With cloud to shrink (unleased resource) due to a decrease in demand, it becomes imperative that applications are designed and implemented, a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Rajkumar Buyya, has advocated.
The Director of Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems (CLOUDS) Laboratory at the University of Australia in Melbourne, Australia made the assertion as a Keynote Speaker at the 3rd International Conference on Applied Informatics jointly organized by Covenant University, the Federal University of Technology, Minna, and Universidad Distrital Fransisco Jose De Caldas, Bogota, Columbia.
Professor Buyya, while delivering a paper titled, “New Frontiers in Cloud and Edge Computing for Big Data and Internet-of-Things Applications” described Cloud computing as the delivery of different services through the Internet, including data storage, servers, databases, networking, and software. Cloud-based storage makes it possible to save files to a remote database and retrieve them on demand, he added.
He highlighted Aneka, an Application Platform-as-a-Service (Aneka PaaS) for Cloud Computing, as a framework for building customized applications and deploying them on either public or private Clouds.
Aneka, he stated, provided several services that allowed users to control, auto-scale, reserve, monitor and bill users for the resources used by their applications. He revealed that a significant characteristic of Aneka PaaS was to support provisioning of resources on public Clouds, while also harnessing private Cloud resources.
“You can define your requirements and Aneka will build to your specifications,” said Professor Buyya, adding that Aneka had been used to build healthcare applications, monitor the usage of face mask during the COVID 19 pandemic, and performance evaluation amongst others.
The audience was made to understand that the Internet-of-Things (IoT) constituted a network of embedded devices that incorporated sensors and communication functions. The IoT was becoming one of the core technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This was because the IoT creates new values in the connected smart world by collecting big data, uploading data into clouds, and processing data in intelligent systems.
Earlier in his remarks, the Ag. Vice-Chancellor, Covenant University, Professor Akan Williams, said that the 21st Century had beheld the advent of some innovative information technologies that had revolutionized the way of life and the prevailing multifaceted use of digital technology.
According to him, the world had witnessed the application of informatics in the evolution of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, deep learning, and games, which were progressively being used in planning and scenario-building developments. “By processing enormous volumes of data, artificial-intelligence-based devices and machinery are revolutionizing medical diagnostics and treatments, steer production processes and traffic,” he added.
Professor Williams noted that autonomous technical and decision-making systems, based on machine learning and general-purpose artificial intelligence, would shortly significantly transform all areas of society and the economy. At the same time, technologies such as big data processing, the Internet of things, robotics, blockchain, and 3-D printing, among others, had multiple potentials to hasten progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
He said the conference couldn’t have held at a more auspicious time as it came when Covenant emerged the only Nigerian institution ranked in Computer Science by the world university rankings body, the Times Higher Education (THE), in its 2021 Subject Rankings.
While reiterating that Covenant remained committed to promoting multidisciplinary research efforts to resolve sustainable development issues confronting the world, the Ag. Vice-Chancellor said it was in furtherance of this that the University was hosting the conference aimed at bringing together researchers and practitioners working in different domains in the field of informatics to exchange their expertise and to discuss the perspectives of development and collaboration.
Covenant, he stated, was open to research collaboration with other stakeholders in this field.
The co-Chairmen of the ICAI 2020, Professor Sanjay Misra of Covenant University and Dr Hector Florez of Universidad Distrital Fransisco Jose De Caldas, Bogota, Columbia, appreciated the Keynote Speaker, the Covenant Ag. Vice-Chancellor, and the participants. Professor Misra, who said Covenant would be willing to collaborate with Professor Buya on Cloud Computing, thanked all who contributed to the success of the conference.
Also at the opening session of the conference were the Dean, College of Engineering, Professor David Omole; the Dean, College of Management and Social Science, Professor Uwalomwa Uwuigbe; the University Chaplain, Pastor Kayode Martins, and a host of others.