Paul Townend

Umeå University, Sweden

About

Paul Townend

Associate Professor at Umeå University in Sweden, where I am Founder and Head of the Green Distributed Computing group. I'm interested in developing energy efficient and sustainable / low-carbon approaches for distributed systems, with a current focus on Edge-Cloud. I also have a general background in reliable and dependable systems engineering.

I currently supervise 5 PhD students (Rohail Gulbaz, Yangyang Wen, Ileet Malla, Lidia Kidane, and a position under recruitment) and 2 post-docs (Yashwant Patel Singh and Clément Courageux-Sudan) looking at various aspects of Green Cloud Computing, IoT, and Operational Data management.

I coordinate and teach Cloud Computing both at Umeå University and as part of the national WASP PhD program in Sweden. I'm also a part of the WASP Graduate School management team (funding and supporting over 460 PhD students at present). You can find my Google Scholar information here.

Resume (as of September 2024)

Summary

Paul Townend

Associate Professor (full tenure and Docent) with an interest in energy efficient and sustainable / low-carbon distributed systems and Cloud computing.

  • Founder and Head of the Umeå Green Distributed Computing group
  • Research Leader in the Umeå Autonomous Distributed Systems lab
  • PI and Co-I in over $5.8M of ongoing research projects
  • Led and co-led over $3M in successfully completed research projects
  • 60+ peer-reviewed publications and 2 International Patents
  • Scientific Coordinator: Horizon Europe COGNIT project
  • Scientific Advisor & Co-Manager: WARA-Ops Research Arena
  • Qualified as Docent - Swedish habilitation
  • Served as General Chair of 15 IEEE international conferences
  • Served as TPC Member of 30 IEEE international conferences
  • Advise 5 ongoing PhDs:
    • TBD (main advisor, currently recruiting for January 2025)
    • I. Malla (main advisor, admitted April 2024)
    • Y. Wen (main advisor, admitted January 2024)
    • R. Gulbaz (main advisor, admitted November 2023)
    • L. Kidane (co-advisor, admitted 2020)
  • Advise 2 post-docs:
    • Yashwant Singh Patel (2023-2025)
    • Clément Courageux-Sudan (2024-2026)
  • Advised 6 completed PhDs:
    • X. Ouyang (main advisor, 2017)
    • H. Aljahdali (main advisor, 2016)
    • P. Garraghan (main advisor, 2014)
    • D. Webster (main advisor, 2013)
    • A. Sargeant (co-advisor, 2013)
    • J. Arshad (co-advisor, 2011)
  • Coordinator of 3 courses at Umeå:
    • Cloud Computing, 2020 - present
    • Distributed Systems, 2021 - 2023
    • Advanced Distributed Systems, 2020 - 2023

Education

PhD. Computer Science

2002 - 2006

Thesis title: Topology-Aware Fault-Tolerance in Grids, 2006.
University of Leeds, UK

MSc. Computer Science (by Research)

2000 - 2002

Thesis title: Assessing the Effectiveness of Multi-Version Systems Using Fault Injection, 2002.
Durham University, UK

BSc. Computer Science

1997 - 2000

General 3 year degree in Computer Science.
Durham University, UK

Positions

Associate Professor (Full Tenure and Docent)

2020 - present

Umeå University, Sweden

CTO

2017 - 2020

Edgetic Ltd., UK

University Academic Fellow (Tenure-Track)

2015 - 2017

University of Leeds, UK

Visiting Researcher

2011 (fall)

Pennsylvania State University, USA

Research Fellow

2006 - 2015

University of Leeds, UK

Ongoing Research Projects

Adaptive and Scalable Monitoring of Streaming Operational Data in Massive-Scale Systems
  • Funded by WASP Sweden (2025-2028).   Currently recruiting.
    $435,000.  Principle Investigator.
Energy-Aware Autonomous Management for Cloud-Edge Infrastructures
  • Funded by WASP Sweden (2024-2027).
    $440,000.  Principle Investigator.
Models and algorithms for managing energy in Cloud-Edge systems
  • Faculty Funded Research Time. Umeå University (2024-2028).
    $260,000.  Principle Investigator.
WARA-Ops Research Arena
  • Funded by WASP Sweden (2023-2025).
    $3,450,000.   Co-Principle Investigator & Scientific Advisor.
A Cognitive Serverless Framework for the Cloud-Edge Continuum
  • Funded by Horizon Europe (2023-2025).
    $815,000.  Co-Investigator & Scientific Coordinator.
De facto Center of Excellence in Autonomous Distributed Systems
  • Funded by the Kempe Foundations (2023-2025).
    $470,000.  Co-Investigator.

