Cloud computing : principles and paradigms

The primary purpose of this book is to capture the state-of-the-art in Cloud Computing technologies and applications. The book will also aim to identify potential research directions and technologies that will facilitate creation a global market-place of cloud computing services supporting scientific, industrial, business, and consumer applications. We expect the book to serve as a reference for larger audience such as systems architects, practitioners, developers, new researchers and graduate level students. This area of research is relatively recent, and as such has no existing reference book that addresses it. This book will be a timely contribution to a field that is gaining considerable research interest, momentum, and is expected to be of increasing interest to commercial developers. The book is targeted for professional computer science developers and graduate students especially at Masters level. As Cloud Computing is recognized as one of the top five emerging technologies that will have a major impact on the quality of science and society over the next 20 years, its knowledge will help position our readers at the forefront of the field. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

A clusterized firewall framework for cloud computing

Cloud computing is becoming popular as the next infrastructure of computing platform. However, with data and business applications outsourced to a third party, how to protect cloud data centers from numerous attacks has become a critical concern. In this paper, we propose a clusterized framework of cloud firewall, which characters performance and cost evaluation. To provide quantitative performance analysis of the cloud firewall, a novel M/Geo/1 analytical model is established. The model allows cloud defenders to extract key system measures such as request response time, and determine how many resources are needed to guarantee quality of service (QoS). Moreover, we give an insight into financial cost of the proposed cloud firewall. Finally, our analytical results are verified by simulation experiments.

Cloud-based non-invasive tele-rehabilitation exercise monitoring

Exercise based rehabilitation plays a vital role in the recovery of various conditions, such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease (PD), chronic pain, and so on. Recently, telerehabilitation has become increasingly popular quantitative nature in assessments particularly for systematic monitoring of progress as well as cost saving for the patients as well as for the health care sector at large. However, challenges do exist in implementing a distributed bio-feedback in a cost-effective and efficient way. In this paper, we present the associated conceptual framework of cloud-based tele-rehabilitation system employing affordable non-invasive Microsoft Kinect® allowing patients to perform rehabilitation exercises in non-clinical setting such as home environments without loosing the quality of patients care. More importantly, different from existing tele-rehabilitation systems, our system not only measures whether patients can perform rehabilitation tasks, but also how well they can finish the tasks. Preliminary experiments validate its potential in training healthy subject to perform exercise motions emulating the physical rehabilitation process.

Idle central venous catheter-days pose infection risk for patients after discharge from intensive care

This prospective observational study measured idle central venous catheter (CVC)-days (no medical indication), and ward clinicians' adherence to evidence-based practices for preventing short-term central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs). In 340 patients discharged from ICU over a 1-year period, 208 of 794 CVC-days (26.2%) were idle. Interventions to prevent CLABSIs were poorly implemented. Ward clinicians need education regarding risk management strategies to prevent CLABSIs, and clear accountability processes for prompt catheter removal are recommended.

A survey of approaches and frameworks to carry out genomic data analysis on the cloud

High Performance Computing (HPC) clouds have started to change the way how research in science, in particular medicine and genomics (bioinformatics) is being carried out. Researchers who have taken advantage of this technology can process larger amounts of data and speed up scientific discovery. However, most HPC clouds are provided at an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) level, users are presented with a set of virtual servers which need to be put together to form HPC environments via time consuming resource management and software configuration tasks, which make them practically unusable by discipline, non-computing specialists. In response, there is a new trend to expose cloud applications as services to simplify access and execution on clouds. This paper firstly examines commonly used cloud-based genomic analysis services (Tuxedo Suite, Galaxy and Cloud Bio Linux). As a follow up, we propose two new solutions (HPCaaS and Uncinus), which aim to automate aspects of the service development and deployment process. By comparing and contrasting these five solutions, we identify key mechanisms of service creation, execution and access that are required to support genomic research on the SaaS cloud, in particular by discipline specialists. © 2014 IEEE.

