Abstract: VMs are booted in a big data framework within the context of a cluster of computing and storage devices. The big data framework comprises a distributed, location aware file system and a cluster resource manager that assigns computing resources. VM images are stored as data in the distributed file system. Computing resources and hosts are allocated to specific VMs. The allocated hosts are within given levels of proximity to target data. VMs are booted and run on the hosts, and applications are run on the VMs, processing target data in the distributed file system. Prior to booting a given VM, a stored image can be converted between formats. This enables dynamically determining the VM format at boot time, based on what is supported by the hypervisor available on the target host.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for provisioning computing systems with applications may include (1) identifying a request to provision a computing system with an application in a pre-determined configuration state, where the pre-determined configuration state of the application is separated from a prior configuration state of the application by at least one configuration step, (2) locating a backup system that stores a pre-configured instance of the application that has been configured to the pre-determined configuration state at least in part by the configuration step, (3) retrieving the pre-configured instance of the application from the backup system, and (4) provisioning the computing system with the application in the pre-determined configuration state without performing the configuration step by copying the pre-configured instance of application that was retrieved from the backup system to the computing system. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.