Ongoing Infrastructure Grants/Projects

ARISEN: Advanced Research Infrastructure for Smart Edge Networks
  • Funded by Umeå University (since 2024).
    $57,000.  Principle Investigator.
CETI: Cloud-Edge Teaching Infrastructure
  • Funded by Umeå University (since 2022).
    $38,000.  Principle Investigator.

Completed Projects

WCIB: WARA Common Information Bridge for Enabling Research on Data-Driven Cloud Operations
  • Funded by WASP Sweden (2021-2022).
     $83,000.  Principle Investigator.
Server Modelling Capability
  • Funded by Innovate UK (2020-2021).
     $441,000.  Principle Investigator.
Service for Enhancing Energy Efficiency in Data Centres
  • Funded by UK EPSRC (2014-2017).
    $180,000.   Principle Investigator.
Trusted Digital Spaces through Timely Reliable and Personalised Provenance
  • Funded by UK TSB (2011-2014).
    $1,552,000.  Co-Investigator.
WRG: White Rose Grid Phase III Platform Grant
  • Funded by UK EPSRC (2008-2013).
    $683,000.  Co-Investigator.
COLAB: E-Science Collaboration between Leeds and Beihang in China For Grid-Enabled Visualisation Applications
  • Funded by UK EPSRC (2006-2009).
    $87,000.  Co-Investigator.

Professional activities and service

  • Qualified as Docent - Swedish habilitation, 2024
  • External (proposal) reviewer, Swiss National Science Foundation, 2024
  • External (recruitment) reviewer, Uppsala University, 2023
  • PhD Grading Committee member, Chalmers, 2023
  • Cluster Leader: WASP Autonomous Clouds and Networks, 2021 - present
  • Member: Umeå Computing Science Committee for Research, 2020 - present
  • Member: WASP Graduate School Management committee, 2020 – present
  • Coordinator & examiner: WASP Cloud Computing and SE, 2020 – present
  • Examiner: WASP Learning Feature Representations Course, 2020 - present
  • Guest editor: IEEE Transactions on Services Computing 12(1), 2019
  • Permanent steering committee member: IEEE JointCloud, 2018 – present
  • PhD thesis examiner: University of Newcastle, UK, 2017 – 2018
  • Visiting Scientist: University of Leeds, UK, 2017 – 2021
  • Guest editor: Phil. Transactions of the Royal Society A, 371(1983), 2013
  • Team Leader: Distributed Systems & Services Group, Univ. Leeds, 2004 - 2017
  • Editor: IEEE Distributed Systems Online Journal (dependability) 2004 – 2007

Publications (as of Sept. 2024)

It's a little difficult to keep track of everything, so if you're interested in my publications I suggest you have a look at my Google Scholar page. That being said, here is an attempt at listing them!

