Welcome to TClouds

Mission of TClouds:

• To develop an advanced cloud infrastructure that can deliver computing and storage that achieves a new level of security, privacy, and resilience yet is cost-efficient, simple, and scalable.
• To change the perceptions of cloud computing by demonstrating the prototype infrastructure in socially significant application areas: energy and healthcare.

Motivation:

State-of-the-art cloud computing enables seamless access to services and global availability of information, but inherent risks severely limit the application of this technology.

In a cloud environment, pertinent data is accessed via information and communications technology (ICT) using remote hardware instead of being stored only on a local server or computer. The benefits of increased storage at reduced cost allow information to be made readily available.

However, the current cloud computing model comes with perceived risks concerning resilience and privacy. There are three fundamental trends in ICT whose risks mutually reinforce each other:

• the push towards an Internet of Services - most services are provided on the web as a platform;
• cost pressures drive a migration of ICT into so-called Infrastructure clouds;
• growing importance of ICT as the critical “nervous system” for socially relevant "smart" infrastructures – such as healthcare, energy, environmental monitoring, or mobility.

Protecting data and services in the cloud is important to governments,organizations and enterprises across all industries, including healthcare, energy utilities, and banking. Thus, the perceived security and dependability risks of cloud computing are limiting its application.

The TClouds project targets cloud computing security and minimization of the widespread concerns about the security of personal data by putting its focus on privacy protection in cross-border infrastructures and on ensuring resilience against failures and attacks.