IT and Society: A new virtual project TClouds on the horizon

On November 25 2010 the European consortium including IBM; and Sirrix AG security technologies; Portuguese energy and solution providers, Energias de Portugal and EFACEC; and several additional European academic and corporate research organizations announced Trustworthy Clouds or TClouds, a new virtual infrastructure project.

The goal of the project is to prototype an advanced cloud infrastructure that can deliver a new level of secure, private and resilient computing and storage that is cost-efficient, simple and scalable.

Specialists claim that protecting data and services in the cloud is a challenge of increasing importance for governments and organizations across all industries including healthcare, energy utilities and banking. In a cloud environment, all pertinent data is stored on remote hardware via the Internet instead of being kept on a local server or computer.

To achieve the security, resiliency and scalability needed when outsourcing critical IT systems to a cloud, scientists will build an advanced “Cloud of Clouds” framework for the project. This framework will provide multiple back-ups of the TClouds data and applications in case of a hardware failure or intrusion.

Newly designed security mechanisms will also be developed to remotely verify the security and resiliency of the cloud infrastructure, guaranteeing the integrity of a hardened cloud computing platform to users of cloud services.

Besides advanced technology, TClouds will also study the legal, business and social aspects of cross-border cloud computing, such as country-specific privacy laws; writing cloud computing service agreements; and user-centric requirements, including languages and accessibility.

The TClouds project is scheduled to be completed by September 2013.