CD Laboratory for Client-Centric Cloud Computing

With cloud computing, large-scale IT systems are the focus of research activities. Clouds are an organised collection of different services that are made available to customers via the Internet. The investigations carried out serve to optimise various aspects of such clouds on the user side.

The research work focuses on the client-side challenges of cloud computing systems. Of particular interest are the specification and composition of the various services, which are no longer stored on the personal PC but run as applications on the Internet. Individual computer programmes, as well as complete operating systems, are made available via a network in cloud computing. Dynamic and adapted to demand, you no longer purchase entire programme licences or servers, but only pay for the services you actually use.

The central challenges of the investigations are related to various aspects of security. These include appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, for example, to ensure the actual separation of different customers and compliance with legal standards in different countries. There is also an enormous need for research into reliability and efficiency in the cloud in order to prevent system failures in the future. Another focus of the scientific activities is on the area of agreements on the rights and obligations between cloud users and cloud providers. The research results will contribute to contract support and the optimisation of service agreements.

The research thus lays the foundation for the optimised provision of clouds in various application areas and for the use of cloud offers. The targeted spectrum covers various types of clouds. On the one hand, there are simple systems: In these, customers use - based on a contractual agreement - the platform and infrastructure of individual providers with their own data and exclusive software. On the other hand, there are dynamically allocated platforms that are combined with each other. Previously unknown software and data services from different providers are located in different clouds.