Word on the Street

With the recent announcement of the vCloud API SDKs for both Java and Python, it seemed as though it might be relevant to investigate the available Cloud APIs, what they do, where they come from, and how they work. There are four Cloud APIs that are abstraction APIs (at least four of which that seemed to have a relevant amount of information around). Each of these APIs has its own take on how Clouds should be provisioned and managed through their API. All of the APIs do appear to have a common goal in creating an abstraction from specific cloud implementations so that a developer can create an application that will work on many different clouds while making a single API call.

What relevance does this have to a Virtualization Administrator? Today, probably not very much, but in the future, a great deal. Cloud APIs make it possible for developers and even applications themselves to generically interact with the infrastructure without having to interact with the infrastructure owner or administrator directly. This automation has many advantages in the speed at which applications can be developed and deployed because of the elimination of many manual processes and ties to specific operating systems and infrastructure specifics. This means that Virtualization Administrators will eventually be more of Infrastructure Security and Maintenance and less of Application Implementation and Support.

Each of the four Cloud APIs were briefly examined along with source code check-ins and whatever documentation was available. The tables below are not guaranteed to be perfect or error free, however they do provide a good idea as to which API provides what capability in addition to providing guidance as to where each is headed and how quickly it may get there.

(Click Image to Enlarge)