Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DITAS (DITAS: Data-intensive applications Improvement by moving daTA and computation in mixed cloud/fog environmentS)
Reporting period: 2018-07-01 to 2019-12-31
Nowadays, there is an increasing need to develop data intensive applications able to manage more and more amounts of data coming from distributed and heterogeneous sources, e.g. IoT sensors and devices or mobile applications, effectively, quickly, correctly, and securely. In its current state, however, Cloud Computing paradigm does not perfectly fit for these kinds of applications; specifically, request latencies from a device to a cloud-based backend may exceed acceptable levels, or security and privacy regulations may disallow data movement from end devices to centralized cloud services. At the same time, Fog Computing — which combines end devices and cloud services with edge nodes — has emerged as a paradigm promising to solve these problems by moving parts of the computation from both devices and cloud services to edge nodes. It thereby allows to address, e.g. latency issues through increased spatial proximity. In matters of security and privacy, in turn, Fog Computing can be beneficial through carefully controlling which data subset is allowed to be processed on which node with or without additional steps such as encryption, data fragmentation, or anonymization and aggregation. Only in combination with cloud services, edge nodes can provide the reliability and scalability levels required by data-intensive applications. Today, such a setup is difficult to manage due to heterogeneity of runtime environments but also due to the sheer number of involved machines and the current lack of a solutions that hide this complexity. This is where the project DITAS comes into play.
The goal of DITAS is to propose a Cloud Platform to support information logistics for data-intensive applications where data processing does not occur only on cloud resources but also on devices at the edge of the network. The resulting heterogeneous and distributed infrastructure can be easily configured and managed by developers of data-intensive applications through the DITAS toolkit that proposes a common accessibility framework to provide a unified access to the data oblivious of location.
The goal of DITAS is to propose a Cloud Platform to support information logistics for data-intensive applications where data processing does not occur only on cloud resources but also on devices at the edge of the network. The resulting heterogeneous and distributed infrastructure can be easily configured and managed by developers of data-intensive applications through the DITAS toolkit that proposes a common accessibility framework to provide a unified access to the data oblivious of location.
During this first period the work performed was focused on the definition of the DITAS architecture, based on the business and technical requirements from the analysis of the market needs. The definition of an architecture which provides a uniform and easy access to data was key objective. Definition and design of the main components of the two main blocks composing DITAS have been also performed during this period (Software Development Kit and Execution Environment) along with data management and data movement strategies.
On the non-technical part, a preliminary study of DITAS impact and exploitation possibilities has been performed. The main market needs and requirements have been elicited as an input to the development of the framework.
The initial strategy of communication, dissemination, collaboration, training and standardization activities have been created based on creating visibility, awareness and promotion of DITAS and its expected results. Activities such as set up and maintenance of the project website and social media channels and MarCom materials and tools, papers publications and organisation of workshops were performed.
First definition of the exploitation actions has been identified, based on an internal workshop to collect the potential opportunities identified by all the partners and a joint definition of business scenarios, benefits of DITAS adoption and description of the DITAS exploitation strategy.
On the non-technical part, a preliminary study of DITAS impact and exploitation possibilities has been performed. The main market needs and requirements have been elicited as an input to the development of the framework.
The initial strategy of communication, dissemination, collaboration, training and standardization activities have been created based on creating visibility, awareness and promotion of DITAS and its expected results. Activities such as set up and maintenance of the project website and social media channels and MarCom materials and tools, papers publications and organisation of workshops were performed.
First definition of the exploitation actions has been identified, based on an internal workshop to collect the potential opportunities identified by all the partners and a joint definition of business scenarios, benefits of DITAS adoption and description of the DITAS exploitation strategy.
DITAS has just covered during the first 18 months its first iteration in terms of requirements, architecture and components definition, always taking into account security issues. This first iteration results will be further developed during the second iteration of the project. Thanks to a revision of the market analysis and business and technical as new inputs to the process, final releases of the data management, Software Development Kit prototype and Execution Environment environment will be delivered. By the end of the project final version of the integration of DITAS and Cloud Testbed will be also completed along with the final case studies validation.
According to the results of the activities already carried out and the project results, the dissemination and communication plan for the second iteration of the project is reviewed focusing on establish stakeholders’ interests and creation and promotion of the future DITAS Sustainability Body.
According to the results of the activities already carried out and the project results, the dissemination and communication plan for the second iteration of the project is reviewed focusing on establish stakeholders’ interests and creation and promotion of the future DITAS Sustainability Body.