Evaluation of a Private Cloud for Higher Education

Abstract

In modern day research and education there is a constant need fordedicated server installations, both for permanent and for temporary useby the research staff and by students. Typically there is need for access tocomputational power, network connectivity and specialized software.The classical solution for this problem is to delegate physical hardwarefor all of these needs. This is unpractical and results in an inefficientuse of hardware, electricity and administrative resources.A self-service virtualization system could benefit these institutions by makingcomputing resources more easily available to its students and researchers, andby improving the utilization of hardware resources.In this project we identify the requirements for such a system, by installing and configuringa prototype private cloud solution for students at the Department of Computerand Information Science. The solution we've chosen is based on OpenStack, an open sourcecloud operating system. The implementation is evaluated throughmonitoring over a four month period and through surveys. We suggest an approachfor implementing a permanent solution, and highlight challenges that need tobe considered.Our experimentation has shown that OpenStack is a suitable system forimplementing a private cloud solution, even though the project is still under heavydevelopment. Through our surveys and user feedback we can determine that a userdemand for virtualization service exists.