Intelligent Resource Management and Secure Live Migration in Cloud Environments: A Unified Approach using Particle Swarm Optimization, Machine Learning, and Blockchain on XenServer

Abstract

Cloud computing has become the backbone of digital ecosystems, but growing workloads intensify challenges in resource optimization, virtual machine (VM) migration, and security assurance. Existing studies often address these issues in isolation, limiting their practical applicability. This paper presents a unified framework that integrates three complementary components: (i) an Improved Modified Particle Swarm Optimization (IMPSO) algorithm with adaptive inertia scheduling and dynamic mutation control, which outperforms IPSO in convergence speed and load distribution accuracy; (ii) a machine learning–assisted hybrid live VM migration method with dirty-page clustering and workload prediction to minimize downtime; and (iii) a blockchain-enabled secure migration layer to ensure tamper-proof and auditable state transfer. The revised version of this study includes statistical validation (confidence intervals, t-tests) and attack simulation experiments (e.g., man-in-the-middle and replay attacks) to ensure methodological rigor and realistic security assessment. Experimental results on a real XenServer testbed show that the proposed system improves response time by ~30%, reduces migration downtime by ~60%, and ensures 100% migration integrity with ?15% security overhead. Overall, this work represents among the first unified frameworks that jointly optimize resource allocation, downtime reduction, and blockchain-based security in a practically validated, end-to-end cloud migration environment.