Journal papers

2024
Y. S. Patel, P. Townend, A. Singh, PO. Östberg, "Modeling the Green Cloud Continuum: Integrating Energy Considerations into Cloud-Edge Models", Cluster Computing, Springer, 2024  
2018
C. Reta, I. Solis-Moreno, J. Cantoral-Ceballos, R. Alvarez-Vargas, P. Townend, “Improving content-based image retrieval for heterogeneous datasets using histogram-based descriptors”, in Multimedia Tools and Applications, 77(7): 8163-8193, Springer, April 2018
2018
X. Ouyang, P. Garraghan, B. Primas, D. McKee, P. Townend, J. Xu, “Adaptive speculation for efficient internetware application execution in clouds”, ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, 18(2), ACM, March 2018
2014
I. Solis Moreno, P. Garraghan, P. Townend, J. Xu, "Analysis, Modeling and Simulation of Workload Patterns in a Large-Scale Utility Cloud", IEEE Trans. Cloud Computing, 2(2): 208-221, April 2014
2014
P. Garraghan, I. Solis Moreno, P. Townend, J. Xu, "An Analysis of Failure-Related Energy Waste in a Large-Scale Cloud Environment", IEEE Trans. on Emerging Topics in Computing, 2(2): 166-180, February 2014
2013
P. Garraghan, P. Townend, J. Xu, "Using Byzantine Fault-Tolerance to Improve Dependability in Federated Cloud Computing", Int. Journal of Software and Informatics 7(2):221-237 30 Jul 2013
2013
J. Arshad, M. Azad, I. Jokhio, P. Townend, "Intrusion damage assessment for multi-stage attacks for clouds" in IET Communications 7(12): 1304-1315, 2013
2013
P. Townend, J. Xu, J. Austin, "Introduction: e-Science–towards the cloud: infrastructures, applications and research", in Phil. Trans. Royal Society A, 371(1983 20120082) 28 Jan 2013
2013
J. Arshad, P. Townend, J. Xu, "A Novel Intrusion Severity Analysis Approach for Clouds", in Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(1), Jan. 2013
2012
J. Arshad, P. Townend, J. Xu, W. Jie, "Cloud computing security: Opportunities and pitfalls", in International Journal of Grid and High Performance Computing 4(1):52-66, Jan 2012
2011
W. Jie, J. Arshad, R. Sinnott, P. Townend, Z. Lei, "A review of grid authentication and authorization technologies and support for federated access control", in ACM Computing Surveys 43(2), 2011
2011
J. Arshad, P. Townend, J. Xu, "An Abstract Model for Integrated Intrusion Detection and Severity Analysis for Clouds", in Int. Journal of Cloud Applications and Computing 1:1-16 2011
2009
P. Townend et al, "MoSeS: Modelling and Simulation for e-Social Science", in Phil. Trans. Royal Society A, 367(1898):2781-2792 13 Jul 2009
2009
L. Liu, J. Xu, D. Russell, P. Townend, D. Webster, "Efficient and scalable search on scale-free P2P networks", in Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications 2:98-108 (Springer) 2009
2009
M. Birkin, A. Turner, B. Wu, P. Townend, J. Xu, "MoSeS A Grid-Enabled Spatial Decision Support System", in SOC SCI COMPUT REV 27(4):493-508 Nov 2009
2008
P. Townend et al, "CROWN-C: A high-assurance service-oriented grid middleware system", in IEEE Computer, August 2008
2008
J. Xu, P. Townend, N. Looker, P. Groth, "FT-Grid: A system for achieving fault tolerance in Grids", in Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience 20:297-309 2008
2005
P. Townend, J.Xu, "Dependability in Grids", IEEE Distributed Systems Online 6(12), 2005

