An implementation of software routing for building a private cloud

The demand on cloud computing is increasing, more organizations tend to use it to store and process their data. In this article, we address some challenges starting by building a private cloud from our own company’s old devices, and then implementing some functionalities that a private cloud can offer to its users. Since cloud computing is a paradigm which is based mainly on a virtualized environment, therefore we used Proxmox Virtual Environment which is an open source free server virtualization technology for this purpose. Then we deployed software routers on the virtual routers through Quagga software to perform the routing functionality among the virtual machines. Finally, and in order to show the real use of our private cloud, an open source Nextcloud service is installed which is a free file sharing software that is used to show Software as a Service (SaaS) usage of our private cloud. We tested our implementation of private cloud computing through two case studies that showed a successful access of a user to the Nextcloud service. In the same time, we tested the routing functionality of the private cloud through the use of Quagga software router without using a physical router. As a result, our private cloud is fully oriented open source, cost effective and reliable.