Industry Talk: Advances in Self-Managed Clouds and Language Runtimes

15 Mar 2019 1:10 PM - 2:00 PM
Presenter/Speaker: Dr Panos Patros, Computer Science Department, University of Waikato
Location: G.1.15

Cloud Computing abstracts computing resources and offers them in a pay-as-you go manner to its tenant clients. This is a strong benefit for SMEs and non-technical companies who do not have to carry the burden of managing their own servers, with all the nuances that come with it (such as keeping them performant and secure). The current state-of-the-art cloud approach is that of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), which abstracts large parts of the software/hardware stack balancing development flexibility with reduced toil (i.e., repeating and tedious tasks). Crucially, cloud users rely on high-level languages—such as Node.js and Java—that are executed by Language Runtimes and provide a plethora of autonomic features, such as memory management and hardware-specific optimization. From a theoretical perspective, both Clouds and Language Runtimes can be explained through the theory of Self-Adaptive Systems, a cutting-edge field that aims to unify AI and Systems in its quest of explaining everything from cruise control in cars to autoscaling on the Cloud to autonomous exploration rovers. In this talk, applied research on the field of Self-Adaptive Clouds and Language Runtimes that was conducted in collaboration with IBM will be presented. The technical focus was on improving the satisfaction of nonfunctional requirements of the IBM Bluemix PaaS features and the J9 JVM (IBM’s Java Language Runtime). More specifically, the overarching theme was the overcoming of performance interference in clouds that co-locate multiple runtimes. Besides numerous academic publications, this project resulted in 2 patents and 4 anti-patents with IBM as well as was awarded the international “Project of the Year” distinction by IBM CAS in 2016. In Waikato, this work has culminated with the new Oceania Researchers in Cloud and Adaptive-systems (ORCA) lab, which currently hosts 9 research students, supervised by 7 faculty members.

BIO
Panos is interested in various aspects of Software Engineering but in particular, Self-Adaptation in Clouds, Language Runtimes and Embedded Systems, focusing on the Testing and Satisfaction of Nonfunctional Requirements. Panos received his Bachelors in Informatics and Telecommunications from the University of Athens in 2010. He worked for four years as a Software Engineer, Consultant and Academic Tutor before moving to Canada and the University of New Brunswick for graduate school. He completed his Master's in Computer Science in 2014 and his PhD in 2018, both as a member of the IBM/UNB Centre of Advanced Studies - Atlantic. While in Canada, he taught CS courses (after completing a Diploma in University Teaching in 2014) and participated in industrial R&D projects. He joined the department at Waikato in 2018 as a Lecturer focusing on various aspects of Software Engineering. He started the Oceania Researchers in Cloud and Adaptive-systems (ORCA) lab at the Computer Science Department of the University of Waikato in 2019.