Backup Solution Research Articles

Comprehensive data security and compliance framework for SMEs

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly relying on cloud platforms to support critical business operations, making effective disaster recovery (DR) strategies essential for ensuring business continuity. This review proposes a robust disaster recovery framework tailored for SMEs, designed to minimize downtime and data loss in the event of a system failure, cyberattack, or natural disaster. The framework integrates advanced cloud technologies to create a cost-effective, scalable solution that aligns with the resource constraints of SMEs while providing enterprise-grade resilience. Key components of the disaster recovery framework include cloud-based data replication, automated backup solutions, and geo-redundant storage to ensure that data is continuously available and recoverable. This model employs real-time data synchronization and incremental backups to minimize Recovery Point Objectives (RPO), ensuring that critical data is not lost during an unexpected outage. Additionally, the framework leverages automated failover mechanisms to achieve low Recovery Time Objectives (RTO), allowing businesses to restore operations quickly after an interruption. Cloud orchestration tools such as AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery or Azure Site Recovery are utilized to automate disaster recovery processes, reducing manual intervention and improving the speed of recovery. The framework also incorporates regular testing of disaster recovery plans, using simulation tools to identify weaknesses and optimize response times. For SMEs, cost-effectiveness and ease of management are crucial. The framework emphasizes a pay-as-you-go model for cloud resources, allowing businesses to scale their disaster recovery solutions as they grow without incurring excessive upfront costs. By providing continuous monitoring and proactive threat detection, this disaster recovery framework ensures that SMEs can maintain uninterrupted business operations on cloud platforms, thereby enhancing resilience and mitigating the financial and operational risks associated with data loss and system downtime.

Assessing the Performance of a Proton Exchange Membrane Green Hydrogen Generation System through Stack and Balance of Plant Modeling

The integration of Proton Exchange Membrane electrolyzers into hydrogen generation systems offers significant potential for sustainable energy solutions. Integrating hydrogen production with electricity, heat, and renewable energy sources enhances sustainability. PEM electrolyzers effectively address renewable energy intermittent by converting energy into hydrogen, leveraging their ramp rate and load-following capabilities. However, widespread commercialization hinges on cost reductions through new material development and a comprehensive understanding of the system's heat, mass, and electrochemical processes. This study presents a zero-dimension model developed using the Aspen Custom Modeler, detailing the electrochemical phenomena. A holistic PEM electrolysis model, including the stack and the Balance of Plant, is developed in Aspen Plus, demonstrating an overall system efficiency of 50%, with the BoP accounting for 8% of total electricity consumption. This research underscores the critical role of optimizing BoP subsystems and integrating grid-based backup solutions to enhance the economic viability and resilience of PEM electrolysis systems.

Assessing the Performance of a Proton Exchange Membrane Green Hydrogen Generation System through Stack and Balance of Plant Modeling

The integration of Proton Exchange Membrane electrolyzers into hydrogen generation systems offers significant potential for sustainable energy solutions. Integrating hydrogen production with electricity, heat, and renewable energy sources enhances sustainability. PEM electrolyzers effectively address renewable energy intermittent by converting energy into hydrogen, leveraging their ramp rate and load-following capabilities. However, widespread commercialization hinges on cost reductions through new material development and a comprehensive understanding of the system's heat, mass, and electrochemical processes. This study presents a zero-dimension model developed using the Aspen Custom Modeler, detailing the electrochemical phenomena. A holistic PEM electrolysis model, including the stack and the Balance of Plant, is developed in Aspen Plus, demonstrating an overall system efficiency of 50%, with the BoP accounting for 8% of total electricity consumption. This research underscores the critical role of optimizing BoP subsystems and integrating grid-based backup solutions to enhance the economic viability and resilience of PEM electrolysis systems.

A Higher Performance Data Backup Scheme Based on Multi-Factor Authentication.

Remote data backup technology avoids the risk of data loss and tampering, and has higher security compared to local data backup solutions. However, the data transmission channel for remote data backup is not secure, and the backup server cannot be fully trusted, so users usually encrypt the data before uploading it to the remote server. As a result, how to protect this encryption key is crucial. We design a User-Centric Design (UCD) data backup scheme based on multi-factor authentication to protect this encryption key. Our scheme utilizes a secret sharing scheme to divide the encryption key into three parts, which are stored in the laptop, the smart card, and the server. The encryption key can be easily reconstructed from any two parts with user's private information password, identity and biometrics. As long as the biometrics has enough entropy, our scheme can resist replay attacks, impersonation user attacks, impersonation server attacks, malicious servers and offline password guessing attacks.

