On Resilience in Cloud Computing

Abstract

Cloud infrastructures are highly favoured as a computing delivery model worldwide, creating a strong societal dependence. It is therefore vital to enhance their resilience, providing persistent service delivery under a variety of conditions. Cloud environments are highly complex and continuously evolving. Additionally, the plethora of use-cases ensures requirements for persistent service delivery vary. As a contribution to knowledge, this work surveys resilience techniques for cloud environments. We apply a novel perspective using a layered model of traditional and emerging cloud paradigms. Works are then classified according to the Resilinets model. For each layer, the most common techniques with limitations are derived including an actor’s strength in influencing resilience in the cloud with each technique. We conclude with some future challenges to the field of resilient cloud computing.