Conference papers

2024
Y. S. Patel, P. Townend, "A stable matching approach to Energy Efficient and Sustainable Serverless Scheduling for the Green Cloud Continuum", in 2024 IEEE Int. Conf. on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE), Shanghai, China, July 2024 
2023
P. Townend et al., "COGNIT: Challenges and Vision for a Serverless and Multi-Provider Cognitive Cloud-Edge Continuum", in 2023 IEEE Int. Conf. on Edge Computing and Communications (EDGE), Chicago, USA, 2023, pp. 12-22, doi: 10.1109/EDGE60047.2023.00015
2023
Y. S. Patel, P. Townend, PO. Östberg, "Formal Models for the Energy-Aware Cloud-Edge Computing Continuum: Analysis and Challenges", in 2023 IEEE Int. Conf. on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE), Athens, Greece, 2023, pp. 48-59, doi: 10.1109/SOSE58276.2023.00012
2022
M. R. Saleh Sedghpour, P. Townend, "Service Mesh and eBPF-Powered Microservices: A Survey and Future Directions," 2022 IEEE International Conference on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE), Newark, CA, USA, 2022, pp. 176-184, doi: 10.1109/SOSE55356.2022.00027
2022
W. Tärneberg, E. Fitzgerald, M. Bhuyan, P. Townend, K-E Årzén, P-O. Östberg, E. Elmroth, J. Eker, F. Tufvesson, M. Kihl, "The 6G Computing Continuum (6GCC): Meeting the 6G computing challenges," 2022 1st International Conference on 6G Networking (6GNet), Paris, France, 2022, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1109/6GNet54646.2022.9830459
2019
P. Townend, S. Clement, D. Burdett, R. Yang, J. Shaw, B. Slater, J. Xu, “Improving Data Center Efficiency Through Holistic Scheduling In Kubernetes”, Proc. 13th IEEE Int. Symp on Service Oriented System Engineering (SOSE 2019), San Francisco, USA, April 2019
2018
R. Yang, X. Ouyang, Y. Chen, P. Townend, J. Xu “Intelligent resource scheduling at scale: a machine learning perspective”, Proc. 12th IEEE Int. Symp on Service Oriented System Engineering (SOSE 2018), Bamberg, Germany, March 2018
2017
X. Ouyang, C. Wang, R. Yang, G. Yang, P. Townend, J. Xu, “ML-NA: A machine learning based node performance analyzer utilizing straggler statistics”, in Proc. 23rd IEEE Int. Conf. on Parallel and Distributed Systems (ICPADS), Shenzhen, China, December 2017
2017
X. Ouyang, H. Zhou, S. Clement, P. Townend, J. Xu, “Mitigate data skew caused stragglers through ImKP partition in MapReduce”, in Proc. 36th IEEE Int. Performance Computing and Communications Conference (IPCCC), San Diego, USA, December 2017
2017
A. Albatli, D. McKee, P. Townend, L. Lau, J. Xu, “PROV-TE: A provenance-driven diagnostic framework for task eviction in data centers”, in Proc. 3rd IEEE Int. Conf. on Big Data Computing Service and Applications (BigDataService), San Francisco, USA, April 2017
2016
P. Townend, J. Xu, J. Summers, D. Ruprecht, H. Thompson, “Holistic Data Centres: Next Generation Data and Thermal Energy Infrastructures”, in Proc. 35th IEEE Int. Performance Computing and Communications Conference (IPCCC), Las Vegas, USA, December 2016
2016
X. Ouyang, P. Garraghan, C. Wang, P. Townend, J. Xu, “An approach for modeling and ranking node-level stragglers in cloud datacenters”, in Proc. 13th IEEE Int. Conf. on Services Computing (SCC), San Francisco, USA, June 2016
2016
X. Ouyang, P. Garraghan, R. Yang, P. Townend, J. Xu, “Reducing late-timing failure at scale: Straggler root-cause analysis in cloud datacenters”, Fast Abstract in Proc. 46th Int. IEEE/IFIP Int. Conf. on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), Toulouse, France, June 2016
2016
X. Ouyang, P. Garraghan, D. McKee, P. Townend, J. Xu, “Straggler detection in parallel computing systems through dynamic threshold calculation”, in Proc. 30th IEEE Int. Conf. on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA), Crans-Montana, Switzerland, March 2016
2015
P. Garraghan, X. Ouyang, P. Townend, J. Xu, “Timely long tail identification through agent based monitoring and analytics”, in Proc. 18th IEEE Int. Symp. On Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC), Auckland, New Zealand, April 2015
2014
D. McKee, P. Townend, D. Webster, J. Xu, "M-VCR: A Real-Time Approach to Distributed* Computer Vision", Proc. 17th IEEE Int. Symp. on Object/Component/Service-Oriented Realtime Distributed Computing (ISORC 2014), Reno, USA, June 2014
2014
D. Webster, P. Townend, J. Xu, "Restructuring Web Service Interfaces to Support Evolution",Proc. 8th IEEE Int. Symp. on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE 2014), Oxford, UK, 2014
2014
P. Garraghan, P.Townend, J.Xu "An Empirical Failure-Analysis of a Large-Scale Cloud Computing Environment" 15th IEEE Int. Symp. on High Assurance Systems Engineering (HASE 2014), Miami, USA, 2014
