Unikernel for Cloud Services: How Single-Responsibility can Reduce Complexity

Title

Unikernel for Cloud Services: How Single-Responsibility can Reduce Complexity

Authors

Andreas Happe (AIT Austrian Institute of Technology), Bob Duncan (University of Aberdeen), Alfred Bratterud (Oslo and Akershus University)

Abstract

Unikernels allow application deployment through custom-built minimal virtual machines. The authors investigate how unikernels and their inherent minimalism benefit system security. The analysis starts with common security vulnerability classes and their possible remediation. A platonic unikernel framework is used to describe how unikernels can solve common security problems, focusing both on a micro-and macro level. This theoretical framework is matched against an existing unikernel framework, and the resulting mismatch is used as a starting point for the research areas the authors are currently working on. We demonstrate how using a single responsibility unikernel-based architectural framework could be used to reduce complexity and thus improve enterprise cloud security.

Venue 

2nd International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk Complexis 2017

Place and Date

Porto, Portugal, 24 - 26 April 2017

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