A survey of cloud-based service computing solutions for mammalian genomics

Cloud-based service computing has started to change the way how research in science, in particular biology, medicine, and engineering, is being carried out. Researchers in the area of mammalian genomics have taken advantage of cloud computing technology to cost-effectively process large amounts of data and speed up discovery. Mammalian genomics is limited by the cost and complexity of analysis, which require large amounts of computational resources to analyse huge amount of data and biology specialists to interpret results. On the other hand the application of this technology requires computing knowledge, in particular programming and operations management skills to develop high performance computing (HPC) applications and deploy them on HPC clouds. We carried out a survey of cloud-based service computing solutions, as the most recent and promising instantiations of distributed computing systems, in the context their use in research of mammalian genomic analysis. We describe our most recent research and development effort which focuses on building Software as a Service (SaaS) clouds to simplify the use of HPC clouds for carrying out mammalian genomic analysis.

A scalable and automatic mechanism for resource allocation in self-organizing cloud

Taking advantage of the huge potential of consumers’ untapped computing power, self-organizing cloud is a novel computing paradigm where the consumers are able to contribute/sell their computing resources. Meanwhile, host machines held by the consumers are connected by a peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network on the Internet. In this new architecture, due to large and varying multitudes of resources and prices, it is inefficient and tedious for consumers to select the proper resource manually. Thus, there is a high demand for a scalable and automatic mechanism to accomplish resource allocation. In view of this challenge, this paper proposes two novel economic strategies based on mechanism design. Concretely, we apply the Modified Vickrey Auction (MVA) mechanism to the case where the resource is sufficient; and the Continuous Double Auction (CDA) mechanism is employed when the resource is insufficient. We also prove that aforementioned mechanisms have dominant strategy incentive compatibility. Finally, extensive experiment results are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed strategies in terms of procurement cost and execution efficiency.

The social network learning cloud: architectural education for the 21 century

In less than a decade, architectural education has, in some ways, significantly evolved. The advent of computation has not so much triggered the change, but Social Networks (SN) have ignited a novel way of learning, interaction and knowledge construction. SN enable learners to engage with friends, tutors, professionals and peers, form the base for learning resources, allow students to make their voices heard, to listen to other views and much more. They offer a more authentic, inter-professional and integrated problem based, Just-in-Time (JIT), Just-in-Place (JIP) learning. Online SN work in close association with offline SN to form a blended social learning realm-the Social Network Learning Cloud (SNLC)-that greatly enables and enhances students' learning in a far more influential way than any other learning means, resources or methods do. This paper presents a SNLC for architectural education that provides opportunities for linking the academic Learning Management Systems (LMS) with private or professional SN such that it enhances the learning experience and deepens the knowledge of the students. The paper proposes ways of utilising SNLC in other learning and teaching areas of the curriculum and concludes with directions of how SNLC then may be employed in professional settings.

Remote monitoring system enabling cloud technology upon smart phones and inertial sensors for human kinematics

Stroke is a common neurological condition which is becoming increasingly common as the population ages. This entails healthcare monitoring systems suitable for home use, with remote access for medical professionals and emergency responders. The mobile phone is becoming the easy access tool for self-evaluation of health, but it is hindered by inherent problems including computational power and storage capacity. This research proposes a novel cloud based architecture of a biomedical system for a wearable motion kinematic analysis system which mitigates the above mentioned deficiencies of mobile devices. The system contains three subsystems: 1. Bio Kin WMS for measuring the acceleration and rotation of movement 2. Bio Kin Mobi for Mobile phone based data gathering and visualization 3. Bio Kin Cloud for data intensive computations and storage. The system is implemented as a web system and an android based mobile application. The web system communicates with the mobile application using an encrypted data structure containing sensor data and identifiable headings. The raw data, according to identifiable headings, is stored in the Amazon Relational Database Service which is automatically backed up daily. The system was deployed and tested in Amazon Web Services.

