Unikernels Motivations, Benefits and Issues: A Multivocal Literature Review

Abstract

While working in the cloud, the trend is to secure all the resources in order for the applications and systems to operate as efficiently as possible. Huge amounts of resources are wasted on unnecessary utilities and resource-consuming processes, which can rather have a negative effect. Unikernels are the last trend in this direction. We aim to shed light on the motivations, benefits, and issues in unikernels. Our goal is to systematically analyze what made this technology so attractive, identifying the benefits they have attained and the issues encountered in embracing this new technology. We surveyed academic and grey literature by means of the Multivocal Literature Review process, analyzing 590 sources, of which 62 reported motivations, benefits, and issues. The main motivations for adopting unikernels are performance and security, which are also reflected in the benefits reported. In terms of issues, the maturity of the existing frameworks as well as the tool support, are the main challenges that need to be addressed. Given the great potential that unikernels can bring in terms of performance and security, further research is needed to investigate the pros and cons, how to use them, and in which contexts they are beneficial. © 2023 Owner/Author.