AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course will address resource virtualization issues in complex information systems. The latest methodological and architectural solutions will be presented. Next, the cloud computing approach will be studied by analyzing both formal aspects and commercial solutions.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

A. Distributed systems
Scalability, availability/reliability. Abstractions and models; hypothesis on order and time. Problem of consensus; FLP impossibility and CAP theorem. Strong and weak consistency. Time and order: partial and total order. Relation between time, order and performances. Synchronous and asynchronous replicas. Algorithms that tolerate net partitions: Paxos, Raft, ZAB. Replica mechanisms with strong consistency. Protocols with weak consistency. Data types that have replica convergence (CRDT). CALM theorem.
B. Principles and practical of the Cloud Computing
What it is. Service models: Infrastructure as to Service (IaaS), Platform as to Service (Paas), Software as to Service (SaaS). Contractual aspects and business models. Socio-economic aspects. Technology of Cloud Computing. Examples of Cloud services (Web Services, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS). Organization and management of data in the Cloud. Examples of modern applications (searching, indexing, ranking, collective intelligence). Economic aspects. Security and governance of Cloud (public, private, hybrid).
C. Introduction to Green IT
From traditional server to virtualized server in the Data Center. The organization of a modern Data Center. The issues of power efficiency. The evolution of networks inside Data Centers.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mikito Takada, “Distributed Systems for fun and profit”, free e-book [http://book.mixu.net/distsys/], 2013.
Richard Hill et al., “Guide to Cloud Computing”, Springer (also as ebook), 2012.
Marty Poniatowski, “Foundation of Green IT: Consolidation, Virtualization, Efficiency, and ROI in the Data Center”, Prentice Hall (also as ebook), 2009.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

GIUSEPPE MARINO (President)

ANTONIO BOCCALATTE

LESSONS

Class schedule

VIRTUALIZATION AND CLOUD COMPUTING

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Case study of a real application and oral examination.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

To achieve competence in recognizing the specific issues of distributed systems, to be able to outline viable technical solutions. To acquire competence in evaluating and comparing projects of Cloud architectures and in designing simple applicative services on the Internet.

Exam schedule