Determining criteria to assess patient readiness for discharge from postanaesthetic care: An international Delphi study

Aims and objectives: To obtain expert consensus on essential criteria required to assess patient readiness for discharge from the postanaesthetic care unit. Background: A patient's condition can deteriorate after surgery, and the immediate postoperative period is recognised internationally as a time of increased risk to patient safety. A recent systematic review identified evidence-based assessment criteria for the safe discharge of patients from the postanaesthetic care unit and identified gaps in the evidence. Design: Descriptive consensus study using the Delphi method. Methods: Members of international clinical specialist groups with expertise in anaesthesia or postanaesthetic care participated in three consultation rounds. Online surveys were used to determine expert consensus with regard to aspects of postanaesthetic care and specific criteria for assessing patient readiness for discharge. Three rounds of surveys were conducted from May 2011-September 2012. Results: Twenty-three experts contributed to the panel. Consensus, that is, at least 75% agreement, was reached in regard to 24 criteria considered essential (e.g. respiratory rate 100%; pain 100%; heart rate 95%; temperature 91%). Consensus was also reached for 15 criteria not considered essential (e.g. appetite 96%; headache 76%). Consensus was not obtained for a further 10 criteria. Participants (95%) agreed that a discharge tool was important to ensure safe patient discharge. Conclusion: Consensus was achieved by a panel of international experts on the use of a tool to assess patient readiness for discharge from postanaesthesia care unit and specific variables to be included or excluded from the tool. Further work is required to develop a tool and test its reliability and validity. Relevance to clinical practice: The findings of this study have informed the development of an evidence-based tool to be piloted in a subsequent funded study of nursing assessment of patient readiness for discharge from the postanaesthetic care unit.

Multi-cloud application execution and data management

Recently, fields with substantial computing requirementshave turned to cloud computing for economical, scalable, and on-demandprovisioning of required execution environments. However, current cloudofferings focus on providing individual servers while tasks such as applicationdistribution and data preparation are left to cloud users. This article presents anew form of cloud called HPC Hybrid Deakin (H2D) cloud; an experimentalhybrid cloud capable of utilising both local and remote computational servicesfor large embarrassingly parallel applications. As well as supporting execution,H2D also provides a new service, called DataVault, that provides transparentdata management services so all cloud-hosted clusters have required datasetsbefore commencing execution.

Fog computing: a cloud to the ground support for smart things and machine-to-machine networks

Cloud services to smart things face latency and intermittent connectivity issues. Fog devices are positioned between cloud and smart devices. Their high speed Internet connection to the cloud, and physical proximity to users, enable real time applications and location based services, and mobility support. Cisco promoted fog computing concept in the areas of smart grid, connected vehicles and wireless sensor and actuator networks. This survey article expands this concept to the decentralized smart building control, recognizes cloudlets as special case of fog computing, and relates it to the software defined networks (SDN) scenarios. Our literature review identifies a handful number of articles. Cooperative data scheduling and adaptive traffic light problems in SDN based vehicular networks, and demand response management in macro station and micro-grid based smart grids are discussed. Security, privacy and trust issues, control information overhead and network control policies do not seem to be studied so far within the fog computing concept.

Energy efficiency on location based applications in mobile cloud computing: a survey

The constrained battery power of mobile devices poses a serious impact on user experience. As an increasingly prevalent type of applications in mobile cloud environments, location-based applications (LBAs) present some inherent limitations concerning energy. For example, the Global Positioning System based positioning mechanism is well-known for its extremely power-hungry attribute. Due to the severity of the issue, considerable researches have focused on energy-efficient locating sensing mechanism in the last a few years. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of recent work on low-power design of LBAs. An overview of LBAs and different locating sensing technologies used today are introduced. Methods for energy saving with existing locating technologies are investigated. Reductions of location updating queries and simplifications of trajectory data are also mentioned. Moreover, we discuss cloud-based schemes in detail which try to develop new energy-efficient locating technologies by leveraging the cloud capabilities of storage, computation and sharing. Finally, we conclude the survey and discuss the future research directions. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Wien.