project ecosystem.
We will review a number real efforts underway including:
- Xen Automotive: crafting an embedded automotive infotainment system
- Realtime virtualization: facilitating realtime processing
- ARM-based hypervisor: new applications, from servers to cell phones, on the ARM architecture
- Unikernel systems: creating highly-dense farms of ultra-small & secure cloud appliances
Speaker: Russell Pavlicek
Currently employed by Citrix as the Evangelist for Xen Project, Russell has spent two decades evangelizing Open Source. Since his introduction to Linux in 1995, he has relentlessly promoted the concept of Open Source to anyone who would listen.
He has over 150 pieces published, including columns for Infoworld and Processor magazines and one book. He has spoken at over 75 Open Source conferences, including most of the biggest Linux conferences in North America. A former panelist on The Linux Show weekly webcast, he also has many years of experience employing Open Source software in solutions for clients.
Xen and the Art of Graphics Virtualization
Talk about the multiple different ways of doing graphics virtualization (API forwarding, Direct pass-thru, full GPU Virt) and the advantages and disadvantages of each architecture. Then go into a more detailed discussion of the XenGT effort to do full GPU virtualization in the Xen environment.
Speaker: Don Dugger
Don is an Engineer in the Intel Open Source Technology Center involved in virtualization efforts with a concentration on enabling advanced hardware features in open source virtualization environments.
Xen and the Art of OpenStack Maintenance
Deploying OpenStack can be a tricky and time-consuming process. It requires the careful, systematic implementation of over a dozen services in an integrated manner, and can be exceptionally difficult to configure correctly. To quote Shark Tank, "There's got to be a better way!" Come see what SUSE has done to make deploying your Xen-based OpenStack cloud a much simpler, less time-consuming process. We will walk through the process, and deploy our own working cloud in just a few short minutes.
Speaker: Rick Ashford
Rick Ashford has been a Senior Systems Engineer at SUSE since 2008. He was worked across a wide technologies, but currently spends large quantities of time playing in the OpenStack sandbox. He currently lives in the Austin, TX area with his wife and four children. If he ever experiences the concept of "free time" again, he imagines he would like to spend more time with his guitars and in his woodshop.