Independent Study on Cloud Computing

I would like to start an independent study on Cloud computing. I am honored to have Professor Catherine Fang, from Carnegie Mellon University, to be my advisor.

Cloud computing is a type of computing that relies on shared resources, including computing, networking and storage to handle applications. Cloud services are delivered and used over the Internet and are paid on an as-needed or pay-per-use business model. Cloud services are typically deployed based on the end-user requirements, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as Service (SaaS) and a more modern one as Data as a Service(DaaS).

Cloud computing involves a large spectrum of knowledge and I divide it into Two parts into two independent studies. The first Part focuses on IaaS, the concepts and design principles, architectures behind existing cloud infrastructure solutions. The second Part will focus on PaaS, SaaS and Daas, covering Hadoop ecosystems, mainstream Serverless solutions and cloud based applications. Both conceptual topics and hands-on projects will be covered in the Independent studies.

I will cover the topics as following in my 7 weeks' independent study

1. Cloud infrastructures

• Historical Perspective of Data Centers

• Datacenter Components: IT Equipment and Facilities

• Design Considerations: Requirements, Power, Efficiency & Redundancy,

• Power Calculations, PUE and Challenges in Cloud Data Centers

• Cloud Management and Cloud Software Deployment Considerations

• The differences between public, private, hybrid cloud in terms of their infrastructure, design, business use cases

2. Virtualization (CPU, Memory, I/O), Case Study: Amazon EC2

3. Software-Defined networks and storage

Will keep my Active Log posted

1. Activity Log - Most students have good results with the following process:

2. Set up a Google spreadsheet with the following data (minimum recommended): Week # Accomplished  (aka What did I do this week?) - this is a summary, not every little detail. Challenges - any obstacles you faced this week, could be from any sourcePlan for next week - details are good here; this may or may not match up to your original Work PlanWork products - Links to any significant work you did this week (this column may not always be filled in) Grade - score yourself on your week's work:  10 (high) to 1 (low) Share the spreadsheet with your faculty supervisor and program director (me!) Log your activities on a weekly basis, from Monday to Sunday. A good time to fill out the weekly activity log is Sunday night. Instructors can check the activity log on Monday morning to see the results of the previous week's work. The Activity Log is very useful for writing the Reflection Essay (at the end ) since you record everything you've done here.