2013
I.Solis Moreno, P.Garraghan, P.Townend, J.Xu, "An Approach for Characterizing Workloads in Google Cloud to Derive Realistic Resource Utilization Models" Proc. 7th IEEE Int. Symp. on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE 2013), San Francisco, USA, 2013. Best paper award
2013
P. Townend et al, "Risk Assessment and Trust in Services Computing: Applications and Experience" in Proc. 10th IEEE Int. Conf. on Services Computing (SCC 2013), Santa Clara, USA, 2013
2013
A. Sargeant, P. Townend, J.Xu, K. Djemame, "An Evaluation Framework for Assessing the Dependability of Dynamic Binding in Service-Oriented Computing" in Proc. 16th IEEE Int. Symp. on Object / Component / Service-Oriented Realtime Distributed Computing (ISORC 2013), Paderborn, Germany, 2013
2013
I.Solis Moreno, P. Garraghan, P. Townend, J. Xu, "An Approach for Characterizing Workloads in Google Cloud to Derive Realistic Resource Utilization Models" in Proc. 7th IEEE Int. Symp. on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE 2013), San Francisco, USA, 2013
2013
P.Townend et al, "Personalised Provenance Reasoning Models and Risk Assessment in Business Systems: A Case Study", in Proc. 7th IEEE Int. Symp. on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE 2013), San Francisco, USA, 2013
2013
P.Garraghan, P.Townend, J.Xu, "An Analysis of the Server Characteristics and Resource Utilization in Google Cloud", in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Cloud Engineering (IC2E 2013), San Francisco, USA, 2013
2012
A. Sargeant, P. Townend, J. Xu, K. Djemame, "Evaluating the Dependability of Dynamic Binding in Web Services", in Proc. 14th IEEE Int. Symp. on High Assurance Systems (HASE), October 2012, Omaha, USA
2012
D. Webster, P. Townend, J. Xu, "Interface refactoring in performance-constrained web services", in Proc. 15th IEEE Int. Symp. on Object / Component / Service-Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing, ISORC 2012. Best Paper Award
2011
C. Venters, P. Townend, et al, "Provenance: Current Directions and Future Challenges for Service Oriented Computing", in Proc. 6th IEEE Int. Symp. on Service-Oriented System Engineering, 2011
2011
P.Garraghan, P.Townend, J.Xu "Dependability in Federated Cloud environments" in the proceedings of The UK e-Science All-Hands Meeting (AHM), York, UK, 2011
2011
P. Garraghan, P. Townend, J. Xu, "Byzantine fault-tolerance in federated cloud computing", in Proc. 6th IEEE Int. Symp. on Service-Oriented System Engineering, 2011
2010
B. Wu, M. Birkin, P. Rees, A. Heppenstall, A. Turner, M. Clarke, P. Townend, J. Xu, "Moses: An innovative way to model heterogeneity in complex social systems", in Int. Conf. on Computer Modeling and Simulation, 2010
2009
J. Arshad, P. Townend, J. Xu, "Quantification of security for compute intensive workloads in clouds", in Proc. Int. Conf. on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 2009
2007
P. Townend et al, "CROWN-C: a high-assurance service-oriented grid middleware system", in Proc. 10th IEEE International Symposium on High Assurance Systems Engineering, Dallas, 2007
2007
P. Townend et al, "Modelling and simulation for e-Social Science: current progress", in Proc. UK e-Science All Hands Meeting 2007. Best Paper Award
2006
P. Townend, J. Xu, "Topology-aware Fault-tolerance in Service-Oriented Grids", Proc. UK e-Science All Hands Meeting 2006
2005
P. Townend et al., "The e-Demand project: A Summary ", in Proceedings of 4th U.K. e-Science All-Hands Meeting, 19th - 22nd Sept., 2005, ISBN 1-904425-53-4
2005
P. Townend, P. Groth, N. Looker, J. Xu, "FT-Grid: A Fault-Tolerance System for e-Science", in Proc. 4th U.K. e-Science All-Hands Meeting, 19th - 22nd Sept., 2005, ISBN 1-904425-53-4
2005
P. Townend, P. Groth, J. Xu, "A Provenance-Aware Weighted Fault Tolerance Scheme for Service-Based Applications", in Proceedings of 8th IEEE International Symposium on Object-oriented Real-time distributed Computing, Seattle, May 2005
2004
P. Townend and J. Xu, "Replication-based Fault Tolerance in a Grid Environment", in Proceedings of U.K. e-Science 3rd All-Hands Meeting, Simon J. Cox Eds., Nottingham Conference Center, U.K., 31st Aug. - 3rd Sept., 2004, ISBN 1-904425-21-6
2003
P. Townend and J, Xu, "Fault Tolerance within a Grid Environment", in Proceedings of U.K. e-Science 2nd All Hands Meeting, Simon J. Cox Eds., Nottingham Conference Centre, 2nd - 4th Sept. 2003, Nottingham, ISBN 1-904425-11-9
2001
P. Townend, J. Xu, M. Munro, "Multi-Version Software Versus One Good Version: A Further Study and Some Results", (Fast Abstract) IEEE Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), Sweden, 2001

