Cloud computing with Google Apps for education: An experience report

This article presents an experience report on using Google Apps for Education in a computer science laboratory at the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil. Google Apps platform offers a range of applications in a SaaS (Software as a Service) cloud, bringing several facilities for members of the institution, but also some challenges for system administrators. Throughout the article, we describe the migration to the cloud platform, the current state of the migrated domain and some opportunities that are being explored to best meet our requirements.Key words: cloud computing, Software as a Service, Google Apps, system administration

INSpIRE : Ambiente Integrado de Refinamento de Intenções Baseado em NFV

Many aspects of the management of computer networks, such as quality of service and security, must be taken into consideration to ensure that the network meets the users and clients demands. Fortunately, management solutions were developed to address these aspects, such as Intent-Based Networking (IBN). IBN is a novel networking paradigm that abstracts network configurations by allowing administrators to specify how the network should behave and not what it should do. In this dissertation, we introduce an IBN solution called INSpIRE (Integrated NFV-based Intent Refinement Environment). INSpIRE implements a refinement technique to translate intents into a set of configurations to perform a desired service chain in both homogeneous environments (virtualized functions only) and heterogeneous environments (virtualized functions and physical middleboxes). This refinement technique relies on Non- Functional Requirements (NFRs) and clustering to determine the network functions that will compose the service chain. Our solution is capable of (i) determining the specific functions required to fulfill an intent, (ii) chaining these functions according to their dependencies, and (iii) presenting enough low-level information to network devices for posterior traffic steering. Furthermore, to assess the feasibility of our solution we detail case studies that reflects realworld management situations and evaluate the scalability of the refinement process. Finally, the results showed that INSpIRE is capable of delivering a service chain that meets the requirements specified in the intent in small and large scenarios.Muitos aspectos da gestão de redes de computadores, como a Qualidade de Serviço (QoS) e segurança, devem ser levados em consideração para garantir que a rede atenda às exigências de usuários e clientes. Felizmente, soluções de gestão de rede foram desenvolvidas para lidar com estes aspectos, tais como Redes Baseadas em Intenção (Intent-based Networking - IBN). IBN é um novo paradigma de rede que abstrai configurações de rede, permitindo que administradores especifiquem como a rede deve se comportar e não o que ele deve fazer. Nesta dissertação, apresentamos uma solução de IBN chamada INSpIRE (Integrated NFV-based Intent Refinement Envirorment). INSpIRE implementa uma técnica de refinamento para traduzir intenções em um conjunto de configurações para executar uma desejada cadeia de serviço em ambos, ambientes homogêneos (somente funções virtualizadas) e ambientes heterogêneos (funções virtualizadas e middleboxes físicas). A técnica de refinamento baseia-se em Requisitos Não Funcionais (Non-Functional Requirements - NFRs) e clustering para determinar quais funções de rede deverão compor a cadeia de serviços. Nossa solução é capaz de (i) determinar as funções específicas necessárias para o cumprimento de uma intenção, (ii) encadear estas funções de acordo com suas dependências e (iii) apresentar informações de baixo nível suficientes para que dispositivos de rede possam posteriormente orientar o tráfego de rede por essa cadeia de serviço. Além disso, para avaliar a viabilidade da nossa solução, estudos de caso no qual refletem situações de gestão do mundo real e uma avaliação da escalabilidade do processo de refinamento são detalhados. Por fim, os resultados mostraram que INSpIRE é capaz de fornecer uma cadeia de serviços que atende aos requisitos especificados na intenção em cenários pequenos e grandes

PleBeuS: a Policy-based Blockchain Selection Framework

Due to the growing interest in the blockchain (BC),several applications are being developed, taking advantage ofthe benefits that such technology promises to deliver, such asremoval of Trust Third Parties (TTP) to verify transactions anddata immutability. However, these applications require certainaspects, such as high transaction throughput or data privacy,that early BC implementations (e.g.,Bitcoin) did not provide.Thus, a myriad of novel BC implementations was developed,which introduced the issue of choosing the right implementationfor a specific use-case. This paper presents a framework, calledPleBeuS, to address this selection issue by allowing users tospecify policies that rule the automatic selection of the BC thatdata will be stored. The selection process relies on a cost-awareapproach and considers both public and private implementationsand their technical characteristics. Moreover,PleBeuScom-municates with a BC-agnostic interoperability API to enforcetransactions. The evaluation of thePleBeuSprototype showedthat it is possible to automatically select a BC-based on userpolicies, considering cost thresholds and technical details (e.g.,BC throughput, deployment), and reduce manual interaction

Policy-based Blockchain Selection

As the number of blockchain (BC) platforms providing specific features increases, selecting a platform that fits all requirements needed for a specific case becomes a cumbersome task. For example, not only are BCs' technical details relevant, but also their intrinsic characteristics (e.g., cryptocurrency price) must be considered in selecting a BC for a given case. Hence, the management of data stored in multiple BCs and the selection process are not straightforward due to the myriad platforms and both technical and economic details (e.g., BC throughput and the underlying price fluctuation). This article defines a novel refinement flow (based on the policy continuum) of high-level BC selection policies to low-level BC transactions. Experiments with the BC selection framework developed applying policy-based management (PBM) in the BC context do show that such synergy simplifies data management in multiple BCs driven by user requirements (e.g., based on costs or performance policies). The performance analysis of the framework demonstrates the successful employment of PBM for BC selections with minimal overhead

A Controlled Natural Language to Support Intent-based Blockchain Selection

In the last years, cryptocurrencies have becomeincreasingly popular along with their underlying distributedledger technology, referred to as a Blockchain (BC). Nowadays,a wide variety of BC implementations are available. However,the selection of a suitable implementation for a particularapplication or use case is complex because it requires technicalunderstanding of the underlying BC implementation aspects.Therefore, this paper proposes a Controlled Natural Language(CNL) to extends existing BC selection solutions to abstractunderlying implementation details. The approach allows thespecification abstract high-level policies, referred to as intents, inan English-based language. The approach is inspired by previousapproaches from the network management field. Moreover, astate machine-based refinement technique is proposed to refinethese intents into low-level BC selection policies. The resultsof the performance evaluation of the prototype implementationshow that the refinement process presents a minimal overhead.In addition, the perceived intuitiveness of the CNL by userswas assessed in a survey. The results of the survey suggest thattechnical and non-technical individuals benefit from an intent-based approach equall

PMD-Track: Portable Medical Devices’ Real-time Inventory and Tracking

The recent COVID pandemic challenged healthcare systems worldwide and highlighted not only a lack of sufficient resources in some cases, but also an overall inefficiency in managing available PMDs (Portable Medical Devices). Hospitals typically provide their staff with smartphones to facilitate internal communication and access to hospital services. The key contribution of PMD-Track lies in the use of smartphones replacing expensive stationary gateways scattered across a hospital, acting as mobile gateways associated with a front-end that allows staff to quickly find PMDs. Thus, employees walking nearby tagged PMDs — as they perform daily activities — constantly help to automatically update these PMDs’ locations in a live inventory tracker allowing to retrieve up-to-date information.PMDs equipped with traditional Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tags will update a backend service with the location of recently spotted tags and display information concerning their position in real-time. Different PMD types can issue alerts according to the type of their mobility (i.e., considering that portable devices can be more or less “dynamic”). Thus, it is expected that PMD-Track will enable hospitals to make efficient use of their PMDs in emergency situations, such as a pandemic or eventual natural disasters, where a sudden increase in demand can now be foreseen