Category Archives: News and Events

Container Technology and its Relevance for the PaaS Cloud -  Dr. Claus Pahl 

Abstract— Containerisation is widely discussed as a lightweight virtualisation solution. Apart from exhibiting benefits over traditional virtual machines in the cloud, containers are especially relevant for Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) clouds to manage and orchestrate applications through containers as an application packaging mechanism. We discuss the requirements that arise from having to facilitate applications through distributed multi-cloud platforms.

As applications are distributed today, the resulting requirements for application packaging and interoperable orchestration over clusters of containers are also discussed. We aim to clarify how containers can change the PaaS cloud as a virtualisation technique, specifically PaaS as a platform technology. We go beyond [3], addressing what is needed to evolve PaaS significantly further as a distributed cloud softwareplatform resulting in a discussion of achievements and limitations of the state-of-the-art. To illustrate concepts, some sample technologies will be discussed if they exemplify technology trends well.

IC4 REACHES OUT TO FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR TO HELP IN ADOPTION OF CLOUD SERVICES

June 4th, 2015: As part of IC4’s goals to help Irish-based companies to both develop more innovative cloud services as well as to consume more cloud services, the centre plays host to a number of outreach events.

David Bannister, Editor of Banking Technology, was recently quoted as saying that “Financial Services firms are still cagey about cloud computing”. IC4’s recent workshop (4th June) “Leveraging the Cloud in the Financial Services Industry” aimed to explore how IC4 can help the financial services sector to increase its trust in the cloud.

The workshop was facilitated by Brian Hayes, former Managing Director of Citibank Europe and V.P. of Citibank N.A. and was co-hosted with ISIN at the IBEC offices on Lower Baggot St. The well-attended workshop had representatives from across the industry including; banking, insurance, legal and software services.

Attendees gained insights in to how IC4 engages with industry and also heard from industry peers regarding their experience of leveraging the power of cloud computing. The workshop format with breakout sessions helped attendees tease out the challenges they face adopting cloud services. Finally, the event also provided attendees with the opportunity to network and to discuss obstacles they face in common with their peers across the industry.

“We greatly appreciate the case studies on cloud usage presented by John Power (Ostia Solutions), Andrew Robertson (CR2) and John Rowan (EngineLabs)” said Tony McEnroe, IC4 Centre Director. “It was great to see participants sharing their experiences with cloud computing with each other while seeking to identify areas where IC4 can assist in overcoming the barriers to cloud adoption.”

For more information on IC4’s outreach events please see events section or contact Tony McEnroe

Senior Post-Doctoral Researchers (2 Posts)

Job Posted: 12 Mar 2015
Closing Date for Applications: 27 Mar 2015
Department: Boole Centre for Research in Informatics
College: College of Science, Engineering and Food Science
Contract Type: Fixed Term Whole-Time
Job Type: Research
Salary: €43,643 – €46,255 p.a.
Position Summary

Project: Cloud Lightning

Applications are invited for two Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher positions at the Boole Centre for Research in Informatics, UCC to work on the Horizon 2020 Funded CloudLightning Project. This project is a collaboration between University College Cork, Dublin City University Intel Shannon, Maxeler (UK), NTNU (Norway), DUTH (Greece), IeAT (Romania) and CERTH (Greece).

To find out more, click here .

The Irish Centre for Cloud Computing and Commerce (IC4) is a multi-institutional Technology Centre, funded by Enterprise Ireland and the IDA, whose mandate is to carry out applied research in areas of cloud computing that are chosen by its industrial members.

IC4 holds regular events to disseminate results from the business and technical research that it carries out, as well as to promote the usage of cloud computing by Irish businesses. Details of all scheduled events can be accessed at http://www.ic4.ie/events/

Workshops 

October 15 ^th : “Cloud Computing – Increasing IT Effectiveness in Delivering Business Services”

Room Q301, DCU Business School (2pm to 6pm)

Register at: http://www.ic4.ie/event/cloud-computing-increasing-it-effectiveness-in-delivering-business-services/

This workshop is being hosted in conjunction with the IMCA (The Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers). This event is a free event and is open to all companies who have an interest in understanding how cloud computing can be applied to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their business.

The event will take the form of five, 30-minute presentations, which will be made by IC4 industry members and researchers, highlighting different use cases for cloud computing.

The presentation topics are (and may be subject to change):

1. ‘Is cloud based office productivity software right for your business’ (Microsoft Inc.)
2. ‘What is the right cloud architecture for my business’ (Egenera Inc.)
3. “Workflow automation in the Open Cloud” (Translation.ie)
4. ‘Using data analytics to leverage value from your business data’ (Emfasize Ltd.)
5. ‘Safeguarding your business data in the cloud’. (IC4)

November 10 ^th : “Interoperability and the Open Cloud”

DCU Business School (2pm to 5.30pm)

Register at; http://www.ic4.ie/event/interoperability-and-the-open-cloud/

Cloud computing is helping unleash the power of IT in every aspect of running a business and is now widely seen as having the potential to make a significant contribution to the future growth in world gross domestic product. For cloud computing to deliver these anticipated benefits, software applications must be interoperable and data must be portable across cloud platforms. This will allow cloud consumers to use ‘off-the-shelf’ cloud services and will accelerate the creation of an innovative and cost efficient environment.

