Cloud research - Implementing scientific research information systems in open source cloud platforms

In this paper we describe how cloud architecture can be used for Scientific Research Information Systems and introduce SlapOS, the first open source operating system for Distributed Cloud Computing. SlapOS is based on a grid computing daemon - called slapgrid - which is capable of installing any software on a PC and instantiate any number of processes of potentially infinite duration of any installed software. Slapgrid daemon receives requests from a central scheduler - the SlapOS Master - which collects back accounting information from each process. SlapOS Master follows an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) model to handle at the same time process allocation optimization and billing. Recent research on Cloud Computing has focused on the implementation of Scientific Research Information Systems in large Data Centers, however the costs are high. Rather than centralizing Cloud Computing resources in large data centers in our approach we propose that Distributed Cloud Computing resources are aggregated from a grid of standard PCs hosted in homes, schools, offices and small data centers.