Teleoperated Driving with Virtual Twin Technology: A Simulator-Based Approach

This study introduces an innovative Teleoperated Driving (ToD) system integrated with virtual twin technology using the MORAI simulator. The system minimizes the need for extensive video data transmission by utilizing text-based vehicle information, significantly reducing the communication load. Key technical advancements include the use of high-precision GNSS devices for accurate vehicle location tracking, robust data communication via the MQTT protocol, and the implementation of the Ego Ghost mode in the MORAI simulator for precise vehicle simulation. The integration of these technologies enables efficient data transmission and enhanced system reliability, effectively mitigating issues such as communication blackouts and delays. Our findings demonstrate that this approach ensures stable and efficient operation, optimizing communication resource management and enhancing operational stability, which is crucial for scenarios requiring high video quality and real-time response. This research represents a significant advancement in ToD technology, establishing a precedent for integrating virtual twin systems to create more resource-efficient and reliable autonomous driving backup solutions. The virtual twin-based ToD system provides a robust platform for remote vehicle operation, ensuring safety and reliability in various driving conditions.

Cash holding by consumers: The role of the perceived characteristics of money

AbstractThis study examined why consumers who typically pay electronically at points of sale still carry cash and explained the inertia of demand for cash by considering the additional (perceived by consumers) characteristics of cash. The research was motivated by the growing discussion on why cash, despite the increasing importance of e‐payments, remains a significant part of the demand for money. The study focused on psychological factors and consumers' perceptions of certain features of cash, which make it an attractive additional option for precautionary reasons, and therefore, explored beyond the typical discussion of money as a means of payment. The structural equation modeling based on data collected as part of a survey of Polish consumers was used to verify the hypotheses. It was revealed that cash becomes a reserve solution for consumers, which is kept “just in case” to expand the scope of personal freedom and flexibility in making payments and protect against various potential restrictions and threats related to e‐payments. Consumers' holding of cash as an additional option depends on three key factors: attitude toward cash, particularly the flexibility it offers, unusual purchasing situations, and perceived card or mobile payment risk, considered as a moderator. In the debate on the future of cash, the study supports the position that cash has a place in the modern payment system, although it plays a different role. Cash is a supportive backup solution. Eliminating cash significantly reduces consumer welfare.

Design, fabrication and testing of Al/p-Si Schottky and pn junctions for radiation studies

Strip and pixels sensors, fabricated on high resistivity silicon substrate, normally of p-type, are used in detectors for High Energy Physics (HEP) typically in a hybrid detector assembly. Furthermore, and owing to their inherent advantages over hybrid sensors, Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) fabricated in CMOS technology have been increasingly implemented in HEP experiments. In all cases, their use in higher radiation areas (HL-LHC and beyond) will require options to improve their radiation hardness and time resolution. These aspects demand a deep understanding of their radiation damage and reliable models to predict their behaviours at high fluences. As a first step, we fabricated several Schottky and n-on-p diodes, to allow a comparison of results and provide a backup solution for test devices, on 6 or 4-inch p-type silicon wafers with 50 μm epitaxial thickness and of doping concentration as they are normally used in HEP detectors and CMOS MAPS devices. In this paper, details of the design and fabrication process, along with test results of the fabricated devices before irradiation, will be provided. Additional test results on irradiated devices will be provided in subsequent publications.

Virtualization and the Funding Problems in Developing Countries: A Case Study of a Network Simulation of a Hospital Environment Constructed Virtually

A virtual machine utilizes software instead of a computer to install and run programs. Virtualization software establishes an abstract layer on top of the machine hardware, which allows the hardware components of this single machine to be divided into many virtual computers. In this article, a network simulation of a hospital environment is built virtually. With some modifications, it can be adapted elsewhere. Here, the objective is to obtain the best features at the lowest cost. The constructed virtual network will be used by the hospital staff, the IT department, the patients, and the visitors. A hospital network is simulated by hosting two Windows servers on a VMware workstation application, with two Windows 10 clients as virtual machine applications. A VMware virtual switch is used to create a network between them. This virtual network system provides a variety of important and essential network functions needed by any hospital or an emerging organization at low cost, such as data sharing, user access restrictions, system policies resources, a security system, a network monitoring system, a mail server, a backup solution, and a centralized management.

