Cloud Interoperability Research Articles

Interconnected Cloud Computing Environments

A brief review of the Internet history reveals the fact that the Internet evolved after the formation of primarily independent networks. Similarly, interconnected clouds, also called Inter-cloud , can be viewed as a natural evolution of cloud computing. Recent studies show the benefits in utilizing multiple clouds and present attempts for the realization of an Inter-cloud or federated cloud environment. However, cloud vendors have not taken into account cloud interoperability issues, and each cloud comes with its own solution and interfaces for services. This survey initially discusses all the relevant aspects motivating cloud interoperability. Furthermore, it categorizes and identifies possible cloud interoperability scenarios and architectures. The spectrum of challenges and obstacles that the Inter-cloud realization is faced with are covered, a taxonomy of them is provided, and fitting enablers that tackle each challenge are identified. All these aspects require a comprehensive review of the state of the art, including ongoing projects and studies in the area. We conclude by discussing future directions and trends toward the holistic approach in this regard.

Dashboard Services for Pragmatics-Based Interoperability in Cloud and Ubiquitous Manufacturing

The real Cloud and Ubiquitous Manufacturing systems require effectiveness and permanent availability of resources, their capacity and scalability. One of the most important problems for applications management over cloud based platforms, which are expected to support efficient scalability and resources coordination following SaaS implementation model, is their interoperability. Even application dashboards need to easily incorporate those new applications, their interoperability still remains a big problem to override. So, the possibility to expand these dashboards with efficiently integrated communicational cloud based services (cloudlets) represents a relevant added value as well as contributes to solving the interoperability problem. Following the architecture for integration of enriched existing cloud services, as instances of manufacturing resources, this paper: a) proposes a cloud based web platform to support dashboard integrating communicational services, and b) describe an experimentation to sustain the theory that the effective and efficient interoperability, especially in dynamic environments, could be achieved only with human intervention.

An approach for developing an interoperability mechanism between cloud providers

Due to the presence of numerous cloud service providers, the requirement is emerging for interoperability between them so that companies can choose multiple suppliers to fit their needs. This paper provides an approach to address the problem of cloud interoperability. We aim at facilitating the collaboration among providers by proposing an architecture based on an agent society, to support and ensure the data portability and interoperability. For that, we define a two-phase migration protocol that enables data portability by permitting providers to exchange data regardless of their infrastructure, tools and platforms, according to a specific demand in order to satisfy companies' needs.

Cloud Computing Research Issues, Challenges, Architecture, Platforms and Applications: A Review Paper

Cloud computing come from the development of parallel computing, distributed computing, grid computing and virtualization technologies. Cloud computing is an emerging model of business computing. In this paper, we explore the concept of cloud architecture and address the characteristics and applications of several popular cloud computing platforms. In this paper, we aim to pinpoint the challenges and issues of cloud computing and we also highlighted the cloud interoperability issue that deserves substantial further research and development. Once migrated to cloud, you do not know where your data is physically stored, what laws and regulations govern the same and most important of all, who has access to it. However, security and privacy issues present a strong barrier for users to adapt into cloud computing systems. In this paper, we investigate several cloud computing system providers about their concerns on security and privacy issues.

Jurisdiction and Cloud Computing: Further Challenges to Internet Jurisdiction

As a result of technologic innovation and optimization, the advent of cloud computing may change the way we work, communicate with each other and share information. In the cloud-based environment, access to computing resources (such as storage, processing and software) has shifted from an internal network to a public network in particular in the public cloud environment. It may challenge the allocation of responsibility among cloud providers, cloud customers and cloud users. Subsequently it may affect the attribution of title to data controllers and data processors. This paper undertakes primary research and provides insights into the significant yet complicated determination of the validity of jurisdiction clauses for cloud service contracts and the intertwined issues regarding the balance between the cloud interoperability and the protection of data privacy and intellectual property rights. It addresses key legal challenges faced by cloud computing providers and users today and proposes possible solutions to establish greater legal certainty in cloud computing service contracts with reference to the current practice in the EU and US. In general, this paper argues that although the deployment of cloud computing may complicate the determination of jurisdiction when disputes arise, a well-negotiated and sophisticated service contract of cloud computing may minimise such risk.

