Duke University

The researchers at Duke University are conducting research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in collaboration with NCSU, UNC Chapel Hill, and NCAT State University to explore and test Trustworthy Virtual Cloud Computing.

Research Projects
Resources

Research Projects

Trustworthy Virtual Cloud Computing

Abstract: Virtual cloud computing is emerging as a promising solution to IT management to both ease the provisioning and administration of complex hardware and software systems and reduce the operational costs. With the industry’s continuous investment (e.g., Amazon Elastic Cloud Computing, IBM Blue Cloud), virtual cloud computing is likely to be a major component of the future IT solution, which will have significant impact on almost all sectors of society. The trustworthiness of virtual cloud computing is thus critical to the well-being of all organizations or individuals that will rely on virtual cloud computing for their IT solutions. This project envisions trustworthy virtual cloud computing and investigates fundamental research issues leading to this vision. Central to this visi ....

Resources

Paper: Reflective Control for an Elastic Cloud Application: An Automated Experiment Workbench
July 22 2009
By Azbayar Demberel, Jeff Chase, and Shivnath Babu Abstract: This paper addresses “reflective” control for applications that use server resources from a shared cloud infrastructure opportunistically. In this approach, an external reflective controller launches application functions based on knowledge of what resources are available from the cloud, their cost, and their value to the application through time. As a driving example, we consider re-flective control for an important use of elastic computing: a virtual workbench for digital experiments, focusing on automated benchmarking. We report progress on a Workbench Automation/Intelligence Framework (Waif), and show how it can adapt to available cloud resources by planning and launching experiments in parallel. Waif is part of the ongoing Automat project – an open testbed for programmable hosting centers, built on the ORCA resource leasing platform. We designed a prototype Waif, directed at constructing server performance models by mapping server behavior within a multi-dimensional parameter space. The planner estimates the value and cost of candidate experiments based on the results of completed experiments. In this setting, we show the potential of reflective control to accelerate progress toward a benchmarking objective in a way that balances speed, accuracy, and cost.