Efficient Access to Emulation-as-a-Service – Challenges and Requirements
The shift of the usually non-trivial task of emulation of obsolete software environments from the end user to specialized providers through Emulation-as-a-Service (EaaS) helps to simplify digital preservation and access strategies. End users interact with emulators remotely through standardized (web-)clients on their various devices. Besides offering relevant advantages, EaaS makes emulation a networked service introducing new challenges like remote rendering, stream synchronization and real time requirements. Various objectives, like fidelity, performance or authenticity can be required depending on the actual purpose and user expectations. Various original environments and complex artefacts have different needs regarding expedient and/or authentic performance.