Mobile Cloud-Computing: Supporting users with multiple devices

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Cloud-Computing allows individuals and organizations to purchase virtualized hardware (Infrastructure as a Service, IaaS), software platforms (Platform as a Service, PaaS) or applications/functionality (Software as a Service, SaaS) in a pay-as-you-go manner, comparable to the metered purchase of electricity, gas or water and is most often seen as a solution to improve scalability and reduce costs for IT solutions. Mobile Cloud-Computing (MCC) focuses on using mobile devices to engage cloud-hosted services and is therefore the intersection of cloud-computing and mobile-computing. The main driver for MCC is the decline of the PC and its replacement with the rising number of mobile devices (tablets & smartphones). According to Gartner in 2014 the combined shipments in the PC market (traditional PC, laptops & ultra-mobiles) are expected to reach 316 million units (worldwide). By contrast the worldwide sales of tablets are expected to reach 320 million units (worldwide) and smartphones (66% of mobile handset market) are expected to reach 900 million units. To overcome the apparent lack of computational resources when compared to PCs, Mark Baccue proposed the idea of using cloud-computing which has led to a virtuous cycle in which cloud-computing and mobile devices each are the driver for the growth of the other. It is therefore not surprising that MCC, as the combination of mobile and cloud-computing has establishing itself within IT as a key component/technology.***Current research and development within MCC is aimed at providing users via their mobile device rich experiences that are equivalent to those of traditional PC-based solution. However, as the number of mobile devices increase and their prices drop, more and more users begin to own multiple mobile devices e.g. smartphones and multiple tablets. This, in turn leads to the question of how to support users of multiple devices within MCC.***Since 2001 the long term goal of my research program has focused on the study and development of software infrastructure(s)/middleware to ensure that users of a mobile device are 1st class citizens within IT systems. My current focus on how to support the distributed execution of an app over multiple user owned mobile devices follows naturally in the course of my research program. As users begin to own multiple mobile devices, the question arises how they can be combined to provide more resources when executing an app. If the N devices have the same app instance installed, why not combine these instances to create a distributed app that can access the combined resources resulting in a more engaging MCC experience for the user. The goal of this research is to investigate, develop and evaluate middleware to support app instances on different mobile devices with respect to: Interaction, Coordination & Resource Sharing. ******