Setting Up Personal Cloud Server Tonido @ Department of Computer Studies, CSIBER and Integration with Moodle Server - A Case Study

Abstract

Cloud computing represents a real paradigm shift in the way softwares are developed, deployed and used. Cloud computing, which is based on utility computing has a remarkable contribution in realizing long held dream of utility computing in achieving the development of infinitely scalable and universally available systems as, with cloud computing user can start very small and become big very fast limited only by his/her needs, which means cloud computing is revolutionary even if the technology it is based on is evolutionary. There is a handful of free open source cloud softwares available which guide an end user from setting up of file server to drive mapping and file synchronization. All these utilities are bundled into a single software module. The authors have performed a survey of different open source softwares currently available on Internet and have performed their relative comparisons. A private file cloud server has been installed in the Department of Computer Studies, CSIBER, Kolhapur, MS, India. For sharing and synchronizing files Tonido cloud software is employed. The security has been implemented using role based authentication wherein all inter and intra department communications are modeled by assigning different roles to the users of the system. The drive mapping is achieved at admin and user level using free add-ons available for Tonido. The folder changes are monitored periodically and notification messages are sent to appropriate users instantly. The cloud server enables stream-lining various house-keeping chores such as uploading notices, syllabi for students and also helps in keeping all the documents centralized, structured and updated. The system has rendered the whole process automatic and there is very little chance for committing any mistake which results in extremely effective communication system between users of different categories. At the OS level, security trimming is performed by programmatically editing requisite registry entries using Group Policy Editor, Microsoft management console program at runtime depending on the user logged in and mapping user credentials to the corresponding drives accessible only to that user. Finally, the Tonido server is integrated with institute’s Moodle server and the data is synchronized with the help of an interface e application implemented in Java.
DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.150729