Title: OpenSource frameworks for Cloud computing

Proposer: Hans-Wolfgang Loidl

Suggested supervisors: Hans-Wolfgang Loidl

Goal: Compare OpenSource frameworks for Cloud computing in terms of functionality, usability, and performance

Description:

A current trend in building large-scale computer science and IT frameworks is to use centralised Cloud services and to out-source functionality that was previously provided locally. Several open source frameworks for realising such Cloud services have emerged.

The goal of this project is to use existing, OpenSource Cloud software, and to assess its use in a core computer science context. Such use focusses on heterogeneous, distributed, compute-intensive applications, that need to access specific capabilities on different nodes of a system. Therefore, being flexible and scalable are important requirements. Good support for web services is a promising design for such systems. Interoperability between systems becomes important when developing large frameworks.

The milestones in this project will be

• Literature review on frameworks for Cloud computing and main design principles
• Survey of existing OpenSource frameworks, and a comparison of strengths
• Defining core services to be delivered
• Installation and use of a selection of frameworks on the local network
• Providing core services and typical functionality
• Assessment of these frameworks

Resources required: Linux

Degree of difficulty: Easy

Background needed: Basic systems knowledge

References:

1. Open Nebula
2. Eucalytpus
3. Ubuntu One
4. OwnCloud
5. Anatomy of an open source cloud, Tim Jones