Decentralized energy management of DC microgrids with PV, wind, BES, and fuel cell

Amidst the evolving energy landscape, there are an increasing demand for sustainability. With the global embrace of renewable sources such as wind and solar power, the urgency for innovative energy management solutions intensifies. This paper presents an energy management system tailored for a decentralized DC Micro-grid catering to a 10 kW DC load. The microgrid combining diverse renewable energy sources incorporating solar panels, wind turbines, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and a fuel cell serving as an emergency backup solution. The control strategy deployed for efficient operation is a PI cascade control approach. However, to optimize the performance of the controller, the parameter gains of the PI controller are enhanced using a metaheuristic algorithm, specifically the Genetic Algorithm (GA). The proposed system aims to garantuate a reliable and stable power supply to the DC load while maximizing the utilization of renewable energy sources, minimization hydrogen consumption and decreasing reliance on classical grid source. The effectiveness of the proposed energy management system is validated across simulation studies using MATLAB Simulink under various operating scenarios. These scenarios comprise serval environmental conditions, load profiles, and renewable energy availability. The simulation results demonstrate the capability of the system to efficiently manage power flow and enhance overall system performance in decentralized DC microgrid environments.

Data Resilience: Secure Emergency Backup on Cloud

In the dynamic landscape of cloud computing, ensuring the resilience and availability of data is paramount, particularly in emergency situations such as cyberattacks, system failures, or natural disasters. This abstract presents a comprehensive examination of emergency backup strategies tailored specifically for cloud environments. It delves into the challenges associated with data loss and downtime, emphasizing the critical need for proactive measures to mitigate risks and safeguard valuable data assets. By exploring various backup methodologies including incremental backups, differential backups, and snapshot-based backups, this abstract provides insights into the diverse approaches available for creating robust data redundancy in the cloud. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of geographical redundancy, data encryption, and access controls in enhancing the security and integrity of backup data. Additionally, emerging technologies such as blockchain-based backup solutions and AI-driven anomaly detection systems are explored as potential avenues for further enhancing data resilience in the cloud. By adopting a proactive approach to emergency data backup, organizations can fortify their cloud infrastructures against unforeseen disruptions and ensure the continuous availability and integrity of their critical data assets

Use of the CLARKE JU6H-NL30 Diesel Pump in Building Fire Suppression Systems

This study investigates the suitability of the Clarke JU6H-30NL diesel pump engine as a supplementary solution for fire extinguishing systems in a banking facility during August–September 2023. Employing practical fieldwork methods, we analyzed the specifications, operational procedures, and benefits versus drawbacks of diesel pumps compared to electrical alternatives. Observational techniques were utilized to collect real-time data onsite. Our findings reveal that diesel pumps offer significant advantages such as uninterrupted operation during power failures, elevated water pressures, lower maintenance costs due to more accessible spare parts, and enhanced overall building safety and resilience against fires. These insights suggest that incorporating diesel pumps into existing fire protection strategies could provide reliable backup solutions, particularly in critical infrastructure settings where continuous operations are crucial. highlight: The study analyzed the specifications, operational procedures, and benefits versus drawbacks of diesel pumps compared to electrical alternatives. Observational techniques were utilized to collect real-time data onsite. Diesel pumps offer significant advantages such as uninterrupted operation during power failures, elevated water pressures, and lower maintenance costs due to more accessible spare parts. Keywords: Clarke JU6H-30NL diesel pump engine, fire extinguishing systems, banking facility, uninterrupted operation, building safety.

Czech national e-infrastructure services for HEP

Czech national e-infrastructure services for HEP

Sizing and Life Cycle Assessment of Small-Scale Power Backup Solutions: A Statistical Approach

Sizing and Life Cycle Assessment of Small-Scale Power Backup Solutions: A Statistical Approach

Contribution of green hydrogen vector to guarantee electricity feeding in remote areas- Case study

