Your smartphone evolving?

I've been using a combination of smartphones over the past few years from a range of vendors and a range of operating systems. Problems I've had with all of them as well as the recent move by Ubuntu, have got me thinking: What do people want to do with their pads? Playing games is fine, but even then wouldn't it be better if you didn't have to code for each platform (iOS, Android, XBox, PS3 ...)? We've spent a lot of years working on productivity software, such as Word, Powerpoint, Eclipse etc. and today the equivalents for pads are woefully inadequate. Of course we are unlikely to have to wait as long for them to improve on pads as they did on PCs, but it's still a waste of time and energy! And running services off the device is not only a waste of compute power/bandwidth, it assumes the network is always present, which it often isn't.

I hate to admit this, but maybe Microsoft have it right in a way with the Surface running almost a stock version of Windows so that the same applications that run on the laptop/desktop can run on their pad, and vice versa. Now maybe Apple will eventually do the same thing with iOS, but Android doesn't provide a migration path from or to the desktop. In the end this may well be a significant limiting factor for Android and one which Google will find very hard to get around, without perhaps adopting standard Java.

Of course applications need to be aware of the environment on which they run so they can take advantage of the form factor, network connectivity etc. There may well be applications that simply do not, or should not, be expected to work on the complete range of deployment environments (phone, pad, laptop, desktop etc.) But are they the exception or the norm? I believe they are the exception: most of the applications that run on my laptop are ones I'd like to run on the pad; most of the things I do on my pad I'd like the option of doing on my laptop or phone, particularly now it has a 5" screen.

What does this mean for the "open source" pad and phone market? I believe that unless Android actually allows for a wider variety of un-modified Linux-based applications to run on it, then it risks becoming marginalised. OK, this may be a strange thing to discuss when all we hear on an almost weekly basis is that Android market share is growing, but look at Apple in the 1980's before Windows came along. In fact Android's biggest threat could well come from the pure Linux pads/phones that we are beginning to see enter the market: the pads and phones can run stock Java and if Android is a requirement then there's always virtualisation. I think that the platform that has the best chance of winning (adoption/relevancy) is the one which most closely matches the OS that we use on our desktops.

CloudCom 2013

I'm on the PC.


Call for Papers

The “Cloud” is a natural evolution of distributed computing and of the widespread adaption of virtualization and SOA. In Cloud Computing, IT-related capabilities and resources are provided as services, via the Internet and on-demand, accessible without requiring detailed knowledge of the underlying technology. The IEEE International Conference and Workshops on Cloud Computing Technology and Science, steered by the Cloud Computing Association, aim to bring together researchers who work on cloud computing and related technologies.

Manuscripts need to be prepared according to IEEE CS format. For regular papers, the page limit will be 8 pages. Authors of accepted papers will be asked to present in a plenary session.

Manuscripts need to be prepared according to the IEEE CS format (Format Link)

For regular papers, the page limit will be 8 pages. (submission deadline: August 7)
(If the paper is accepted as a short paper, the page limit for final camera ready will be 6 pages.)

For workshops and the Ph.D. consortium, the page limit will be 6 pages. (submission deadline: August 7)

For poster and demo papers, the page limit will be 4 pages. (submission deadline: August 7)

The IEEE CloudCom 2013 submission site is: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ieeecloudcom2013

All accepted papers will be published by IEEE CS Press (IEEE Xplore) and indexed by EI and ISSN.

IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing (TCC: http://computer.org/TCC) is organising a Special Issue which encourages submission of revised and extended versions of 2-3 best/top rated papers in the area of Cloud Computing from our conference. The special issue also seeks direct submission of papers that present 'new' ideas for the first time in TCC. All papers will be peer-reviewed and selected competitively based on their originality and merit as per requirement of TCC. All queries on this special issue should be directed to its guest editors. Details on this special issue will be informed about in a separate Call for Papers at:
http://www.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/transactions/cfps/cfp_tcc_ucc-st.pdf

Topics include but are not limited to:

Architecture:
Cloud Services models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)
Cloud services reference models and standardisation
Intercloud architecture models
Cloud federation and hybrid cloud infrastructure
Cloud services provisioning and management
Cloud services delivery models, campus integration and “last mile” issues
Networking technologies for data centers, intracloud and interclouds
Cloud powered services design
Programming models and systems/tools
Cloud system design with FPGA, GPU, APU
Monitoring, management and maintenance
Operational, economic and business models
Green data centers
Business processes, compliance and certification
Dynamic resource provisioning

Big Data:
Machine learning
Data mining
Approximate and scalable statistical methods
Graph algorithms
Querying and search
Data Lifecycle Management for Big Data (sources, cleansing, federation, preservation, privacy, etc.)
Frameworks, tools and their composition
Storage and analytic architectures
Performance and debugging
Hardware optimizations for Big Data (multi-core, GPU, networking, etc.)
Data Flow management and scheduling

Security and Privacy:
Accountability
Audit in clouds
Authentication and authorization
Cloud integrity and binding issues
Cryptography for/ in the cloud
Hypervisor security
Identity/ Security as a Service
Prevention of data loss or leakage
Secure, interoperable identity in the Cloud
Security and privacy in clouds
Trust and credential management
Trusted Computing in Cloud Computing
Usability and security

Services and Applications:
Security services on the Cloud
Data management applications and services on the Cloud
Scheduling and application workflows on the Cloud
Cloud application benchmarks
Cloud-based services and protocols
Cloud model and framework
Cloud-based storage and file systems
Cloud scalability and performance
Fault-tolerance of cloud services and applications
Application development and debugging tools
Business models and economics of Cloud services
Services for improving Cloud application availability
Use cases of Cloud applications

Virtualization:
Server, storage, network virtualization
Resource monitoring
Virtual desktop
Resilience, fault tolerance
Modeling and performance evaluation
Security aspects
Enabling disaster recovery, job migration
Energy efficient issues

HPC on Cloud:
Load balancing for HPC clouds
Middleware framework for HPC clouds
Scalable scheduling for HPC clouds
HPC as a Service
Performance Modeling and Management
Programming models for HPC clouds
HPC cloud applications ; Use cases, experiences with HPC clouds
Cloud deployment systems for HPC clouds
GPU on the Cloud

IoT and Mobile on Cloud:
IoT cloud architectures, models
Cloud-based dynamic composition of IoT applications and services
Cloud-based context-aware IoT applications and services
Mobile cloud architectures and models
Green mobile cloud computing
Resource management in mobile cloud environments
Cloud support for mobility-aware networking and protocols
Multimedia applications in mobile cloud environments
Security, privacy and trust in mobile IoT clouds
Cloud-based mobile networks and applications, e.g., cloud-based mobile social networks, cloud-based vehicle networks, and cloud-based ehealthcare networks

WS-TX Technical Committee closes its doors ...

As Ian Robinson put it ...

"Per section 2.15 of the TC Process [1] "Closing a TC", the TC has decided by a full majority vote of the TC membership to close the WS-Tx Technical Committee. The TC successfully delivered 3 OASIS open standard specifications:
WS-Coordination
WS-AtomicTransaction
WS-BusinessActivity

We delivered 2 versions of the standard, the most recent being V1.2 in 2009.

There are a number of mature implementations of these specifications and no outstanding issues being discussed by the TC.
In the early days of the TC we had many excellent discussions to tie down and deliver a tight set of specifications; we had some great face to face meetings in the US and Europe and developed some great working relationships which I think have (mostly) survived the duration of the TC.

Our work is done. Victory is declared. Thanks to everyone for making it both successful and enjoyable.


[1] https://www.oasis-open.org/policies-guidelines/tc-process"