An operating system in the cloud: TransOS could displace conventional desktop operating systems

Oct. 9, 2012 — A new-cloud based operating system for all kinds of computer is being developed by researchers in China. Details of the TransOS system are reported in a forthcoming special issue of the International Journal of Cloud Computing.

Computer users are familiar to different degrees with the operating system that gets their machines up and running, whether that is the Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, Linux, ChromeOS or other operating system. The OS handles the links between hardware, the CPU, memory, hard drive, peripherals such as printers and cameras as well as the components that connect the computer to the Internet, critically it also allows the user to run the various bits of software and applications they need, such as their email programs, web browsers, word processors, spreadsheets and games.

While, operating systems seem firmly entrenched in the personal computer and their files, documents, movies, sounds and images, sit deep within the hard drive. Traditionally, software too is stored on the same hard drive for quick access to the programs a user needs at any given time. However, there is a growing movement that is taking the applications off the personal hard drive and putting them "in the cloud."

The user connects to the Internet and "runs" the software as and when needed from a cloud server, perhaps even storing their files in the cloud too. This has numerous advantages for the user. First, the software can be kept up to date automatically without their intervention. Secondly, the software is independent of the hardware and operating system and so can be run from almost any computer with an Internet connection. Thirdly, if the user files are also in the cloud, then they can access and use their files anywhere in the world with a network connection and at any time.

The obvious next step is to make the entire process transparent by stripping the operating system from the computer and putting that in the cloud. The computer then becomes a sophisticated, but dummy terminal and its configuration and capabilities become irrelevant to how the user interacts with their files. Already most types of software are represented in the cloud by alternative or additional versions of their desktop equivalents but we are yet to see a fully functional cloud-based OS. For instance, systems such as Java were developed to allow applications to run in a web browser irrespective of the computer or operating system on which that browser was running.

Now, Yaoxue Zhang and Yuezhi Zhou of Tsinghua University, in Beijing, China, have at last developed an operating system for the cloud -- TransOS. The operating system code is stored on a cloud server and allows a connection from a bare terminal computer. The terminal has a minimal amount of code that boots it up and connects it to the Internet dynamically. TransOS then downloads specific pieces of code that offer the user options as if they were running a conventional operating system via a graphical user interface. Applications are then run, calling on the TransOS code only as needed so that memory is not hogged by inactive operating system code as it is by a conventional desktop computer operating system.

"TransOS manages all the resources to provide integrated services for users, including traditional operating systems," the team says. "The TransOS manages all the networked and virtualized hardware and software resources, including traditional OS, physical and virtualized underlying hardware resources, and enables users can select and run any service on demand," the team says

The researchers suggest that TransOS need not be limited to personal computers, but offers the capacity to be enabled on other domestic (refrigerators and washing machines, for instance) and factory equipment. The concept should also work well with mobile devices, such as phones and tablet PCs. It is essential, the team adds, that a cloud operating system architecture and relevant interface standards now be established to allow TransOS to be developed for a vast range of applications.

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Journal Reference:

Yaoxue Zhang, Yuezhi Zhou. TransOS: a transparent computing-based operating system for the cloud. Int. J. Cloud Computing, 2012, 1, 287-301

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Researchers identify ways to exploit 'cloud browsers' for large-scale, anonymous computing

Nov. 28, 2012 — Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Oregon have found a way to exploit cloud-based Web browsers, using them to perform large-scale computing tasks anonymously. The finding has potential ramifications for the security of "cloud browser" services.

At issue are cloud browsers, which create a Web interface in the cloud so that computing is done there rather than on a user's machine. This is particularly useful for mobile devices, such as smartphones, which have limited computing power.The cloud-computing paradigm pools the computational power and storage of multiple computers, allowing shared resources for multiple users.

"Think of a cloud browser as being just like the browser on your desktop computer, but working entirely in the cloud and providing only the resulting image to your screen," says Dr. William Enck, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research.

Because these cloud browsers are designed to perform complex functions, the researchers wanted to see if they could be used to perform a series of large-scale computations that had nothing to do with browsing. Specifically, the researchers wanted to determine if they could perform those functions using the "MapReduce" technique developed by Google, which facilitates coordinated computation involving parallel efforts by multiple machines.

The research team knew that coordinating any new series of computations would entail passing large packets of data between different nodes, or cloud browsers. To address this challenge, researchers stored data packets on bit.ly and other URL-shortening sites, and then passed the resulting "links" between various nodes.

Using this technique, the researchers were able to perform standard computation functions using data packets that were 1, 10 and 100 megabytes in size. "It could have been much larger," Enck says, "but we did not want to be an undue burden on any of the free services we were using."

"We've shown that this can be done," Enck adds. "And one of the broader ramifications of this is that it could be done anonymously. For instance, a third party could easily abuse these systems, taking the free computational power and using it to crack passwords."

However, Enck says cloud browsers can protect themselves to some extent by requiring users to create accounts -- and then putting limits on how those accounts are used. This would make it easier to detect potential problems.

The paper, "Abusing Cloud-Based Browsers for Fun and Profit," will be presented Dec. 6 at the 2012 Annual Computer Security Applications Conference in Orlando, Fla. The paper was co-authored by Vasant Tendulkar and Ashwin Shashidharan, graduate students at NC State, and Joe Pletcher, Ryan Snyder and Dr. Kevin Butler, of the University of Oregon. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office.

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Measuring 'the cloud: 'Performance could be better

Nov. 16, 2012 — Storing information "in the Cloud" is rapidly gaining in popularity. Yet just how do these services really work? Researchers from the University of Twente's Centre for Telematics and Information Technology (CTIT) have completed the first comprehensive analysis of Dropbox, a popular service that already has 100 million users. One shortcoming of this service is that performance is greatly dependant on the physical distance to the Dropbox servers.

The researchers will present their findings in a major forum, the Internet Measurement Conference (IMC2012) in Boston.

Users are fully aware of the advantages of cloud services. You can access your data from anywhere in the world, using a PC, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone. On the down side, there is no systems manager for you to call, someone who can "fix things" if your data fails to appear. Researchers from the CTIT's Design and Analysis of Communication Systems (DACS) group, together with counterparts from the Politecnico di Torino, have made the first detailed performance measurements of Dropbox (currently the most popular cloud storage service). For instance, they have examined the data exchange processes, and checked how and where the information is stored.

Hashing

Dropbox stores its information in Amazon's servers, which are located on the west coast of the United States. The administrative functions, such as hashing (slicing up and sequencing the data), take place on its own servers. If the hashes show that a file (or a part thereof) has already been stored, then Dropbox will not transmit that information a second time. Other cloud services also use this approach, to limit the volume of data exchanged. One condition for the efficient use of hashes is that users must not encrypt their data. If users ignore this requirement, they find that Dropbox's performance suddenly drops away.

Something else that is not apparent to users is the physical distance to the servers on which their data is stored. Amazon has servers throughout the world, yet Dropbox only uses those that are situated on the west coast of the US. Together with the hashing operation, this can lead to a significant drop in performance. Users who are accustomed to having immediate access to their data just have to wait longer.

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