The emerging cloud-computing paradigm is rapidly gaining momentum as an alternative to traditional IT (information technology). However, contemporary cloud-computing offerings are primarily targeted for Web 2.0-style applications. Only recently have they begun to address the requirements of enterprise solutions, such as support for infrastructure service-level agreements. To address the challenges and deficiencies in the current state of the art, we propose a modular, extensible cloud architecture with intrinsic support for business service management and the federation of clouds. The goal is to facilitate an open, service-based online economy in which resources and services are transparently provisioned and managed across clouds on an ondemand basis at competitive costs with high-quality service. The Reservoir project is motivated by the vision of implementing an architecture that would enable providers of cloud infrastructure to dynamically partner with each other to create a seemingly infinite pool of IT resources while fully preserving their individual autonomy in making technological and business management decisions. To this end, Reservoir could leverage and extend the advantages of virtualization and embed autonomous management in the infrastructure. At the same time, the Reservoir approach aims to achieve a very ambitious goal: creating a foundation for next-generation enterprise-grade cloud computing.

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The reservoir model and architecture for open federated cloud computing

An elasticity policy governs how and when resources (e.g., application server instances at the PaaS layer) are added to and/or removed from a cloud environment. The elasticity policy can be implemented as a conventional control loop or as a set of heuristic rules. In the control-theoretic approach, complex constructs such as tracking filters, estimators, regulators, and controllers are utilized. In the heuristic, rule-based approach, various alerts(e.g., events) are defined on instance metrics (e.g., CPU utilization), which are then aggregated at a global scale in order to make provisioning decisions for a given application tier. This work provides an overview of our experiences designing and working with both approaches to construct an auto scaler for simple applications. We enumerate different criteria such as design complexity, ease of comprehension, and maintenance upon which we form an informal comparison between the different methods. We conclude with a brief discussion of how these approaches can be used in the governance of resources to better meet a high-level goal over time.

Exploring Alternative Approaches to Implement an Elasticity Policy

Business-driven IT management (BDIM) is a new, evolutionary and comprehensive IT management approach that aims to improve IT infrastructure, service quality and business results at the same time. To that end, it needs to model and numerically estimate IT-business linkage. BDIM concepts are finding ways into ITIL-based management processes as well as into new IT infrastructure product offerings such as autonomic computing in order to add increased value to the business. In the hope of contributing to define and characterize this new approach, this paper presents an introductory overview of BDIM, discusses its main concepts, illustrates gains over conventional IT management approaches and offers a survey of some recent work on the topic in the literature.

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An Introductory Overview and Survey of Business-Driven IT Management

In this paper we address the problem of ensuring business-IT alignment. We describe a method and a system for decision support in IT Service Management driven by alignment with the business objectives of the enterprise that the IT supports. Our technical proposition, called IT Management by Business Objectives (MBO) is applicable to most of the domains of IT Service Management, such as incident management, change management, and others. The technology consists of some components that are reusable across domains, together with guidelines and patterns for building complementary components in order to develop domain-specific solutions.

http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2006/HPL-2006-38.pdf

IT service management driven by business objectives An application to incident management

Change management is one of the most critical processes in IT management. Some of the reasons are the sheer number of changes and the difficulty of evaluating the impact of changes on the IT services being provided. Through carrying out a survey with IT managers and practitioners, we have found that, among the activities performed during change management, change scheduling (allocating changes to change windows) is the most problematic one. In this paper we solve the change scheduling problem by using a business-driven approach that evaluates the impact of a change schedule in terms of the financial loss imposed on the service provider. Toward this aim, we model the impact of SLA violations when the implementation of changes is done after their deadline. A change scheduling optimization problem is then formalized and its solution is applied to a typical scenario. The results show that optimizing the scheduling of changes can result in significant savings to an IT support organization.

A decision support tool to optimize scheduling of IT changes

A method is proposed whereby values for Service Level Objectives (SLOs) of an SLA can be chosen to reduce the sum IT infrastructure cost plus business financial loss. Business considerations are brought into the model by including the business losses sustained when IT components fail or performance is degraded. To this end, an impact model is fully developed in the paper. A numerical example consisting of an e-commerce business process using an IT service dependent on three infrastructure tiers (web tier, application tier, database tier) is used to show that the resulting choice of SLOs can be vastly superior to ad hoc design. A further conclusion is that infrastructure design and the resulting SLOs can be quite dependent on the “importance” of the business processes (BPs) being serviced: higher-revenue BPs deserve better infrastructure and the method presented shows exactly how much better the infrastructure should be.

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SLA design from a business perspective

A methodology for designing data center infrastructure for E-commerce sites is developed. It differs from existing methodologies in that it evaluates and compares alternative designs from a business perspective, that is, by evaluating the business impact (financial loss) imposed by imperfect infrastructure. The methodology provides the optimal infrastructure that minimizes the sum of provisioning costs and business losses incurred during failures and performance degradations. A full numerical example design is provided and results are analyzed. The use of the method for dynamically provisioning an adaptive infrastructure is briefly discussed.

/pdf/optimal-design-of-e-commerce-site-infrastructure-from-a-5d4ammyelu.pdf

Optimal Design of E-Commerce Site Infrastructure from a Business Perspective

This work proposes a business-oriented approach to designing IT infrastructure in an e-commerce context subject to load surges. The main difference between the proposed approach and conventional ones is that it includes the negative business impact — loss — incurred due to IT infrastructure failures and performance degradation. The approach minimizes the sum of infrastructure cost and business losses, rather than only considering infrastructure cost. A complete example scenario shows the value of the method.

http://www.dsc.ufcg.edu.br/~jacques/publications/business-orientedcapacityplanningofitinfrastructuretohandleloadsurges.pdf

Business-Oriented Capacity Planning of IT Infrastructure to Handle Load Surges

A methodology for designing data center infrastructure for Information Technology (IT) services is developed. The main departure from existing methodologies is that it evaluates and compares alternative designs using business metrics rather than purely technical metrics. Specifically, the methodology evaluates the business impact (financial loss) imposed by imperfect infrastructure. The methodology provides the optimal infrastructure that minimizes the sum of provisioning costs and business losses incurred during failures and performance degradations. Several full numerical example scenarios are provided and results are analyzed. The use of the method for dynamically provisioning an adaptive infrastructure is briefly discussed.

Business-Driven Design of Infrastructures for IT Services

In this work, a business-driven approach to designing Service Level Agreements in an e-commerce environment is proposed. In contrast to conventional SLA design approaches, the one proposed better captures the relationship between service provider and service client by considering the negative business impact (business loss) originated from IT infrastructure failures and performance degradation and introduces such knowledge into the SLA itself. A complete example scenario shows the value of the proposed approach. A main conclusion is that the SLA established using the business-driven perspective is superior to the one based on a conventional approach since both service provider and client can simultaneously obtain higher profit.

Filipe T. Marques

Papers

SLA design from a business perspective

Optimal Design of E-Commerce Site Infrastructure from a Business Perspective

Business-Oriented Capacity Planning of IT Infrastructure to Handle Load Surges

Business-Driven Design of Infrastructures for IT Services

SLA Design and Service Provisioning for Outsourced Services