CliQr Application and Software Support
CliQr CloudCenter provides packaged support that enables most common application types and architectures to run on clouds. CliQr provides easy on-boarding of applications using profiles—metadata models that describe different application types, including any interdependencies that the application might have on other services and any custom application configuration. CliQr's support for applications on a cloud is limited only by the underlying cloud infrastructure relative to the application's hardware and operating system requirements. A CliQr application profile is not a set of VM images. Rather, it's a pure metadata model of a complex multi-component application that is used by the CliQr CloudCenter to orchestrate application provisioning and runtime management.
Core App Profiles
CliQr's application support is organized around a set of core archetype profile structures, which can be used for creating genre-specific packaged application profiles. The core application profile structures include:
N-Tier—Supports applications that are made up of multiple tiers (database, back-end cache, message queue, application cluster, load balancer, front-end cache, etc.), where each tier may be provisioned on a different node or node cluster.
Examples include:
- Web applications: e.g., Java®, PHP, Ruby on Rails
- Enterprise applications: e.g., Oracle EBS, SAP ECC
Cluster Computing—Supports applications that require a cluster with shared storage to complete execution. The application process is launched on a single node with a list of all cluster nodes.
Example includes:
- MPI-based high-performance computing applications
Batch Processing—Supports non-real-time single-node applications in which multiple independent application jobs are placed on a queue and serviced by an elastic cluster.
Examples include:
- Gene sequencing
- Batch-processing documents
- Regressions
- Simulations
- Video transcoding
Parallel Computing—Supports single-node applications in which multiple independent application runs need to be launched in parallel on multiple nodes.
Examples include:
- Gene sequencing
- Simulations
Cloud-enabled Thick Client—Supports desktop applications that have a GUI interface. The application can be launched on a cloud and the application GUI can be accessed from a browser running on any device, such as a tablet. Application data can be uploaded and downloaded from a local device.
Examples include:
- Design/graphics rendering (e.g., Blender)
- Modeling UI
- Layout editor (e.g., semiconductor)
Multi-Step Workflow—Combing any of the above profiles into any multi-step workflow to describe simple to complex applications and application workflows.
Packaged Application Profiles
While the profile types can be directly used for on-boarding applications, CliQr provides several packaged, genre-specific profiles built using the core profile structures. Packaged profile support includes application containers (such as middleware), operating systems, and cloud-specific services.
Applications that are built using such technologies can be directly on-boarded using one of these packaged profiles. In case of missing profiles and targets, the base profile types can be used to add the missing options. In some cases, the cloud's own underlying infrastructure might limit specific applications or other technologies.
