9.2. Resource Management System The resource management system mechanism helps coordinate IT resources in response to management actions performed by both cloud consumers and cloud providers (Figure 9.5). Core to this system is the virtual infrastructure manager (VIM) that coordinates the server hardware so that virtual server instances can be created from the most expedient underlying physical server. A VIM is a commercial product that can be used to manage a range of virtual IT resources across multiple physical servers. For example, a VIM can create and manage multiple instances of a hypervisor across different physical servers or allocate a virtual server on one physical server to another (or to a resource pool). Figure 9.5. A resource management system encompassing a VIM platform and a virtual machine image repository. The VIM may have additional repositories, including one dedicated to storing operational data. Tasks that are typically automated and implemented thr