This paper examines the potential of solar-hydrogen hybrid renewable energy systems as a solution for off-grid applications in areas with heavy rainfall. This study highlights the immense potential of renewable mini grids as a solution to Africa's energy access challenges helping to achieve the sustainable development goal SDG 7. Associated to Photovoltaic primary source (PV), the combination of Lithium-Ion batteries and Alkaline hydrogen system emerges as an effective approach for ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply, especially in rainy seasons. This solution mitigates the need for Diesel Generator, offers protection against fluctuations in diesel fuel prices, and concurrently results in significant reductions in CO2 emissions while optimizing the utilization of PV energy. The uniqueness of this approach is the use of hydrogen as a backup solution. Hydrogen, generated through electrolysis, serves as a reliable energy reservoir during periods of low renewable energy production. This capability enhances the mini-grid's resilience, guaranteeing continuous electricity feeding to off grid critical facilities where power outages can have significant consequences. However, the exclusive use of hydrogen in conjunction with PV energy requires further cost reductions for broader competitiveness, especially concerning Solid Oxide Cell (SoC) electrolyzers. Furthermore, fuel cells, across all hydrogen technologies explored, require continuous development to improve their cost-efficiency and streamline their widespread adoption. Nevertheless, the improvement that can be made to reduce the Hydrogen system CAPEX and enhancing its efficiency would make green hydrogen as a competitive and reliable primary storage solution.

CONTRIBUTIONS REGARDING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPUTER INCIDENT MANAGEMENT IN A PUBLIC ORGANIZATION PROVIDING SERVICES TO CITIZENS

The scientific work presents research on implementing computer incident management within a public organization providing services to citizens. The increasing digitization of activities in the public sector brings many advantages, such as efficiency, increasing the quality of services, and shortening working times. On the other hand, digitization can be achieved with extensive technology with equipment used within the local IT network to carry out activities, store databases, and interconnect with other IT systems. All these equipment and computer systems have a certain degree of vulnerability, and there is a risk of computer incidents. The research proposed by the authors comes up with proposals in this field of computer incident management, offering solutions by carrying out a procedure for solving a computer incident. Following the research, several policies have been implemented on the servers in the local network at the level of the entire local domain and the implementation of policies at the level of each workstation in the organization's local network to avoid computer incidents such as cyber-attacks. Backup solutions have been implemented on a NAS-type device to eliminate the risks of computer incidents during a hard disk failure or data loss. Solutions have also been implemented to eliminate the risks of computer incidents due to the failure of computer devices within the local network following problems that may occur with the electricity supply network. The research identified and found solutions to eliminate some vulnerabilities in the wireless network, which can lead to computer incidents. At the paper's end, conclusions from this research are presented.

Characterizing optimal LPWAN access delay in massive multi-RAT smart grid deployments

Massive machine-type communications services penetrating the market, such as smart grids, differ from conventional services characterized by stochastic arrival patterns. Requiring permanent end device (ED) connectivity, control centers poll EDs over regular time intervals, leading to batch message arrivals that affect the mean access delay at the air interface. In addition, the smart grid requires high reliability and network availability that can be achieved by utilizing multiple radio access technologies in EDs. Radio access technologies (RATs), i.e., narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) and long-term evolution machine type communication (LTE-M), have been identified as promising solutions for these use-cases. This work first reports results of an extensive performance evaluation measurement campaign showing that LTE-M can be considered a preferred option and NB-IoT as a possible backup solution for smart grids. We also show that none of the selected technologies can fully meet the requirements of smart grid use cases. We then develop a theoretical model and corresponding association algorithm for balancing traffic load between two low-power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies to minimize the mean access delay. Our results demonstrate that the optimized usage of multi-RAT EDs considerably increases the number of supported EDs operating in polling-based mode. For 500EDs utilizing a single LTE-M technology, the mean access delay is over two seconds — contradicting the minimum requirements of smart grid applications. On the other hand, multi-RAT EDs running the developed algorithm increase the service capacity by up to six times (up to 3000EDs) while still satisfying the two-second latency budget.

ObjDedup: High-Throughput Object Storage Layer for Backup Systems With Block-Level Deduplication

The immense popularity of object storage is also affecting the market of backup. Not only have novel backup solutions emerged that utilize cloud-based object storage as backends, but also support for object storage interfaces is increasingly expected from traditional dedicated backup appliances. This latter trend especially concerns systems with data deduplication, as they can offer compelling gains in storage capacity and throughput. However, such systems have been designed for interfaces and workloads that are markedly different from those encountered in object storage. Notably, they expect data to be written in portions that are orders of magnitude longer than those in the novel object-storage-oriented backup applications. In this light, we contribute twofold. First, contrasting the properties of object storage interfaces with usage patterns from 686 commercial deployments of backup appliances, we identify specific issues an implementation of such an interface has to address to offer adequate performance in a backup system with block-level deduplication. In particular, we show that a major challenge is efficient metadata management. Second, we present distributed data structures and algorithms to handle object metadata in backup systems with block-level deduplication. Subsequently, we implement them as an object storage layer for our HYDRAstor backup system. In comparison to object storage without in-line deduplication, our solution achieves 1.8–3.93x higher write throughput. Compared to object storage on top of a state-of-the-art file-based backup system, it processes 5.26–11.34x more object put operations per time unit.

