[atlas] probes on VMs

Hi!

I just found an old thread about virtual probes:
https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/ripe-atlas/2013-June/000849.html

I second the problems of virtual hosts and that the results may not as
good as other probes result, but there is a big advantage for virtual
probes - I can host them in the cloud.

For example, I just wanted to debug routing issues from the Microsoft
Cloud in Brazil to our server. Unfortunately there are no probes in this
Cloud's AS. With a virtual probe it would be quite easy. I order an VM
with Microsoft, and have my probe in the chosen datacenter. The probe
could be tagged with "VM" to show that it is running on shared resources.

Of course the VM will produce extra costs, but there may be sponsors,
and the smallest VM is usually enough. For example , one possibility
would be, that the sponsor donates the money, e.g. 10-20€ per month, and
chooses the cloud location. RIPE will then rent the VMs and run the
probes. With several sponsors we could get a nice cloud coverage, and we
could deploy probes in networks where the provider does not want to
hosts physical probes.

regards
Klaus