Over the past year IC4 has invested significant research resources in helping to improve interoperability and portability. The purpose of this workshop is to both update members and the community on the results of its research as well as to create awareness of the broader developments in this area. IC4 has arranged for both industry and academic speakers to talk to the following topics:

1. The ‘TOSCA’ Standard – TOSCA’s goal is to advance an interoperability standard that will make it easier to deploy cloud applications without vendor lock-in, while maintaining application requirements for security, governance, and compliance. (IBM)
2. “How Open is Openstack” (Dell)
3. “Open Cloud Standards” (Intel)
4. “Interoperability on a cloud Mobile Application Platform. (Feedhenry)
5. “Disaster Recovery between different cloud platforms” (IC4)

Edelman Breakfast Seminars

In conjunction with Edelman, IC4 will host a series of Breakfast Seminars, which will be held on the last Thursday of every month.

Venue: The Hibernian Club, St Stephen’s Green, from 8am to 9am

Register at: http://www.ic4.ie/events/

October 30 ^th : “ Social media and big data: how can it inform business strategy?”

Speaker: Dr. Theo Lynn (IC4)

  November 27 ^th : “How Big Data, the Cloud and Viewer-Aware Displays are disrupting the DOOH advertising market.”

Speaker: Barry Guiney / Donnacha O’Callaghan (4Impacts and Munster Rugby)

January 29 ^th : Cloud Computing – changing the game in the Energy Industry

Speaker: to be announced

February 26 ^th : “Opening your mind to Open Data”

Speaker: Dominic Byrne, Open Data Ireland

March 26 ^th : “Shelf Analytics -Using data analytics to identify purchasing trends in the retail/consumer goods industry”.

Speaker : Liam English (Bluemetrix)

IC4 Cloud Clinics

December 4 ^th , DCU Business School

Register at: http://www.ic4.ie/event/cloud-on-boarding-clinic-dcu-6/

IC4 is pleased to announce the continuation of its ‘cloud on-boarding’ clinics to help companies leverage the benefits of using cloud computing in their businesses. This cloud clinic takes the form of ‘one-on-one’ sessions with a Cloud Expert who is available to both advise companies on a cloud strategy for their business as well as to provide direct ‘hands on’ help in on-boarding applications to the cloud.

IC4 has recently completed a four month trial of a weekly Cloud Clinic, whose goal was to help start-up companies understand the benefit of using cloud computing in their businesses, either in helping them to deliver their own software application or to consume third party applications delivered over the cloud.

Over forty companies attended these one-on-one clinics and the feedback from participants has been so positive that IC4 is now planning to start these weekly clinics again in the autumn.

“Whenever you go to something advertised as a “free clinic” you’re always a bit uncertain whether it is a covert sales operation, or fearing of being dragged into something you really don’t feel ready to accept yet” says Rogerio Chumbinho, Senior Project Manager at SmartBay Ireland . “That is absolutely NOT the case with IC4′s cloud clinics. I attended two one hour, one-on-one sessions on behalf of SmartBay Ireland, Ltd. with the purpose of assessing how cloud services could help in our IT and data management; both sessions were very informative and very well targeted, led by a professional that very quickly understood my basic level of knowledge on the subject and adapted to it. All this for free, no strings attached! No forms to fill out, no pre-commitment to anything, no vendors calling you the next week! I highly recommend IC4′s cloud clinics whether you’re considering moving some or all of your IT services to the cloud, or just want to know a bit more about the concept. ”

“As a start up company in the technology space and being a non-technical person myself, I found the cloud clinic extremely helpful” says Una Mcneill, CEO of RoamPA Ltd . “ Brian reviewed our prototype application and cloud service concept and offered advice in terms of cloud solutions as well as on data security and other strategies that we needed to put in place as a company. I would highly recommend the cloud clinic and believe this initiative will be key in supporting start up enterprises such as ours to succeed with our cloud business globally”

Cathy McGovern, CEO of Inspiration, came to the clinics looking for advice on how to use the cloud to make her company’s legacy data more accessible and more secure. She later commented; “We found the Cloud Clinic extremely useful from a number of respects; it helped us to document the current set-up, document the business requirements, identify risks within our current set-up and to clarify a way forward. For certain elements of the solution we will need a cloud solution and for others we are satisfied with a local system, with solid back-up arrangements. With conflicting recommendations even within our own internal team , it was extremely useful to get expert, external, independent advice. ”

If you would like to know more about IC4’s Cloud Clinics or would like to register your interest in attending a future cloud clinic, please email me at