National College of Ireland

MSc in Cloud Computing, Year 1, MSCCLOUD1

Autumn/August Repeat Examinations Session

Repeat Assessment
Release Date on Moodle: 30th June 2023 at 10:00am
Online Moodle Submission Deadline: 3rd August 2023 at 15:00

______________________________________________________________________

Cloud Platform Programming

Setter: Dr A E Chis
Internal Reviewer: Dr H González–Vélez

IMPORTANT: It is your responsibility to avoid plagiarism. Please read the comprehensive

guidelines on academic honesty and academic integrity, and how to avoid plagiarism made
available by the NCI Library (https://libguides.ncirl.ie/referencingandavoidingplagiarism).
It is expected that the Submitted Assignment is FULLY THE WORK OF THE STUDENT except
where quoted material is clearly indicated. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) text generators
(e.g., ChatGPT, Quillbot, etc.) to rewrite/paraphrase text could be considered a breach of
academic integrity as you are not doing the work yourself and are using AI to carry out the work
YOU should be doing. Paraphrasing is a very important part of an assignment as it proves a
person understood the information enough to put it into their own words.
NOTE: YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PUBLISH THIS ASSIGNMENT BRIEF OR A PART THEREOF
ON ANY WEBSITES. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PUBLISH/SHARE YOUR SOLUTION WITH
OTHERS. All work submitted should be YOUR OWN. Conferring with others is NOT permitted.
Note that all submissions will be electronically screened (via Turnitin) for evidence of academic
misconduct (i.e. plagiarism and collusion).
The examiners reserve the right to conduct live mini presentations with a sample of the students,
where students will provide answers to questions related to their project. Also, it should be noted
that an examiner may require to conduct a viva examination with you to further clarify any
concerns with any submission.
Introduction
The repeat assessment of the Cloud Platform Programming (H9CPP) module consists of a Project which
represents 100% of the repeat module assessment.

The learning outcomes of the Cloud Platform Programming module are as follows:
LO1. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of core cloud-based services.
LO2. Critically analyse advantages and disadvantages of different cloud-based
technologies/services.
LO3. Formulate and produce new code libraries that implement advanced programming
constructs in order to create secure, dynamic, configurable, robust, scalable cloud-based
applications.
LO4. Construct and present a complex dynamic cloud-based application through selecting
relevant cloud related architectural patterns and services taking into account the evaluation and
assessment of application design, development, and testing methodologies.
LO5. Identify and ethically apply best practices for continuous integration, delivery and
deployment of cloud-based applications.

This document presents the details of the repeat Project assessment of the Cloud Platform Programming
module. The repeat Project assesses all the module’s learning outcomes, namely LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4,
and LO5.

Note that as this is a repeat assessment, according to the NCI repeat assessment policy, you are required
to complete a NEW project. Also, note that some of the repeat project requirements are different as
compared with the project set during the semester as that project had a different weight in the overall
assessment for the module.

Project Description
For this assignment, you are required to develop and deploy a complex dynamic cloud-based application
using a selection of relevant cloud related architectural patterns and cloud-based services. Your
application must be deployed and hosted on a public Cloud. This is an individual project.

Once you have decided what your application will do, you should go through the following process:
• Define requirements: describe the functional and non-functional requirements of your application.
• Critically analyse and document the architecture of your cloud-based application.
• Implement a complex, dynamic cloud-based application that addresses the requirements defined
above. This application must employ several cloud services, and must use at least one new
library that you create in an object-oriented programming language. The new library should
provide meaningful functionality to your application.
• Ensure that you implement/code your application to take advantage of suitable cloud
architectural patterns.
• Deploy your application to a suitable public cloud platform. The deployed application must not be
modified after the submission deadline. The examiner should be able to view your deployed
application without having to register for any account with the public cloud provider where you
deployed your application (i.e. the application (not its source code!) should be publicly
accessible via an URL).
• You must conduct some independent research and include any relevant bibliography in the
accompanying report.

