YSU STEM Heterogeneous Cloud
YSU STEM Cloud is a research project from 2013 jointly supported by multiple departments in STEM College and government agency funded projects directed by YSU professors. This infrastructure will assist the research and teaching at YSU in cloud computing, big data, high-performance computing, data mining and machine learning.
The STEM Cloud is installed with the world-leading private cloud platform called OpenStack which features powerful and flexible cloud functionalities. It provides versatile services mainly including virtual computing, virtual network, virtual firewall, and cloud storage with disaster recovery ability. The total computing power of the current cloud infrastructure includes 160 CPU cores, 320 GB memory, and 57 TB cloud storage.
OpenStack is an open source private Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud platform. It is a joint project initiated in 2010 by NASA and Rackspace Inc. Currently, more than 500 companies are involved in its development. OpenStack provisions powerful and flexible cloud services.
Virtual Compute
In this Cloud, all resources are consolidated as one shared pool to provide to users on-demand. Virtual servers are created with configurable hardware resources and operating systems installed to provide computing services. Most major operating systems such as Linux, Unix, Windows are supported. Deploying a server is simplified as a few clicks in the STEM Cloud web control panel.
Virtual Desktop
Virtual desktops can be enabled on the virtual servers in the cloud. The cloud users can use remote access software to operate the virtual servers using the graphic user interface (GUI). In a virtual desktop, major open source applications are virtualized and accessible through the network.
Virtual Network
Virtual network service is one of the most complicated services in the STEM Cloud. Using the technology called Software Defined Network (SDN), virtual servers can be researched from outside the cloud network. STEM Cloud can create both internal and external virtual networks. The internal network is secured in the cloud network only. The external network connects the virtual machines to the public internet accessible by cloud users.
Virtual Firewall and Security Management
Security is a demanding challenge in cloud computing. The STEM Cloud can create virtual firewall rules (or security rules) for every virtual server. Virtual firewall rules are managed in central by the cloud. The virtual servers can only be accessed by authorized users whose login information is securely encrypted.
Cloud Storage
Storage services manage large volume cloud data. The STEM Cloud provisions data storage services for virtual server storage, distributed objective storage, and a centralized online storage. The cloud storage also enables disaster recovery ability.