Title: Implementing generic PaaS deployment API: repackaging and deploying applications on heterogeneous PaaS platforms

Authors: Eman Hossny; Sherif Khattab; Fatma A. Omara; Hesham A. Hassan

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computers and information, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt ' Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computers and information, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt ' Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computers and information, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt ' Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computers and information, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

Abstract: The cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model provides developers with the ability to deploy and manage their applications remotely in the cloud and pay only for actual usage hours. Currently, there is no standard API for PaaS deployment and management; each PaaS provider [e.g., Google AppEngine (GAE), OpenShift (OS), Cloud Foundry (CF), and Windows Azure] has its own proprietary APIs. This lack of standardisation adds a layer of complexity to application deployment and migration between heterogeneous PaaS platforms because of API incompatibility. A standard (generic) PaaS deployment API overcomes the previously mentioned PaaS API heterogeneity. A generic open-source API, namely the COAPS API, has been proposed to support deployment and management of applications on CF and OS PaaS platforms. This work implements COAPS deployment API to include the GAE PaaS. Whereas both CF and OS PaaS platforms use the same application packaging, deploying the same application on GAE requires application repackaging. We evaluated our work using a case study in which the same application is automatically deployed on CF and GAE.

Keywords: platform-as-a-service; heterogeneous PaaS; generic PaaS API; COAPS API; application programming interface; open source APIs; PaaS deployment; PaaS management; application repackaging; application packaging.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBDI.2016.079956

International Journal of Big Data Intelligence, 2016 Vol.3 No.4, pp.257 - 269

Received: 31 Mar 2014
Accepted: 25 Sep 2014
Published online: 24 Oct 2016 *

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