A survey on cloud interoperability

Cloud computing is a new computing paradigm that allows users with different computing demands to access a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., servers, network, storage, database, applications and services). Many commercial cloud providers have emerged in the past 6-7 years, and each typically provides its own cloud infrastructure, APIs and application description formats to access the cloud resources, as well as support for service level agreements (SLAs). Such vendor lock-in has seriously limited the flexibility that cloud end users would like to process, when it comes to deploy applications over different infrastructures in different geographic locations, or to migrate a service from one provider's cloud to another. To enable seamless sharing of resources from a pool of cloud providers, efforts have emerged recently to facilitate cloud interoperability, i.e., the ability for multiple cloud providers to work together, from both the industry and academia. In this article, we conduct a comprehensive survey on the state-of-the-art efforts, with a focus on interoperability among different IaaS (infrastructure as a service) cloud platforms. We investigate the existing studies on taxonomies and standardization of cloud interoperability, as well as practical cloud technologies from both the cloud provider's and user's perspectives to enable interoperation. We pose issues and challenges to advance the topic area, and hope to pave a way for the forthcoming research.

Role of Middleware and Mobile Web Services in Cloud Computing

The large groups of mobile users have made possible the awareness of intelligent environments for human and machines to interact with each other, interact with information processing devices, and avail mobile services through various types of networks and systems ubiquitously. This has opened the doors for business and coalition. These days all businesses are moving on the cloud. So cloud interoperability is essential for mobile devices in order to nurture the decoupling of the handset to a specific cloud vendor. However, developer need to implement different Web API's with respect to cloud vendor within a native mobile platform. To counter this problem of interoperability across multiple clouds to perform processing intensive services from mobile phones and to provide the platform independency feature for the mobile cloud applications, this paper proposed a Mobile Cloud Middleware (MCM) which provides an exclusive interface that responds in JSON format according to the cloud services requested through RESTful Web Services.

An interoperable solution for Cloud manufacturing

Cloud manufacturing is a new concept extending and adopting the concept of Cloud computing for manufacturing. The aim is to transform manufacturing businesses to a new paradigm in that manufacturing capabilities and resources are componentized, integrated and optimized globally. This study presents an interoperable manufacturing perspective based on Cloud manufacturing. A literature search has been undertaken regarding Cloud architecture and technologies that can assist Cloud manufacturing. Manufacturing resources and capabilities are discussed in terms of Cloud service. A service-oriented, interoperable Cloud manufacturing system is proposed. Service methodologies are developed to support two types of Cloud users, i.e., customer user and enterprise user, along with standardized data models describing Cloud service and relevant features. Two case studies are undertaken to evaluate the proposed system. Cloud technology brings into manufacturing industry with a number of benefits such as openness, cost-efficiency, resource sharing and production scalability. ► The study presents an interoperable manufacturing perspective based on Cloud manufacturing. ► A service-oriented, interoperable Cloud manufacturing system is proposed. ► The developed service methodologies support 2 types of Cloud users: customer and enterprise user. ► Two case studies evaluated the proposed system.

Cloud Education Environment

Cloud-based services are constantly evolving. Many of the so-called cloud services, traditionally known as Web 2.0 services because of their innovative features, have added an important element to the cloud landscape, which is interoperability features, opening their APIs to allow consumers to use their services in creative and innovative ways. This opens the possibility to create orchestrated services that provide learning experiences, which were not possible before. This also changes the paradigm from a monolithic architectural approach of education environments to a flexible, distributed and heterogeneous architectural setting for education environments, which is the aim of cloud education (learning and teaching) environments. This also maximizes innovation possibilities, allowing interoperability of the best and most appropriate cloud services based on learning needs, freeing up from a vendor specific approaches and limits, transforming the cloud education environment into a digital educational ecosystem of services and resources available for the practitioners, in contrast to a large amount of software services that are difficult to manage and organize for a learning setting. In this special issue, we present contributions related to this field, especially relevant descriptions about the type cloud of services and how to address re-use of components. Three different and complementary architectures are described, first an initial approach for cloud interoperability service, which addresses general interoperability of cloud-based services within a learning environment.

Cloud Manufacturing: A New Paradigm for Manufacturing Businesses

Cloud computing is changing the way industries and enterprises do their businesses in that dynamically scalable and virtualised resources are provided as a service over the internet. This paper discusses some of the essential features of cloud computing. Cloud computing is also emerging as one of the major enablers for the manufacturing industry: it can transform the traditional manufacturing business model, help it align product innovation with business strategy, and create intelligent factory networks that encourage effective collaboration. Two types of cloud computing adoptions in the manufacturing sector have been suggested: manufacturing with direct adoption of cloud computing technologies and cloud manufacturing, the manufacturing version of cloud computing. Cloud computing has been implemented in some of key areas of manufacturing such as information technology and pay-as-you-go business models. In cloud manufacturing, distributed resources are encapsulated into cloud services and managed in a centralised way. Clients can use cloud services according to their requirements. An interoperable cloud manufacturing system (ICMS) has been proposed to provide users with a big range of flexible manufacturing capabilities. The enterprises are loosely integrated in the manufacturing cloud as ICMS service providers. Manufacturing capabilities and business opportunities are integrated and broadcasted in a larger resource pool, which can enhance the competiveness of the entire consortium.