The Impacts of Urban Environment Aspects on The Life Satisfaction of Older Adults

Ageing comes with several discomforts such as a decline in mobility and losses in social networks as well as societal roles. Therefore, improving the life satisfaction of older adults has become a significant policy focus for delivering age-friendliness in national and international movements in the living environment. The hypothesis of the current study is that older people, who live in urban neighbourhoods that provide safe, aesthetic and accessible environments, experience greater life satisfaction. Accessibility, attractiveness and attachment as the three key dimensions of life satisfaction were used to understand the key aspects of the life satisfaction of older people in the neighbourhoods and how the urban environment serves as an indicator. This research consists of two steps. The first step involved in-depth interviews with the older adults aged over 65 in different urban areas, the district of Fatih and Şişli in the city of Istanbul, Turkey, with sampling based on the diversity, heterogeneity and urban functions. Second, these urban areas were analysed using space syntax to understand the street network and connectivity to reveal the urban structure. The qualitative and quantitative findings were analysed comparatively. The study concluded that when attachment to the place is supported by walkability and psychical enticing, the older adults experience a higher level of life satisfaction. Additionally, financial independence serves as a backup solution to access a better environment. This comparative analysis also highlights a mixed method for policymakers to analyse the urban environment and makes room for older adults to raise their voices and participate in the policy and planning process.

Steering angle sensorless control for four-wheel steering vehicle via sliding mode control method

This paper presents a new sensorless control method for four-wheel steering vehicles. Compared to the existing sensor-based control, this approach improved dynamic stability, manoeuvrability and robustness in case of malfunction of the front steering angle sensor. It also provided a software redundancy and backup solution, as well as improved fault tolerance. The strategy of the sensorless control is based on the sliding mode method to estimate the replacement of the front steering input from the errors between the vehicle’s measured and desired values of the vehicle’s sideslip angle and yaw rate. The simulation results demonstrate that the observer effectively estimated the front wheel steering angle at both low- and high-speed scenarios in the cornering and lane change manoeuvres. Furthermore, the sensorless control approach can achieve equivalent control performances to the sensor-based controller including a small and stable yaw rate response and zero sideslip angle. The results of the study offer a potential solution for improving manoeuvrability, stability and sensor fault tolerance of four-wheel steering vehicles.

Using an open source and resilient technology framework to generate and execute prescription maps for site-specific manure application

The development of precision farming solutions and the required network infrastructure appear to be progressing at different speeds and levels of deployment. In most of the world's rural areas, where farming takes place, network coverage and infrastructure is at a basic level. However, where digital farming solutions are applied, internet-dependent applications need backup solutions to enable the same or a comparable performance towards maintaining the functionality of the specific practice and ultimately food production. The aim is to avoid regressing to basic practices waiving advantages of established precision farming technologies. Based on a conceptual framework, defined by the authors in a previous work, site-specific slurry application was chosen as a concrete use case to implement and demonstrate fallback options to maintain efficient and reliable application even during internet outages. Initially, the differences between conventional and resilient IT infrastructure were contrasted and investigated. The generation of a prescription map (PM) based on the fusion of multiple parameters, clustered in the domains of soil, yield, and remote sensing, was performed utilizing open-source and offline usable software. For seamless transmission of the generated PMs, a new and innovative hardware platform was integrated into the machinery fleet and working process of a machinery ring (MR), which was acting as a service contractor in the inter-farm slurry application. Interoperability was considered by enabling the executing software to accept PMs of altering origin. The on- and off-line generation of PMs including data fusion, were also compared. Here the multi-parametric approach corresponded to the ground truth data, whereas the PMs generated in an online farm management information system (FMIS), using only one data source, showed deviations in management zone patterns and relative dose rates. In addition, the impact of the lack of online accessible data on the delineation of management zones was investigated and resulted in a switch from the medium to the high dose rate (DR) level in 9.1% of the field's area.