Emulation-as-a-service EaaS(cloud based service) for Digital preservation

Emulation-as-a-service EaaS(cloud based service) for Digital preservation

Historical and cultural Information is stored in variety of electronic storage media. As the technology changes the medium of storage changes. Some forms of storage are obsolete now and some on the verge of it. When point comes to their preservation it becomes complex to manage these different types of digital objects and more difficult to provide users the access to information. If the information is stored in the media that is difficult or not possible to run on current system then need arise for emulators and Emulation-as-a-service: a cloud based service can play important role in this. Through  the emulation we can provide the digital objects' native environment and thus maintain its original characteristics, look and feel.

Open Preservation Foundation

Engaged in finding solutions for the challenges of digital preservation Open Preservation Foundation has discovered EaaS (cloud based service) for better ways of accessing digital cultural artifacts.

Emergence of wide range of different cloud services offers a distributed system model and architecture in which user harness cloud based services remotely through standardized web-client applications on their devices. Emulation-as-a-service(cloud based service) is one of them. Instead of creating an environment of obsolete software through emulation for accessing information stored in digital objects, which involves installing huge number of softwares which is quiet difficult task to maintain. Emulation-as-a-service (a term originally coined by J.van der Hoeven) provides a great solution for it.

Emulator: a program that allows a computer to behave like the other computer system or electronic system and the process is called Emulation.

According to Wikimedia "In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the host) to behave like another computer system (called the guest). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peripheral devices designed for the guest system. Emulation refers to the ability of a computer program in an electronic device to emulate (or imitate) another program or device.  A hardware emulator is an emulator which takes the form of a hardware device."

Some features of EaaS model:

• Allows users to access the digital objects independent of the software required to run the objects.
• It also provides one fit solution for challenges arises due to architectural and technical differences in various devices (desktop, laptops, tablets, thin clients, etc.) in accessing digital objects.
• All features of cloud based services like scalable, on demand service, pay for what you use.
• Distributed system in which services are shared between institutions (Digital Preservation Institutions) and cloud providers and thus reducing compute resources, minimizing costs of maintenance.
• IPR, copyright and privacy issues can also be controlled in effective ways by hindering users to misuse the digital objects.

    To know more: http://openpreservation.org/blog/2013/01/08/emulation-service/