Mapping Cloud Interoperability in the Globalized Economy: Theory and Observation from Practice

This is one of three in-depth exploratory studies, which aim to gain a deeper understanding of the role that interoperability plays as an enabler of innovation and creativity in international trade. Each study explores the various institutions, policies and approaches that shape the interoperability landscape and investigates the effects of these factors and drivers on trade in the globalized economy. In this series, we examine: (i) to what extent and how interoperability has contributed to the promotion of international trade; (ii) what respective roles international organizations have played in concert with other stakeholders with regard to interoperability and international trade; (iii) what policies and approaches to supporting interoperability have been used, and with what results; and (iv) what can be learned from these experiences with regard to emerging interoperability issues in the context of international trade. The three studies address this set of questions from different angles, acknowledging the multi-faceted character of the concept of interoperability (Gasser & Palfrey, Basic Books 2012). Two of them “Fostering innovation and trade in the global information society: The different facets and roles of interoperability”, and “Mapping Cloud Interoperability in the Globalized Economy: Theory and Observations from Practice” – focus specifically on cloud computing, an emerging technical paradigm through which to analyze the policy relevance of interoperability in a globalized economy. This example also facilitates exploration of some of the key issues and practical challenges that arise as various stakeholders engage with cloud services, infrastructure, and data across the world, as well as the implications for trade, policy, and different actors, especially, governments. The third study, “Interoperability in Information and Information Systems in the Furtherance of Trade” is focused on the role, current debates, and associated benefits and challenges in establishing a system of interoperability for information and information systems in the service of trade in a global economy over time.

Interoperability in Information Systems in the Furtherance of Trade

This is one of three in-depth exploratory studies, which aim to gain a deeper understanding of the role that interoperability plays as an enabler of innovation and creativity in international trade. Each study explores the various institutions, policies and approaches that shape the interoperability landscape and investigates the effects of these factors and drivers on trade in the globalized economy. In this series, we examine: (i) to what extent and how interoperability has contributed to the promotion of international trade; (ii) what respective roles international organizations have played in concert with other stakeholders with regard to interoperability and international trade; (iii) what policies and approaches to supporting interoperability have been used, and with what results; and (iv) what can be learned from these experiences with regard to emerging interoperability issues in the context of international trade. The three studies address this set of questions from different angles, acknowledging the multi-faceted character of the concept of interoperability (Gasser & Palfrey, Basic Books 2012). Two of them – “Fostering innovation and trade in the global information society: The different facets and roles of interoperability”, and “Mapping Cloud Interoperability in the Globalized Economy: Theory and Observations from Practice” – focus specifically on cloud computing, an emerging technical paradigm through which to analyze the policy relevance of interoperability in a globalized economy. This example also facilitates exploration of some of the key issues and practical challenges that arise as various stakeholders engage with cloud services, infrastructure, and data across the world, as well as the implications for trade, policy, and different actors, especially, governments. The third study, “Interoperability in Information and Information Systems in the Furtherance of Trade” is focused on the role, current debates, and associated benefits and challenges in establishing a system of interoperability for information and information systems in the service of trade in a global economy over time.

A formal model for the interoperability of service clouds

Large-scale service-oriented computing is based on the idea that services from various servers are combined into one distributed application. Referring to a collection of services on one server as a “service cloud”, the problem investigated in this paper is to define formal high-level specifications of such distributed applications and to enable the location of suitable services for them. Based on the language-independent model of Abstract State Services (AS2s), which serves as a universal integrated model for data and software as services, we extend AS2s by high-level action schemes called “plots” as a means to specify permitted sequences of service operations. On these grounds, we develop a model for service mediators, that is, specifications of composed services in which service slots have to be filled by actual services, and investigate matching conditions for slots of mediators and services. For a services to match a slot in a mediator, a (generalised) projection of the mediator must comply with the plot of the service. Furthermore, the service must be semantically adequate, which requires the use of a service ontology.

Challenges in Cloud Computing

Though cloud computing is considered mature for practical application, there is a need for more research. The identified challenges primarily concern client-cloud interaction and cloud interoperability. As to the former one, we highlight the needs of clients, contracting and legal aspects, and missing foundations as necessary fields of investigation. For the latter one clouds are considered to constitute repositories of services, so the challenge is to realize web-scale, service-oriented, distributed computing.

Editorial: A Special Issue from the Open Grid Forum

Editorial: A Special Issue from the Open Grid Forum