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

云计算已成为提供基于Web的服务的重要范例，可提供动态且经济实惠的计算资源和基础设施。传统上，云计算是在集中式和垄断性架构中设计的，其中基础设施服务仅限于单一提供商数据中心。最近，人们认识到了对分布式和协作配置的需求，并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类资源。雾和边缘计算也已经推出，以将计算分散到网络的边缘。最近，学术界和产业界都提出了分散云的倡议。它们的共同点是使用新兴且非常有前景的区块链技术，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对等网络上存储资产和交易的注册表。然而，这种分配及其各自的市场实现和实施的途径仍然非常有限，许多问题仍然存在。例如，云联合仍然是以集中的方式形成的，只有少数拥有大型数据中心的成熟提供商在主导市场，这样一个市场中的竞争和合作还有待了解。该计划的长期愿景是超越持久的集中式和垄断式云，甚至是尚未出现的分散式云，走向完全分布式和具有合作竞争力的云。我们的目标是在一个更加民主和完全分布式的市场中，为塑造新一代自主、可信和可验证的云计算做出贡献，没有中介机构表现出单方面控制。我们将重点解决在框架、市场设计、决策、信任和验证等不同概念、理论、工程和业务层面上尚未解决、形式化和解决的紧迫问题。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，不同类型的提供商将能够在一个自由的合作竞争市场中交易计算资源。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。这一研究项目具有创新性，具有变革的潜力。它利用了一个有利的机会，为支持区块链的新一代智能、可信和可验证的分布式云服务做出贡献。研究里程碑不仅将在云计算和服务计算社区内产生广泛而重大的影响，而且还将在区块链、多代理系统和市场设计社区内产生广泛和重大的影响。在与行业合作的同时培训HQP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.