Today’s cloud platforms are missing out on the revolution in new hardware and network technologies for realising vastly richer computational, communication, and storage resources. Technologies such as FPGA and GPGPU accelerators, programmable network routers, and solid-state disks promise increased performance, reduced energy consumption, and lower cost profiles. However, their heterogeneity and complexity makes integrating them into the standard Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) framework a fundamental challenge.

The HARNESS project brings innovative and heterogeneous resources into cloud platforms through a rich programme of research, validated by both commercial and open source case studies.

Featured Technologies

• ConPaaS, the HARNESS platform management layer
• XtreemFS, the HARNESS storage resource manager
• Elastic heterogeneous computing with dataflow engines
• Software dataplane verification for programmable routers 
• Programming cloud applications with aspect-oriented designs
• The NaaS NetAgg system for in-network processing in data centres
• SHEPARD: Scheduling on HEterogeneous Platforms using Application Resource Demands