Architecture for realizing cloud-based IT infrastructures

Traditional IT infrastructures consist of a multitude of different hardware elements, each of them consuming electrical power even in times of low usage by end users. In the BCI project the TUB is working on realization of cloud-based IT infrastructures, where physical hardware elements are migrated into the cloud. Since these hardware elements are now virtualized, they do not consume electrical power, but the hardware that is used for executing these virtual machines. However, large server machines do provide a better eco-efficiency in terms of provided compute power than workstation machines. In addition, this eco-efficiency is further improved by high level of utilization on those servers. This paper will present requirements on such a cloud-based IT infrastructure as well as an architecture for realizing such services.