Managing runtime execution of applications on cloud computing systems

One or more computer-readable storage memory devices storing information to enable host computers in a cloud computing network to perform a process, wherein the computer-readable storage media is not a signal, wherein host computers of the cloud computing network host arbitrary applications of various users by distributing the arbitrary applications among the host computers, the host computers provided with connectivity by a data network, the process comprising:

• executing a plurality of application instances on respective host computers in the cloud computing network, each application instance comprising a copy of a same application program, where users access the application instances on the host computers via the cloud computing network, the cloud computing network providing access to the application instances by the users via the cloud computing network;
• executing a plurality of monitor instances, one on each of the host computers hosting the application instances, respectively, wherein on any given of the host computers hosting a given monitor instance and given application instance, the monitor instance monitors effects of execution of the given application instance on the given host computer, each of the monitor instances comprising an instance of a same program compiled from a same specification that describes different types of runtime properties or characteristics of an element and/or aggregations thereof, the element comprising a component of the cloud computing network including the data network and/or the host computers and/or the application program;
• and
• obtaining, by the application monitor instances, values of the properties and characteristics, and transmitting indicia of the values.

A method performed in a cloud computing infrastructure that includes host computers that host different applications, the cloud computing infrastructure managing which host computers host instances of which of the applications, the cloud computing infrastructure providing users with uniform access to the applications, the method comprising:

• receiving a monitor application, the monitor application having been compiled by a compiler compiling a specification, where the compiler implements a specification language that provides a sensor construct that includes a sensor type field and a frequency field, and a plurality of sensor types for the sensor construct, each sensor type corresponding to a generic network usage property or a generic computation usage property, the specification corresponding to an application and/or the cloud computing infrastructure, the specification comprising text conforming to the specification language, the specification comprising a particular sensor construct describing identifying a particular one of the sensor types or an aggregation, wherein when the compiler compiles the specification to generate the monitor application it builds the monitor application according to the specification such that the monitor application, when executed, will periodically query any host computer on which it is running for values corresponding to the sensor type identified in the specification;
• and
• distributing instances of the application corresponding to the specification into the cloud computing infrastructure, the distributing comprising determining which host computers should host the application, and assuring that any host computer hosting the application is also provided with an instance of the monitor application, wherein the monitor application obtains, from whichever host computer it is running on, values of different properties including network resource usage or computation resource usage by the application on such host computer along-with runtime properties and characteristics of the cloud computing infrastructure.