S. Helmer

Affordable and Energy-Efficient Cloud Computing Clusters: The Bolzano Raspberry Pi Cloud Cluster Experiment

We present our ongoing work building a Raspberry Pi cluster consisting of 300 nodes. The unique characteristics of this single board computer pose several challenges, but also offer a number of interesting opportunities. On the one hand, a single Raspberry Pi can be purchased cheaply and has a low power consumption, which makes it possible to create an affordable and energy-efficient cluster. On the other hand, it lacks in computing power, which makes it difficult to run computationally intensive software on it. Nevertheless, by combining a large number of Raspberries into a cluster, this drawback can be (partially) offset. Here we report on the first important steps of creating our cluster: how to set up and configure the hardware and the system software, and how to monitor and maintain the system. We also discuss potential use cases for our cluster, the two most important being an inexpensive and green test bed for cloud computing research and a robust and mobile data center for operating in adverse environments.

Rails Girls 54: Making Rails Girls Even More Fun

Bringing the Cloud to Rural and Remote Areas - Cloudlet by Cloudlet

Instead of relying on huge and expensive data centers for rolling out cloudbased services to rural and remote areas, we propose a hardware platform based on small single-board computers. The role of these micro-data centers is twofold. On the one hand, they act as intermediaries between cloud services and clients, improving availability in the case of network or power outages. On the other hand, they run community-based services on local infrastructure. We illustrate how to build such a system without incurring high costs, high power consumption, or single points of failure. Additionally, we opt for a system that is extendable and scalable as well as easy to deploy, relying on an open design.

Bringing the Cloud to Rural and Remote Areas via Cloudlets

A survey study on major technical barriers affecting the decision to adopt cloud services

In the context of cloud computing, risks associated with underlying technologies, risks involving service models and outsourcing, and enterprise readiness have been recognized as potential barriers for the adoption. To accelerate cloud adoption, the concrete barriers negatively influencing the adoption decision need to be identified. Our study aims at understanding the impact of technical and security-related barriers on the organizational decision to adopt the cloud. We analyzed data collected through a web survey of 352 individuals working for enterprises consisting of decision makers as well as employees from other levels within an organization. The comparison of adopter and non-adopter sample reveals three potential adoption inhibitor, security, data privacy, and portability. The result from our logistic regression analysis confirms the criticality of the security concern, which results in an up to 26-fold increase in the non-adoption likelihood. Our study underlines the importance of the technical and security perspectives for research investigating the adoption of technology.