Collaborative Research: CSR: Medium: Scaling Secure Serverless Computing on Heterogeneous Datacenters

Future datacenters will have increasingly heterogeneous resources. In addition, applications in the cloud are increasingly varied in their requirements. Several large challenges must be addressed to efficiently use a heterogeneous datacenter with heterogeneous applications. This project will investigate serverless computing as computing paradigm for heterogeneous datacenter platforms. It will create novel abstractions that extend serverless computing to better leverage unique hardware characteristics, and to improve the security of the environment serverless applications run on. Current cloud serverless platforms are rising in popularity but limited by their inability to take advantages of heterogeneity. If this project is successful, this project will greatly expand the utility of serverless computing to performance-demanding applications at higher efficiency and scalability, while also improving their reliability and security. The project will integrate the research into course curriculum at UCF and NCSU, with a free online open-source course materials. Industry partners will be involved in research collaboration, internships, and seminars, to ensure industry impact and relevance. The project will plug into various BPC activities at both universities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.