Cerberus : a cloud-based environmental data aggregator

Abstract

IT professionals must constantly ensure the integrity and availability of their services. One aspect to monitor is the physical environment surrounding their equipment. Factors such as high temperature, humidity or water leaks can all contribute to costly downtime. There are a variety of solutions for monitoring these factors but those which can make their data universally available are of particular interest. The more cost- effective alternatives on the market are found as embedded devices with integrated web servers. The drawbacks of these systems have been their resource limitations as well as the need for complex configuration to make their data available from any location. A solution based in the cloud could remove the resource constraints of embedded systems and easily achieve widespread availability. This report presents Cerberus, a cloud-based environmental data aggregator that allows web server based devices to bypass their limitations and the necessary configuration to achieve widespread availability. It was implemented using two distinct cloud platforms and has been in active use for several months. Cerberus allows for environment monitors to push their data in as little as 250 ms while allowing for dynamic scaling as needed. The application provides all the necessary functionality such as alarm v generation, data visualization and archiving. The following presents the conception, design, implementation and future extensions to Cerberus as well as a comparative study of different cloud-based hosting services.