Section: Highlights of the Year

Highlights of the Year

Regarding scientific results, the team has produced a number of outstanding results on the management of resources and data in large-scale infrastructures, notably on how speeding up VM and Docker boot time by reducing the I/O operations [16], on how to place container images across edge servers in such a way that an image can be retrieved from any edge server fast and in a predictable time [14], and how the placement challenge of data and computations accross multiple sites can be addressed by using Constraint Programming techniques in a general manner [22].

We also deliver two other important contributions. In the first one, we propose an efficient graph partitioning method named Geo-Cut, which takes both the cost and performance objectives into consideration for large graph processing in geo-distributed DCs [8]. In the second one, we propose a model and a first implementation of a simulator to compare the energy footprint of different cloud architectures (single sites vs fully decentrlaized) [3].

On the software side, the team has pursued its efforts on the development of the EnosLib library and the resulting artifacts to help researchers perform experiment campaigns: https://discovery.gitlabpages.inria.fr/enoslib/theyuseit.html. We would like also to point it out the development of the field of dynamic reconfiguration of distributed software systems, in particular through the Concerto and Mad softwares: http://helene-coullon.fr/verdi/page/software/

On the platform side, the deployment of the SeDuCe testbed that allows researchers to investigate energy concerns in data-centers thanks to a numerous of energy sensors deployed across the dedicated facility is now fully operational: https://seduce.fr. Moreover, the team is still strongly involved in the different actions that aim to setup the SILECS platform.

Awards

In 2019, the team has received two individual award:

• Outstanding Leadership Award Shadi Ibrahim received an outstanding leadership award as program chair of the SmartData-2019 (http://cse.stfx.ca/~cybermatics/2019/smartdata/).

• Best Tech Pitch Hélène Coullon received the best tech pitch award at the IMT 5G event from a jury composed of both academic experts in 5G and experts from the Qualcomm company. Moreover, a grant has been awarded by France Brevet to Hélène Coullon to push further her efforts on Fog and Edge computing.

We would like also to highlight two other elements that underline the visibility and recognition of the team nationally and internationally. First, Thomas Ledoux became head of the teaching chair "ArchOps : architecture, déploiement et administration des infrastructures IT agiles" supported by Bodet Software. The ArchOps chair aims to develop skills in the design of distributed software architectures for engineering students at IMT Atlantique. Second, Shadi Ibrahim and Hélène Coullon, two members of the team, act as program track chairs of 20th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Internet Computing (CCGrid 2020), a major conference in the area of distributed systems.