abstract: This thesis proposed a novel approach to establish the trust model in a social network scenario based on users' emails. Email is one of the most important social connections nowadays. By analyzing email exchange activities among users, a social network trust model can be established to judge the trust rate between each two users. The whole trust checking process is divided into two steps: local checking and remote checking. Local checking directly contacts the email server to calculate the trust rate based on user's own email communication history. Remote checking is a distributed computing process to get help from user's social network friends and built the trust rate together. The email-based trust model is built upon a cloud computing framework called MobiCloud. Inside MobiCloud, each user occupies a virtual machine which can directly communicate with others. Based on this feature, the distributed trust model is implemented as a combination of local analysis and remote analysis in the cloud. Experiment results show that the trust evaluation model can give accurate trust rate even in a small scale social network which does not have lots of social connections. With this trust model, the security in both social network services and email communication could be improved. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Computer Science 2011

abstract: In modern healthcare environments, there is a strong need to create an infrastructure that reduces time-consuming efforts and costly operations to obtain a patient's complete medical record and uniformly integrates this heterogeneous collection of medical data to deliver it to the healthcare professionals. As a result, healthcare providers are more willing to shift their electronic medical record (EMR) systems to clouds that can remove the geographical distance barriers among providers and patient. Even though cloud-based EMRs have received considerable attention since it would help achieve lower operational cost and better interoperability with other healthcare providers, the adoption of security-aware cloud systems has become an extremely important prerequisite for bringing interoperability and efficient management to the healthcare industry. Since a shared electronic health record (EHR) essentially represents a virtualized aggregation of distributed clinical records from multiple healthcare providers, sharing of such integrated EHRs may comply with various authorization policies from these data providers. In this work, we focus on the authorized and selective sharing of EHRs among several parties with different duties and objectives that satisfies access control and compliance issues in healthcare cloud computing environments. We present a secure medical data sharing framework to support selective sharing of composite EHRs aggregated from various healthcare providers and compliance of HIPAA regulations. Our approach also ensures that privacy concerns need to be accommodated for processing access requests to patients' healthcare information. To realize our proposed approach, we design and implement a cloud-based EHRs sharing system. In addition, we describe case studies and evaluation results to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Computer Science 2012

Integration has always been an important and tricky task for IT-businesses. There are several products available for solving integration issues, one of them is the long developed platform BizTalk from Microsoft. As cloud computing has grown in recent years, Microsoft has been putting more focus towards the cloud. With their cloud, named Azure, expanding a new integration platform have been released, the iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service) Logic Apps. This report aims to evaluate the integration platforms Logic Apps and BizTalk with the purpose of finding out if the new Logic Apps can replace the long developed BizTalk. The evaluation is performed by implementing an application in both platforms, then evaluating selected parameters by giving each a score to concretize our assessment on quantify whether Logic Apps can replace BizTalk.

Cloud computing is one of the most promising technologies for backup and data storage that provides flexible access to data. Cloud computing plays a vital role in remote backup. It is so unfortunate that this computing technique has flaws that thrilled and edgy end users in implementing it effectively. These flaws include factors like lack of integrity, confidentiality and privacy to information. A secure cloud is impossible unless the computer-generated environment is appropriately secured. In any form of technology it is always advisable that security challenges must be prior identified and fixed before the implementation of that particular technology. Primarily, this study will focus on finding security issues in cloud computing with the objective of finding concerns like credential theft and session management in the ―Cloud‖. Main arguments like HTTP banner disclosure, Bash ―ShellShock‖ Injection and password issues were discovered during the stages of study implementation. These challenges may provide information that will permit hackers in manipulating and exploiting cloud environment. Identifying credential theft and session management in cloud-based file sharing technologies a mixed method approach was implemented throughout the course of the study due to the nature of study and unity of analysis. Penetration tests were performed as security testing technique. Prevention and guideline of security threats leads to a friendly and authentic world of technology.

Subject of my thesis are possibilities of using cloud services instead of typical ways of school information systems and teacher's work. Main topics are teaching, schools and teacher's agenda and collaboration. I researched the typical activities of teacher and information flows of school. I conducted a research about usage of cloud services at schools. I used these findings to suggest cloud alternatives and combined them into complex information system of model school.

