Project - Fed4FIRE -- Federation for FIRE

Overview

Over recent years, digital content has expanded far beyond traditional multimedia to include social media streams, web feeds, and highly heterogeneous data ranging from short text posts to complex documents. This evolution has driven new publishing models such as transmedia and cross-platform storytelling, creating demand for scalable, resilient Software as a Service solutions. MyMeedia, developed by IN2, addresses these needs by enabling users to aggregate, manage, and reuse multimedia content, social media updates, and web feeds, while requiring high levels of robustness, scalability, and responsiveness to remain competitive.

Building on previous experimentation, IN2 has already explored scalable media processing through the MediaFIRE experiment on the BonFIRE infrastructure, improving multimedia analysis and indexing using virtual machines. However, recent advances in container technologies — particularly Docker — have opened new possibilities for more lightweight, flexible, and portable deployments. Docker’s rapid adoption by major cloud providers has made it a compelling alternative to traditional VM-based setups, prompting IN2 to investigate its potential for optimising MyMeedia’s backend infrastructure.

The DOCK experiment, as part of the Fed4FIRE, Federation for Future Internet Research and Experimentation project, continues this work by testing Docker-based deployment models on the Fed4FIRE cloud testbed, focusing on improved response times, better handling of load and concurrent requests, and more efficient resource utilisation. By running Docker containers within virtual machines, the project evaluates whether hybrid deployments can provide consistent environments across different infrastructures without introducing significant performance overhead. This experimentation aims to overcome the limitations of MyMeedia’s existing VM-based architecture.

From a business perspective, DOCK directly supports IN2’s strategy to strengthen MyMeedia’s competitive position in the rapidly evolving SaaS media management market. The results are expected to inform a clear deployment roadmap, improve user experience under high load, and enable more flexible installation options, including enterprise and intranet deployments on diverse infrastructures. By leveraging container-based deployments, IN2 aims to simplify adoption for clients, reduce operational complexity, and extend MyMeedia’s offering to new enterprise use cases requiring greater control and on-premise deployment options.