Strategies in Biomedical Data Science

Chapter 6 Cloud Computing and Emerging Architectures^*

The proliferation of the broadband commodity Internet, the growing presence of Internet2 in higher education, and widespread adoption of virtualization technologies have enabled cloud computing to jump from a niche technology to a mainstream and widespread one. Cloud computing represents a major paradigm shift in the industry, rapidly displacing brick-and-mortar data centers. Enabling ubiquitous, on-demand global access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources while lowering operational as well as capital expenditures, cloud computing is projected to reach $106 billion in 2016, and the global cloud computing service market will reach $127 billion by 2017 [1]. Cloud computing is clearly here to stay. Our focus here is on research data management, which is distinctly different from enterprise data management. So you can expect some contrast in the way the challenges are defined, unpacked, and addressed. Research data management poses its own set of unique challenges, even though the advent of big data is being felt by both enterprises and research institutions.

While computing power and commodity hardware continue to decline in cost, the costs and obstacles to owning and operating a large data center continue to grow. Combined with the emerging costs of becoming compliant, these factors are pushing many organizations to outsource data center physical infrastructure and operations entirely. During my consulting ...