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Major public cloud providers, such as AWS, Azure or Google, offer seamless experiences for infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). With the emergence of the public cloud's vast usage, administrators must be able to have a reliable method to provide the seamless experience that a public cloud offers on a smaller scale, such as a private cloud. When a smaller deployment or a private cloud is needed, OpenStack can meet the goals without increasing cost or sacrificing data control.

To demonstrate these enablement goals of resiliency and elasticity in IaaS and PaaS, the authors design a private distributed system cloud platform using OpenStack and its core services of Nova, Swift, Cinder, Neutron, Keystone, Horizon and Glance on a five-node deployment.

Through the demonstration of dynamically adding an IaaS node, pushing the deployment to its physical and logical limits, and eventually crashing the deployment, this paper shows how the PackStack utility facilitates the provisioning of an elastic and resilient OpenStack-based IaaS platform that can be used in production if the deployment is kept within designated boundaries.

The authors adopt the multinode-capable PackStack utility in favor of an all-in-one OpenStack build for a true demonstration of resiliency, elasticity and scalability in a small-scale IaaS. An all-in-one deployment is generally used for proof-of-concept deployments and is not easily scaled in production across multiple nodes. The authors demonstrate that combining PackStack with the multi-node design is suitable for smaller-scale production IaaS and PaaS deployments.

The purpose of this paper is to consider how and why virtual machines (VMs) and cloud computing and related development environments built on cloud-based resources may be used to support and enhance the technological elements of library and information science (LIS) education.

It is based on analysis of available technologies and relevant applications.

Cloud computing and virtualization offer a basis for creating a robust computing infrastructure for LIS education.

In the context of LIS education, cloud computing is relevant in two respects. First, many important library and archival services already rely heavily on cloud-based infrastructures, and in the near future, cloud computing is likely to define a much larger part of the computing environment on which libraries and archives rely. Second, cloud computing affords a highly flexible and efficient environment that is ideal for learning about VMs, operating systems and a wide variety of applications. What is more important, it constitutes an environment for teaching and learning that is vastly superior to the ones that currently support most LIS degree programs. From a pedagogical perspective, the key aspect of teaching and learning in the cloud environment is the VM. So, the article focuses a significant portion of its attentions on questions related to the deployment and use of VMs and Linux Containers, within and without cloud-based infrastructures, as means of learning about computer systems, applications and networking and achieving an understanding of essential aspects of both cloud computing and VM environments.

Based on a search of available literature in computer science and library and information science, the paper has no counterparts.

Cloud computing originated in central data centers that are connected to the backbone of the Internet. The network transport to and from a distant data center incurs long latencies that hinder modern low-latency applications. In order to flexibly support the computing demands of users, cloud computing is evolving toward a continuum of cloud computing resources that are distributed between the end users and a distant data center. The purpose of this review paper is to concisely summarize the state-of-the-art in the evolving cloud computing field and to outline research imperatives.

The authors identify two main dimensions (or axes) of development of cloud computing: the trend toward flexibility of scaling computing resources, which the authors denote as Flex-Cloud, and the trend toward ubiquitous cloud computing, which the authors denote as Ubi-Cloud. Along these two axes of Flex-Cloud and Ubi-Cloud, the authors review the existing research and development and identify pressing open problems.

The authors find that extensive research and development efforts have addressed some Ubi-Cloud and Flex-Cloud challenges resulting in exciting advances to date. However, a wide array of research challenges remains open, thus providing a fertile field for future research and development.

This review paper is the first to define the concept of the Ubi-Flex-Cloud as the two-dimensional research and design space for cloud computing research and development. The Ubi-Flex-Cloud concept can serve as a foundation and reference framework for planning and positioning future cloud computing research and development efforts.

The purpose of this chapter is to uplevel the two-by-two binary matrix of differences to a three-by-three cross-referential one, in order to inquire into the nature and movement of Spirit within us at different levels of analysis. Our design is a non-liner, post-structural inquiry. The implications of our findings include an invitation to co-explore the muddled middle area of relationship, such as Synthesis − between Thesis and Antithesis − and Breath − between Mind and Body, individually and collectively as a metaphorical set to explore Spirit as the relationship between Self and Other. The social implications reveal more possible interpretations than currently assumed, beyond the label of enemy and the erection of lines of containment, in the relational space between concepts and among people. Our essay is original, in its playful and post-modern interface of fact and fiction, mind and body, self and other, and spirit and breath.

OpenWHO is the World Health Organization's online learning platform that was launched in 2017. The COVID-19 pandemic led to massive growth in the number of courses, enrolments and reach of the platform. The platform is built on a stable and scalable basis that can host a large volume of learners. The authors aim to identify key factors that led to this growth.

