The Cloud-TM project was launched by the European Commission three years ago with the goal of defining a standard and an appropriate development model for users of large-scale data networks.
At its inception, the Cloud-TM project stakeholders recognized the potential of commercial cloud computing platforms; however, the key benefit of extensive scalability was hampered by a major obstacle: the lack of programming protocols and standards. This limits developers' ability to fully leverage the power of distributed programming and the potential of large-scale cloud platforms.
To overcome this obstacle, Red Hat engineers and academics collaborated on the development of a data-centric middleware platform. The platform was designed from the ground up to meet the scalability and flexibility requirements of cloud infrastructures.
“My colleagues on the Cloud-TM project and I have developed a highly innovative, data-centric middleware platform that not only creates new programming opportunities but also reduces the costs of developing, deploying, and managing cloud applications,” says Paolo Romano, Cloud-TM project coordinator. “This is possible thanks to the intense integration of highly scalable data management protocols, programming abstractions that hide the coding complexity for large-scale cloud platforms, and self-updating mechanisms that optimize the efficiency of cloud computing's operational conditions.”
“Red Hat’s reasons for supporting the project were to reinforce its commitment to advancing the understanding, adoption, and promise of cloud computing, free from vendor lock-in,” emphasizes Mark Little, Ph.D., vice president of middleware engineering at Red Hat. “By working with global nonprofit organizations, academics, and industry leaders, we can bring our advancements directly to the community, revealing the true potential of cloud computing at scale.”
Full details of the Cloud-TM project can be found at http://www.cloudtm.eu. The final project documents, which contain detailed information on the platform architecture and evaluation, are available for download at http://www.cloudtm.eu/news-1/final-cloud-tm-platform-is-out.
