Distributed Systems
Distributed Systems
The Distributed Systems (DSY) research group of the InIT focuses on scalable and reliable implementation of Distributed Systems across various areas (Internet, Cloud, Robotics, Enterprises, etc) with a Cloud-Native/-First approach. We address questions such as:
- How to build, run, and evaluate a performant (System/Energy/Financial) Cloud-Infrastructure (Network, Storage, Compute)
- What architecture best suits your specific cloud-native application?
- Which service model (IaaS, CaaS, PaaS, FaaS, ...) ensures optimal implementation of an application?
- Which tools are needed for development, operation and monitoring cloud-native services and applications?
- How to offer applications "as a service" (SaaS/PaaS/FaaS)?
- How to monetize modern IT “as a service”?
- How to ensure Site Reliability from a provider and consumer perspective?
- How to integrate the "physical world" into complex IT services?
- How to exploit Cloud Computing for specific application domains, like automation via Robots, the Health domain (Hospitals, Day Care, Assisted Living), or the domain of Environmental Computer Science (Farming, Live Stock, Forest Management)
The research group is engaged in international projects within the EU research framework and works closely with partners from the private sector on innovative products within Innosuisse funded or directly financed projects.
The knowledge gained from applied research and development is transferred to students of computer science courses in the following modules:
- Operating Systems (Linux/Unix)
- Distributed Systems
- Cloud Computing 1 (Cloud Concepts und Infrastructure)
- Cloud Computing 2 (Cloud Platforms and Applications)
- Serverless and Cloud Application Development
- Cloud Robotics
- Applied Cloud Computing for Medical Applications
- System Performance Evaluation (Coming Autumn 2026)
- Cloud Computing (Master)
- System Performance Evaluation (Master/EVA)
Cloud Computing

The Init Cloud Computing Lab (ICCLAB) is dedicated to the automated deployment, operation and usage of configurable, highly scalable and resilient IT resources on a pay-per-use basis. In addition to infrastructure virtualization, this includes platform services for automated application delivery, scalable back-end, and monitoring of services and applications.
Service Prototyping

The Service Prototyping Lab (SPLAB) addresses the implementation and validation of complex services in cloud or post-cloud environments. In addition to the migration of existing services to the cloud, the main focus is on modern application architectures (Cloud Native Applications, Microservices, Serverless), the provisioning of tools for optimal implementation, the experimental validation of concepts and their monetization (Cloud Accounting and Billing).
Cloud Robotics
The Init Cloud Comupting Lab (ICCLAB) also addresses the integration of robotic applications into complex networked services. The usage of elastic cloud services allows to extend the capabilities of robots (computing power, context information, artificial intelligence, ...) as well as to manage and coordinate them. Programming frameworks and automation services enable developers to integrate robots into services without having in-depth knowledge at device level.
Unfortunately, no list of projects can be displayed here at the moment. Until the list is available again, the project search on the ZHAW homepage can be used.
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2022.
Tabular data insights and synthesis with the AutoTable approach[poster].
In:
Proceedings 2022 9th Swiss Conference on Data Science (SDS).
9th Swiss Conference on Data Science (SDS), Lucerne, Switzerland, 22-23 June 2022.
IEEE.
pp. 69-70.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/SDS54800.2022.00020
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Bucchiarone, Antonio; Guidi, Claudio; Lanese, Ivan; Bencomo, Nelly; Spillner, Josef,
2022.
A MAPE-K approach to autonomic microservices[poster].
In:
2022 IEEE 19th International Conference on Software Architecture Companion (ICSA-C).
19th IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA), Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA, 12-15 March 2022.
IEEE.
pp. 100-103.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSA-C54293.2022.00025
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Spillner, Josef; Liu, Mengwei; Zhan, Peng,
2022.
Demo: Smart waste disposal with edge-cloud continuum architecture[paper].
In:
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on the Internet of Things.
11th International Conference on the Internet of Things (IOT'21), St. Gallen, Switzerland, 8-11 November 2021.
Association for Computing Machinery.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1145/3494322.3494357
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2022.
Self-balancing architectures based on liquid functions across computing continuums[paper].
In:
Proceedings of the 14th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing Companion.
14th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC)/DML-ICC, Leicester, UK, 6-9 December 2021.
Association for Computing Machinery.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1145/3492323.3495589
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Militano, Leonardo; Zafeiropoulos, Anastasios; Fotopoulou, Eleni; Bruschi, Roberto; Lombardo, Chiara; Edmonds, Andy; Papavassiliou, Symeon,
2022.
AI-powered Infrastructures for intelligence and automation in beyond-5G systems[paper].
In:
Proceedings of 2021 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps).
2021 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps), Madrid, Spain, 7-11 December 2021.
IEEE.
pp. 1-6.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/GCWkshps52748.2021.9682117