Autonomic scaling of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment

An apparatus for autonomic scaling of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment, the apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of virtual machines (‘VMs’), the VMs comprising modules of automated computing machinery installed upon cloud computers disposed within a data center;
• a cloud operating system;
• a data center administration server operably coupled to the VMs, at least one computer processor;
• and
• a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions which when executed cause the apparatus to function by:
• deploying, by the cloud operating system, an instance of a VM, including flagging the instance of a VM for autonomic scaling including termination and executing a data processing workload on the instance of a VM;
• monitoring, by the cloud operating system, one or more operating characteristics of the instance of the VM;
• deploying, by the cloud operating system, an additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic exceeds a first predetermined threshold value, including executing a portion of the data processing workload on the additional instance of the VM;
• and
• terminating operation of the additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic declines below a second predetermined threshold value;
• wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine, and deploying an instance of a VM further comprises:
• passing by the self service portal user specifications for the instance of a VM to the deployment engine;
• implementing and passing to the data center administration server, by the deployment engine, a VM template with the user specifications;
• and
• calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to install the VM template as an instance of a VM on the cloud computer.

A computer program product for autonomic scaling of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment, the cloud computing environment comprising a plurality of virtual machines (‘VMs’), the VMs comprising modules of automated computing machinery installed upon cloud computers disposed within a data center, a cloud operating system, a data center administration server operably coupled to the VMs, the computer program product disposed upon a computer readable storage medium, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not signal, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions which when executed cause the VMs and computers in the cloud computing environment to function by:

• deploying, by the cloud operating system, an instance of a VM, including flagging the instance of a VM for autonomic scaling including termination and executing a data processing workload on the instance of a VM;
• monitoring, by the cloud operating system, one or more operating characteristics of the instance of the VM;
• deploying, by the cloud operating system, an additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic exceeds a first predetermined threshold value, including executing a portion of the data processing workload on the additional instance of the VM;
• and
• terminating operation of the additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic declines below a second predetermined threshold value;
• wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine, and deploying an instance of a VM further comprises:
• passing by the self service portal user specifications for the instance of a VM to the deployment engine;
• implementing and passing to the data center administration server, by the deployment engine, a VM template with the user specifications;
• and
• calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to install the VM template as an instance of a VM on the cloud computer.