Observing the clouds: a survey and taxonomy of cloud monitoring

• Published in: Journal of cloud computing : advances, systems and applications systems and applications, 2014-12, Vol.3 (1), p.1-24, Article 24
• Main Authors: Ward, Jonathan Stuart, Barker, Adam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cloud computing; Computer Communication Networks; Computer networks; Computer Science; Computer System Implementation; Computer Systems Organization and Communication Networks; Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet); Monitoring systems; Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems; Special Purpose and Application-Based Systems
• ISSN: 2192-113X; 2192-113X
• DOI: 10.1186/s13677-014-0024-2

Monitoring is an important aspect of designing and maintaining large-scale systems. Cloud computing presents a unique set of challenges to monitoring including: on-demand infrastructure, unprecedented scalability, rapid elasticity and performance uncertainty. There are a wide range of monitoring tools originating from cluster and high-performance computing, grid computing and enterprise computing, as well as a series of newer bespoke tools, which have been designed exclusively for cloud monitoring. These tools express a number of common elements and designs, which address the demands of cloud monitoring to various degrees. This paper performs an exhaustive survey of contemporary monitoring tools from which we derive a taxonomy, which examines how effectively existing tools and designs meet the challenges of cloud monitoring. We conclude by examining the socio-technical aspects of monitoring, and investigate the engineering challenges and practices behind implementing monitoring strategies for cloud computing.