In this paper are examined methods, architectures and development, dealing with issues of data synchronization. Moreover this paper contains scenarios of the most frequent utilizations, and by analyzing one of the scenarios a general design solving logical problems of data synchronization is created. For the designed solution was created an Android application, which is used as an instrument for presenting created methods, providing processes for data synchronization.

This diploma work deals with a product and service comparison of office suites accessible through a web browser. The author will also compare the advantages and disadvantages of using the desktop and on-line versions. The main benefit of this work is the introduction of cloud-based services and the research results, which could be used by managers of IT departments. This work should help on deciding the right solution in the sphere of cooperation and facilitation of work. Last but not least is the comparison of financial solutions.

The growth of data/information on social media and in large organizations is huge in terms of velocity, volume and variety which is also something being tackled by the large IT companies providing Big Data solutions. The other challenges which are linked to managing the huge pile of data are about ensuring preservation and access of crucial data which has implications in every sector ranging from pharmaceuticals to aerospace and cultural institutions (museums, archives and governmental records). The challenges for data management are further complicated by the changing infrastructure landscape and the new business models to host data in virtualized cloud-based storage termed as Cloud solutions (PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS). Several large companies and public institutions are migrating their data/applications to cloud due to the apparent benefits of scalability, reliability, cost, easy of operability and security. The digitization and maintenance of e-records / digital archives in Cloud provides many potential benefits but it is also prone to several risks to ensure long-term retention of data as well as to ensure integrity, authenticity and accessibility of data. For several organizations such as memory institutions, heavy industries (Aerospace & Defence), banks and pharmaceutical companies, it is business critical to securely store data for long-term with integrity, authenticity and accessibility ensured. Hence, along with preservation of data, it is crucial to keep integrity and authenticity of data intact. The digital forensics methods and tools offer several solutions to ensure preservation of data and detect risks at pre-ingest stage of digital archiving to take appropriate measures towards ensuring authenticity, integrity and accessibility. The specific forensics methods and tools also offers possibilities to detect malicious activities or tampering in the digital archives and prepare report for presentation in the court. This thesis work is focussed on the applications of digital forensics towards ensuring the preservation of data in cloud-based storage. It discusses the applications of processes, methods and tools to improve the acquisition, management and accessibility of collections hosted on cloud-based storage (Google Drive, Sky Drive). The pilot platform (i.e. Google Drive) would be tested with forensics methods/tools to draw conclusions for the memory institutions about hosting their data on cloud storage.

A computação em nuvem é considerada um paradigma computacional da atualidade. Sua adoção vem crescendo nos últimos anos, contudo ainda é incipiente nas organizações brasileiras. Por ser uma tecnologia inovadora, a computação em nuvem vem recebendo maior atenção da academia nos últimos anos, contudo a abordagem do assunto na literatura de Sistemas de Informação ainda é considerada baixa, apesar de crescente. A presente dissertação tem o objetivo de analisar os fatores de adoção da tecnologia, estabelecendo uma relação entre elementos de teorias de base e fatores de adoção. Foram identificados na literatura elementos teóricos e fatores relacionados à computação em nuvem, sendo realizadas associações entre tais fatores e elementos. Os elementos teóricos identificados na revisão da literatura são oriundos da teoria dos custos de transação, teoria da dependência de recursos e teoria de difusão da inovação. A pesquisa realizada é de caráter exploratório, por meio de estudos de casos múltiplos, realizados em três empresas que já adotaram computação em nuvem. O estudo utilizou como fontes de evidências entrevistas semiestruturadas, documentos e consulta a sites corporativos das organizações pesquisadas. Para análise das entrevistas foi utilizada a técnica de análise de conteúdo, com o auxílio do software MAXQDA10. Os resultados do estudo apresentaram como fatores de adoção de computação em nuvem: confiabilidade, escalabilidade, economia, privacidade e segurança. A pesquisa também contribui para o preenchimento da lacuna na literatura de Sistemas de Informação, oferecendo subsídios para estudos quantitativos que confirmem os fatores levantados. / Cloud computing is considered a new computational paradigm for many researchers and practitioners. The adoption of this technology has been arisen in the last few years by the organizations, nevertheless it is still emerging in Brazil. As considered an innovative technology, cloud computing adoption has been gathering more attention in the academy. However, this subject in the Information Systems literature still has little attention, although increasing. This dissertation intends to analyze the adoption factors of cloud computing and establish associations between technology adoption factors and theory elements. Initially were identified in the literature of economic and organizational theories some elements related to the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, Transaction Cost Economics and Resource Dependency Theory. Then, the technology adoption factors were related directly to the cloud computing features. Consequently the theory elements were associated with the technology adoption factors. This research was exploratory, through multiple case studies in three companies that already adopted cloud computing. The data collection was made by interviews and documents analysis. To analyze the seven interviews this research used the content analysis method, using the software MAXQDA10. Thereafter, was conducted an association between the theory elements and the technology adoption factors. As main results, were confirmed as adoption factors in cloud computing: reliability, scalability, security, privacy and economy. This study also contributes for fill in a lack in the literature, as well as offer information for future quantitative researches about the technology adoption factors.

