During the project significant work has taken place to deliver a secure, robust and scalable multi-cloud platform. Towards this end a set of use cases (5 in total) in the broader smart cities/homes area was identified, not only matching the interests and daily business of project partners, but also calling inherently for the joint consideration of IoT, Big Data and Cloud challenges. The ethical and privacy issues that may arise especially in a cross-border setup were also identified and appropriate processes and measures have been put in place.
With respect to the iKaaS platform, following a structured and joint consideration of IoT, Big Data and Cloud requirements, the architecture of the iKaaS platform together with the interfaces specification was developed. The architecture further decomposes the original idea of a multi-cloud environment onto a set of components and their needed functionalities for accommodating the whole lifecycle of a service rolled out using the iKaaS platform. The platform design also supports the notion of "Knowledge as a Service (KaaS)" allowing third parties to become both consumers as well as providers of data (raw or processed) and even functionalities of/to the platform.
The identified components and supported functionalities were further elaborated with their final specification and algorithmic implementation being delivered together with data model components of the unified iKaaS data model. The project also implemented the components for use and manipulation in cloud infrastructures in formats widely supported to maximize further uptake and integration of components in iKaaS platform instantiations, which allowed for real-life use case validation.
This has also led to a considerable number of publications (53 in number), as well as to 8 standardization contributions and the filling of 6 patents.
Exploitation of iKaaS results by the project partners has been mainly in terms of scientific/research outcomes published in conferences, journals and workshops and building/enhancing the necessary “know-how” in the joint consideration of IoT, Big Data and Cloud. At a later stage these outcomes are expected to also make the way into products and services coming from the industrial partners of the consortium, as well as in academic and research exploitation. The exploitation of the iKaaS results and the “know how” developed also have the potential of leading to spin-off ventures as well as follow-up research initiatives.
In addition, the public companies and public administration authorities participating in the consortium are committed into rolling out services for the general public in their vicinity, leveraging the iKaaS platform. This will serve as a live example of the benefits the iKaaS platform can bring, potentially attracting interest from other, similar in nature, stakeholders.