In this research paper, the authors examined OpenWHO metadata, end-of-course surveys and internal processes using a quantitative approach.

OpenWHO metadata showed that the platform has hosted over 190 health courses in 65 languages and over seven million course enrolments. Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been more women, older people and people from middle income countries accessing courses than before. Following data analysis of the platform metadata and course production process, it was found that several key factors contributed to the growth of the platform. First, OpenWHO has a standardised course production pathway that ensures efficiency, consistency and quality. Further, providing courses in different languages increased its reach to a variety of populations throughout the world. For this, multi-language translation is achieved through a network of translators and an automated system to ensure the efficient translation of learning products. Lastly, it was found that access was promoted for learners with disabilities by optimising accessibility in course production. Data analysis of learner feedback surveys for selected courses showed that the courses were well received in that learners found it useful to complete courses that were self-paced and flexible. In addition, results indicated that preferred learning methods included videos, downloadable documents, slides, quizzes and learning exercises.

Lessons learnt from the WHO's learning response will help prepare researchers for the next health emergency to ensure timely, equitable access to quality health knowledge for everyone. Findings of this study will provide valuable insights for educators, policymakers and researchers in the field who intend to use online learning to optimise knowledge acquisition and performance.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a growing body of research on information systems security, by studying open source alternatives for cloud computing. Several questions have been raised about the reliability of these promising but ambiguous offers, as the adoption of a cloud solution within an enterprise is generally accompanied by a change in the chief information officer (CIOs) role and loss of expertise.

The research uses a mixed research methodology: a first step is based on a questionnaire survey to investigate the security aspects of open source and understand the role of CIOs in the migration process. The investigation involved nearly 800 companies operating in the cloud computing sector in 16 European countries between November 2015 and January 2016. Then, this paper completes the research with a qualitative study by examining the activity of two sample companies.

Research confirms that open source cloud solutions offer a higher level of security than proprietary solutions. It is also noted that the role of CIOs is delegated to a third external actor: a transition CIO. Transition CIO is the guarantor of the strategic and security choices of small and medium enterprises.

These findings have important implications and great value to managers and cloud computing providers, in terms of formulating better cloud computing solutions. This study can also assist in increasing their understanding of the new role of CIO in the migration process to cloud computing.

This study contributes to the body of research on cloud computing. It is first of its kind with its focus on open source alternatives. Another novelty of this research is that it suggests a new conception for the CIOs role in the migration to cloud computing. Finally, the findings of this study would serve as a European market study to different companies interested in cloud computing.

The effect of the transition toward digital technologies on today’s businesses (i.e. Industry 4.0 transition) is becoming increasingly relevant, and the number of studies that have examined this phenomenon has grown rapidly. However, systematizing the existing findings is still a challenge, from both a theoretical and a managerial point of view. In such a setting, the knowledge management (KM) discipline can provide guidance to address such a gap. Indeed, the implementation of fundamental digital technologies is reshaping how firms manage knowledge. Thus, this study aims to critically review the existing literature on Industry 4.0 from a KM perspective.

First, the authors defined a structuring framework to highlight the role of Industry 4.0 transition along with absorptive capacity (ACAP) processes (acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation), while specifying what is being managed, that is data, information and/or (actual) knowledge, according to the data-information-knowledge (DIK) hierarchy. The authors then followed the systematic literature review methodology, which involves the use of explicit criteria to select publications to review and outline the stages a process has to follow to provide a transparent and replicable review and to analyze the existing literature according to the theoretical framework. This procedure yielded a final list of 150 papers.

By providing a clear picture of what scholars have studied so far on Industry 4.0 transition, in terms of KM, this literature review highlights that among all the studied digital technologies, the big data analytics technology is the one that has been explored the most in each phase of the ACAP process. A constructive body of research has also emerged in recent years around the role played by the internet of things, especially to explain the acquisition of data. On the other hand, some digital technologies, such as cyber security and smart manufacturing, have largely remained unaddressed. An explanation of the role of these technologies has been provided, from a KM perspective, together with the business implications.

This study is one of the first attempts to revise the literature on Industry 4.0 transition from a KM perspective, and it proposes a novel framework to read existing studies and on which to base new ones. Furthermore, the synthesis makes two main contributions. First, it provides a clear picture of the different digital technologies that support the four ACAP phases in relation to the DIK hierarchy. Accordingly, these results can emphasize what the literature has looked at so far, as well as which digital technologies have gained the most attention and their impacts in terms of KM. Second, the synthesis provides prescriptive considerations on the development of future research avenues, according to the proposed research framework.