Revolutionary Directions for New Generation of Smart, Trusted and Verifiable Distributed Cloud Services

云计算已经成为提供基于web的服务的一个突出范例，它提供动态的、具有成本效益的计算资源和基础设施。传统上，云计算是在集中和垄断的体系结构中设计的，其中基础设施服务仅限于单个提供商数据中心。最近，人们认识到对分布式和协作配置的需求，并且引入了云联合和多云等新概念，以利用来自多个提供商的异构资源。雾计算和边缘计算也已经推出，以分散网络边缘的计算。最近学术界和工业界都提出了去中心化云的倡议。它们的共同方面是使用新兴且非常有前途的区块链技术，这是一种分布式和不可变的数据库分类账技术，通过分布式共识协议在分散的点对点网络上存储资产和交易的注册表。然而，实现和实施这种分销的途径及其各自的市场仍然非常有限，还存在许多问题。例如，云联盟仍然以集中的方式形成，只有少数拥有大型数据中心的成熟供应商主导着市场，这样一个市场中的竞争与合作尚未被理解。该项目的长期愿景是超越长期存在的集中式和垄断性云，甚至是新兴的去中心化云，走向完全分布式和竞争的云。我们的目标是在一个更加民主和完全分布式的市场中，在没有中介机构表现出单方面控制的情况下，为塑造新一代自主、可信和可验证的云计算做出贡献。我们将从概念、理论、工程和业务等不同层面，重点关注框架、市场设计、决策、信任和验证等亟待解决、正式化和解决的问题。我们将探讨两个中心主题。第一个是关于为云服务引入一个新的分布式平台。在这个平台内，不同类型的供应商将能够在一个自由竞争的市场上交易计算资源。第二个主题是为分布式云及其市场机制引入新的信任和验证框架。这个研究项目具有创新性，具有变革性的潜力。它利用了一个有利的机会，为新一代支持区块链的智能、可信和可验证的分布式云服务做出贡献。里程碑式的研究将不仅在云计算和服务计算领域，而且在区块链、多代理系统和市场设计领域产生广泛而重要的影响。培训HQP，同时与行业合作，将加强加拿大在这些领域的地位。

Cloud computing has emerged as a prominent paradigm for offering web-based services providing dynamic and cost-effective computational resources and infrastructure. Traditionally, cloud computing has been designed within a centralized and monopolistic architecture, where infrastructure services were limited to single provider data centers. Recently, the need for a distributed and collaborative configuration has been acknowledged and new concepts such as cloud federations and multicloud have been introduced to make use of heterogeneous resources from multiple providers. Fog and edge computing have also been launched to decentralize computing toward the edge of the network. Very recent academic and industrial initiatives came forward toward decentralizing cloud. Their common aspect is the use of the emerging and very promising blockchain technology, a distributed and immutable database ledger technology that stores registry of assets and transactions over a decentralized peer-to-peer network through a distributed consensus protocol. However, the way of realizing and implementing this distribution along with its respective market is still very limited and many problems persist. For instance, cloud federations are still formed in a centralized way, only few well-established providers with large data centers are dictating the market, and competition and cooperation in such a market are yet to be understood. The long-term vision of this program is to outclass the long-lasting centralized and monopolistic cloud and even the yet emerging decentralized cloud toward a fully distributed and coopetitive cloud. We aim to contribute in shaping the new generation of autonomous, trusted and verifiable cloud computing within a more democratic and fully distributed market with no intermediaries exhibiting unilateral control. We will focus on pressing problems yet to be addressed, formalized, and solved in terms of framework, market design, decision making, trust, and verification at different conceptual, theoretical, engineering and business levels. We will pursue two central themes. The first one is about introducing a new distributed platform for cloud services. Within this platform, different types of providers will be able to trade computational resources in a free coopetitive market. The second theme is about introducing novel trust and verification frameworks for the distributed cloud and its market mechanism. This research program is innovative and has the potential to be transformative. It capitalizes on an auspicious opportunity toward contributing to the new generation of blockchain-enabled smart, trusted and verifiable distributed cloud services. Research milestones will have broad and significant impact not only within the community of cloud and services computing, but also the communities of blockchain, multiagent systems and market design. Training HQP while collaborating with the industry will strengthen the position of Canada in these fields.