Workshop papers

2022
L. Kidane, P. Townend, T. Metsch and E. Elmroth, "When and How to Retrain Machine Learning-based Cloud Management Systems," 2022 IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops (IPDPSW), Lyon, France, 2022, pp. 688-698, doi: 10.1109/IPDPSW55747.2022.00120
2014
D. McKee, D. Webster, P. Townend, J. Xu, D. Battersby, "Towards a Virtual Integration Design and Analysis Environment for Automotive Engineering", Proc. 17th IEEE Int. Symp. on Object/Component /Service-Oriented Realtime Distributed Computing (ISORC 2014), Reno, USA, June 2014
2014
W. Leesakul, P. Townend, P. Garraghan, J. Xu, "Fault-Tolerant Dynamic Deduplication for Utility Computing", Proc. 17th IEEE Int. Symp. on Object/Component/Service-Oriented Realtime Distributed Computing (ISORC 2014), Reno, USA, June 2014
2014
W. Leesakul, P. Townend, J. Xu, "Dynamic Data Deduplication in Cloud Storage ",Proc. 8th IEEE Int. Symp. on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE 2014), Oxford, UK, 2014.
2014
H. Aljahdali, P. Townend, J. Xu, A. Albatli, P. Garraghan, L. Lau, "Multi-Tenancy in Cloud Computing", Proc. 8th IEEE Int. Symp. on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE 2014), Oxford, UK, 2014
2013
H. Aljahdali, P. Townend, J. Xu, "Enhancing Multi-Tenancy Security in the Cloud IaaS Model over Public Deployment", Proc. 7th IEEE Int. Symp. on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE 2013), San Francisco, USA, 2013
2013
V. Viduto, P. Townend, J. Xu, K. Djemame, A. Bochenkov, "A graph-based approach to address trust and reputation in ubiquitous networks", Proc. 7th IEEE Int. Symp. on Service-Oriented System Engineering, SOSE 2013. 397-402. 2013
2012
P. Townend et al, "A framework for improving trust in dynamic service-oriented systems", in Proc. 15th IEEE Int. Symp. on Object / Component / Service-Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing Workshops, ISORCW 2012
2012
P. Garraghan, P. Townend, J. Xu, "Real-time fault-tolerance in federated cloud environments", in Proc. 15th IEEE Int. Symp. on Object / Component / Service-Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing Workshops, ISORCW 2012
2002
P. Townend, J. Xu, "Assessing Multi-Version Systems Through Fault-Injection", in Proceedings of the 7th IEEE International Workshop on Object-Oriented Real-Time Dependable Systems, San Diego, pp. 105-112, IEEE Computer Society Press, 2002
2001
P. Townend, J. Xu, M. Munro, "Building Dependable Software for Critical Applications: Multi-Version Software Versus One Good Version", in Proceedings of 6th IEEE International Workshop on Object-Oriented Real-Time Dependable Systems, Rome, pp. 103-110, IEEE Computer Society Press, January 2001

Book chapter

2002
P. Townend, J. Xu, M. Munro, "Building Embedded Fault Tolerant Systems for Critical Applications: An Experimental Study", B. Kleinjohann, K. H. Kim, L. Kleinjohann, A. Rettberg, Eds., in Design and Analysis of Distributed Embedded Systems, pp. 101-112, Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2002

Research

My research has covered a lot of ground across a variety of Distributed Systems topics since the early 2000s. Given that I have a lot of (somewhat random) icons to use up, I'll try to summarise some of the things that I've done. These descriptions are obviously at a really high level, but sometimes it's nice to look back and reflect a bit.

Green Cloud Computing

I've worked in what is now Cloud Computing since the early 2000s, when I was part of the UK e-Science Core Programme. I've worked on architectures, testing, middlewares, and more. I now focus on improving the energy-efficiency and sustainability of these systems.

Cloud-Edge modelling

I'm interested in how Cloud, Edge, and Fog resources and infrastructures are federated, and how workloads can be placed and scaled across them. I'm doing a lot of work into how to model these systems and integrate realistic energy models and concerns.

Data Centers

I've been researching energy efficiency and sustainability within Cloud data centers since 2013 - working both in academia and industry. This mainly concerns monitoring mechanisms, analysis of metric data, and efficient scheduling mechanisms.

Simulation

I spent several years working on Cloud-based simulators for the social sciences. More recently, I'm interested in the use of simulations to validate energy-aware Cloud-Edge systems.

Provenance

I have explored the use of provenance techniques to augment fault-tolerance mechanisms in Grids/Clouds, and I have also used them in industrial projects to improve customer trust in production systems .

Dependability

My early research (and PhD) looked at how to enable fault-tolerance in Grid and Cloud Computing, often with some fault injection research. I was particularly interested in using N-Version design techniques.

Contact

Location:

Dept. Computing Science, Umeå University, Sweden

Call:

+46 90 786 6138 (goes to MS Teams - rarely checked!)