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Project Deliverables: Submission Deadline: 3rd of August 2023 @15:00
You are required to document the process of developing the cloud-based application and reflect on it
through the following deliverables. You are required to submit all the deliverables through Moodle.
1. A project report (6-8 pages formatted using the IEEE Conference double-column template1) which
should include:
• Headline: title of the report, your name, student number, module, programme and date
• Abstract – a 150-300-word executive summary of the project and the main results
• Section 1: Introduction – motivation for your project and its main objectives
• Section 2: Project requirements: describe the functional and non-functional requirements of your
application
• Section 3: Architectural design aspects of your application – critically analyse and document the
architecture of your cloud-based application including the architecture diagram of the
application; the architecture diagram should indicate where the different cloud-based services
fit into your system/application. Note that the diagram should be created by you based on your
own application and cloud services used.
• Section 4: For each of the cloud-based services used in the application, critically analyse
advantages and disadvantages of those cloud-based services, and justify the choice of cloud
services used (i.e., motivate your selection/choice of a particular cloud-based service as
compared to other options available).
• Section 5: Library description – first, present the main purpose of the library you developed.
Next, describe the functionalities the library supports in your application. You should include
relevant code snippets of where the library is used in your application.
• Section 6: Implementation – document the implementation of the requirements of your
application. For each cloud service used in your application, include code snippets to show how
you integrated that cloud service in your application.
• Section 7: Continuous integration, delivery and deployment of your application
▪ Include in the report the URL to your deployed application
▪ Note that at all times you must use a private repository for versioning control (e.g., GitHub,
AWS CodeCommit, etc.)
• Section 8: Conclusions including findings/interpretations – what did you learn and find out?
Include a short reflection on developing this project. If you were to implement this project again,
what would you do differently?
• Section 9: References – a complete list of academic works and/or online materials used in the
project. References should be included as in-text citations using the IEEE referencing style.
Note that a good starting point to find academic works is the NCI Library Guide on Cloud
Computing at https://libguides.ncirl.ie/cloudcomputing
2. The source code artefacts submission (a ZIP file) should include:
• Source code of the application (including comments)
Note: Please include substantial meaningful comments in YOUR source code to document your
ORIGINAL contributions.
• Source code of the library (including comments)
Note: Please include substantial meaningful comments in YOUR source code to document your
ORIGINAL contributions.
3. Video of project presentation, project demonstration and answers to questions. The video
submission should include the followings:
• A concise presentation of the motivation and high-level description of the idea of the project

1 https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html

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 • Demonstration – give a demonstration of your application highlighting the main features
• Answers to questions/items which are included in this document under the section named Video
Presentation and Demonstration – Questions and Guidelines (see page 4)
Please record your project video and upload it to YouTube as an UNLISTED video (for instructions
please consult https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/157177).

The YouTube URL with your project presentation, demonstration and answers to questions
video must be included in your report (e.g. https://youtu.be/mxT233EdY5c) AND must be
publicly accessible.
Please test it well before your submission using a private window of your browser.

Video Presentation and Demonstration – Questions and Guidelines

You are required to submit a video presentation and demonstration of your project for the repeat
assessment of the Cloud Platform Programming module which also addresses the questions/items
provided below. The video should be between 10 to 12 minutes long.
IMPORTANT: Every second after a 12-minute video will not be considered i.e., it WILL NOT be
marked.
The URL to your recorded video must be accessible AND must be included in the project report.

Your video submission should include the followings:

• Presentation: Start the video with a concise presentation of the motivation and high-level description
of the idea of the project. Next, provide a brief outline of the followings:
1. The main objectives of your application
2. The cloud services you have used in your application
3. The functionalities provided by the library/libraries you have implemented
4. Note that all the above items should be addressed in about 2-3 minutes

• Demonstration: Give a demonstration of your application’s high-level functionality highlighting the

main features. You should use the deployed version of your application (do show evidence that you
demonstrate the deployed application, i.e., the URL of the application should be visible in the browser
throughout the demo). If you did not manage to deploy your application or if there are issues with the
deployed version, you should highlight/mention this and show the deployment attempt of your
application, and then demonstrate the local version of your application.

• Questions/Items: Identify in your application (i.e., in the source code of your application) examples
of the following project requirements. You should explain how your implementation meets each item
by explaining your coded solution. If you have not addressed a particular item please just say “I
did not implement/address that item” (please do specify the name of the item), if you have a solution
start by saying “This is how I achieved item … etc.”:
1. Specify the cloud services that you are using in your application and identify in your
application source code where do you use those cloud services, and concisely explain the
functionalities they support/provide in your application
▪ Also, show in the Cloud Provider’s (e.g., AWS) Management Console the cloud
services you are using in your project
2. Identify in your application source code where do you use the library/libraries you have
implemented and concisely explain the functionalities they support in your application
3. What is the most interesting/complex functionality that you implemented?

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Assessment Criteria
The project will be assessed based on the assessment criteria shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Marking Criteria

Architectural Design & Critique possible architectures for the cloud application and
10%
Explanation discuss and evaluate the chosen architecture.

Cloud Services & Evaluate, select, and use in your project multiple cloud
15%
Critical Analysis services.

Design and implement at least one new library documenting

Library Creation 15%
the usefulness of the library in the context of your application.

Implementation 20% Develop a complex dynamic cloud-based application.

Deployment 10% Deploy your application to a suitable public cloud platform.

Conclusions and The report should incorporate conclusions including

5%
Findings findings/interpretations.
Present the cloud-based application. Demonstrate the cloud-
based application you developed, presenting the dynamic
Video Presentation & characteristics of it and highlighting the cloud-based services
Demonstration & 25% used to support the functionalities of your application. Answer
Answers to Questions the questions/items which are included in this document
under the section named Video Presentation and
Demonstration – Questions and Guidelines.

Note
The examiners reserve the right to conduct live mini presentations with a sample of the students,
where students will provide answers to questions related to their project. Also, it should be noted
that an examiner may require to conduct a viva examination with you to further clarify any
concerns with any submission.

H9CPP – Repeat Assessment – Autumn/August Repeat Examinations Session 2023 Page 5 of 5