VASCONCELOS, P. R. M. Avaliação de Desempenho de Virtualizações OpenVZ e KVM em Nuvens Computacionais usando Hadoop MapReduce. 2015. 59f. - Dissertação (Mestrado em Engenharia Elétrica e da Computação). Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Elétrica e da Computação (Sobral-CE) / Submitted by Ana Márcia Sousa (marciasousa@ufc.br) on 2017-01-31T12:03:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_prmvasconcelos.pdf: 887927 bytes, checksum: 24478781417951f390514fb33717ac71 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Márcia Sousa (marciasousa@ufc.br) on 2017-01-31T12:07:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_prmvasconcelos.pdf: 887927 bytes, checksum: 24478781417951f390514fb33717ac71 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-31T12:07:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_prmvasconcelos.pdf: 887927 bytes, checksum: 24478781417951f390514fb33717ac71 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-05 / Cloud computing provides access to a set of resources such as virtual machines, storage and network as services. In this context, virtualization has been used as a platform for resource-intensive applications, like Hadoop. The motivations of this use are the following features: server consolidation, scalability and better resources usage. OpenVZ and KVM are very popular and widely used virtualization platforms with distinct virtualization modes: container-based and full-virtualization, respectively. In this work, a set of benchmarks were conducted to measure the performance of Hadoop clusters deployed on OpenNebula private clouds with KVM and OpenVZ as virtualization platforms. The results show that the cluster hosted in the cloud with OpenVZ performs better than KVM in most tests, reaching a lower CPU virtualization overhead, higher disk I/O reading and memory throughput. The cluster hosted in the cloud using KVM, in turn, present better rates only in specifics tests of disk writing. The performance of network virtualization is very close to native in both clusters. / A Computação em nuvem permite acesso a um conjunto de recursos como máquinas virtuais, armazenamento e rede como serviços. Nesse contexto, a virtualização tem sido usada como uma plataforma para aplicações que fazem uso intensivo de recursos como, por exemplo, o Hadoop. As motivações desse uso são as seguintes características: consolidação de servidores, escalabilidade e melhor uso dos recursos físicos. OpenVZ e KVM são plataformas de virtualização amplamente utilizadas com modos de virtualização distintos: virtualização de sistemas operacionais e virtualização completa, respectivamente. Neste trabalho foi realizada uma série de experimentos para avaliar o desempenho de clusters Hadoop instalados em nuvens privadas OpenNebula utilizando OpenVZ e KVM como plataformas de virtualização. Os resultados mostraram que o cluster hospedado na nuvem com OpenVZ apresentou um melhor desempenho na maioria dos testes realizados com menor sobrecarga de virtualização de CPU e maior vazão de leitura de arquivos em disco e memória. O cluster hospedado na nuvem com KVM, por sua vez, apresentou taxas superiores apenas em testes específicos de escrita de dados em disco. O desempenho da virtualização de rede foi muito próximo do nativo em ambos os clusters.