Showing papers on "Software as a service published in 2011"

Opportunities and risks of Software-as-a-Service: Findings from a survey of IT executives

Abstract: IT providers have heralded software-as-a-service (SaaS) as an excellent complement to on-premises software addressing the shortcomings of previous on-demand software solutions such as application service provision (ASP). However, although some practitioners and academics emphasize the opportunities that SaaS offers companies, others already predict its decline due to the considerable risk involved in its deployment. Ours is the first study to analyze the opportunities and risks associated with adopting SaaS as perceived by IT executives at adopter and non-adopter firms. We first developed a research model grounded in an opportunity-risk framework, which is theoretically embedded in the theory of reasoned action. Subsequently, we analyzed the data collected through a survey of 349 IT executives at German companies. Our findings suggest that in respect to both SaaS adopters and non-adopters, security threats are the dominant factor influencing IT executives' overall risk perceptions. On the other hand, cost advantages are the strongest driver affecting IT executives' perceptions of SaaS opportunities. Furthermore, we find significant differences between adopters' and non-adopters' perceptions of specific SaaS risks and opportunities, such as performance and economic risks as well as quality improvements, and access to specialized resources. Our study provides relevant findings to improve companies' assessment of SaaS offerings. It also offers SaaS providers insights into the factors that should be prioritized or avoided when offering SaaS services to companies at different stages of their technology adoption lifecycle.

Opportunities and risks of software-as-a-service: Findings from a survey of IT executives

Abstract: IT providers have heralded software-as-a-service (SaaS) as an excellent complement to on-premises software addressing the shortcomings of previous on-demand software solutions such as application service provision (ASP). However, although some practitioners and academics emphasize the opportunities that SaaS offers companies, others already predict its decline due to the considerable risk involved in its deployment. Ours is the first study to analyze the opportunities and risks associated with adopting SaaS as perceived by IT executives at adopter and non-adopter firms. We first developed a research model grounded in an opportunity-risk framework, which is theoretically embedded in the theory of reasoned action. Subsequently, we analyzed the data collected through a survey of 349 IT executives at German companies. Our findings suggest that in respect to both SaaS adopters and non-adopters, security threats are the dominant factor influencing IT executives' overall risk perceptions. On the other hand, cost advantages are the strongest driver affecting IT executives' perceptions of SaaS opportunities. Furthermore, we find significant differences between adopters' and non-adopters' perceptions of specific SaaS risks and opportunities, such as performance and economic risks as well as quality improvements, and access to specialized resources. Our study provides relevant findings to improve companies' assessment of SaaS offerings. It also offers SaaS providers insights into the factors that should be prioritized or avoided when offering SaaS services to companies at different stages of their technology adoption lifecycle.

SLA-Based Resource Allocation for Software as a Service Provider (SaaS) in Cloud Computing Environments

Abstract: Cloud computing has been considered as a solution for solving enterprise application distribution and configuration challenges in the traditional software sales model. Migrating from traditional software to Cloud enables on-going revenue for software providers. However, in order to deliver hosted services to customers, SaaS companies have to either maintain their own hardware or rent it from infrastructure providers. This requirement means that SaaS providers will incur extra costs. In order to minimize the cost of resources, it is also important to satisfy a minimum service level to customers. Therefore, this paper proposes resource allocation algorithms for SaaS providers who want to minimize infrastructure cost and SLA violations. Our proposed algorithms are designed in a way to ensure that Saas providers are able to manage the dynamic change of customers, mapping customer requests to infrastructure level parameters and handling heterogeneity of Virtual Machines. We take into account the customers' Quality of Service parameters such as response time, and infrastructure level parameters such as service initiation time. This paper also presents an extensive evaluation study to analyze and demonstrate that our proposed algorithms minimize the SaaS provider's cost and the number of SLA violations in a dynamic resource sharing Cloud environment.

Systems and Methods for Providing a Single Click Access to Enterprise, SAAS and Cloud Hosted Application

Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to methods and systems of providing a user-selectable list of disparately hosted applications. A device intermediary to a client and one or more servers may receive a user request to access a list of applications published to the user. The device may communicate to the client the list of published applications available to the user, the list comprising graphical icons corresponding to disparately hosted applications, at least one graphical icon corresponding to a third-party hosted application of the disparately hosted applications, the third party hosted application served by a remote third-party server. The device may receive a selection from the user of the at least one graphical icon. The device may communicate, from the remote third party server to the client of the user, execution of the third party hosted application responsive to the selection by the user.

APROMORE : an advanced process model repository

Abstract: Business process models are becoming available in large numbers due to their widespread use in many industrial applications such as enterprise and quality engineering projects. On the one hand, this raises a challenge as to their proper management: how can it be ensured that the proper process model is always available to the interested stakeholder? On the other hand, the richness of a large set of process models also offers opportunities, for example with respect to the re-use of existing model parts for new models. This paper describes the functionality and architecture of an advanced process model repository, named APROMORE. This tool brings together a rich set of features for the analysis, management and usage of large sets of process models, drawing from state-of-the art research in the field of process modeling. A prototype of the platform is presented in this paper, demonstrating its feasibility, as well as an outlook on the further development of APROMORE.

Everything as a Service: Powering the New Information Economy

Abstract: The mobility/cloud ecosystem aims to deliver infrastructure, platforms, and software as a service, enabling more people to benefit from ubiquitous information access. The culmination of 10 years' research converges on-demand applications with the infrastructure-servers, storage, networks, and client devices-to support cloud computing.

Private cloud for collaboration and e-Learning services: from IaaS to SaaS

Abstract: The idea behind cloud computing is to deliver Infrastructure-, Platform- and Software-as-a-Service (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) over the Internet on an easy pay-per-use business model. The Hochschule Furtwangen University (HFU) is running their own private cloud infrastructure, called Cloud Infrastructure and Application CloudIA. The targeted users of the CloudIA project are HFU staff and students running e-Learning applications, and external people for collaboration purposes. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce our work in building a private cloud. More specifically, this paper shows how our cloud offerings in each of the cloud service models, i.e. IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, address the requirements and needs of e-Learning and collaboration in an university environment.

Collaboration-Based Cloud Computing Security Management Framework

Abstract: Although the cloud computing model is considered to be a very promising internet-based computing platform, it results in a loss of security control over the cloud-hosted assets. This is due to the outsourcing of enterprise IT assets hosted on third-party cloud computing platforms. Moreover, the lack of security constraints in the Service Level Agreements between the cloud providers and consumers results in a loss of trust as well. Obtaining a security certificate such as ISO 27000 or NIST-FISMA would help cloud providers improve consumers trust in their cloud platforms' security. However, such standards are still far from covering the full complexity of the cloud computing model. We introduce a new cloud security management framework based on aligning the FISMA standard to fit with the cloud computing model, enabling cloud providers and consumers to be security certified. Our framework is based on improving collaboration between cloud providers, service providers and service consumers in managing the security of the cloud platform and the hosted services. It is built on top of a number of security standards that assist in automating the security management process. We have developed a proof of concept of our framework using. NET and deployed it on a test bed cloud platform. We evaluated the framework by managing the security of a multi-tenant SaaS application exemplar.

Cloud application logging for forensics

Abstract: Logs are one of the most important pieces of analytical data in a cloud-based service infrastructure. At any point in time, service owners and operators need to understand the status of each infrastructure component for fault monitoring, to assess feature usage, and to monitor business processes. Application developers, as well as security personnel, need access to historic information for debugging and forensic investigations. This paper discusses a logging framework and guidelines that provide a proactive approach to logging to ensure that the data needed for forensic investigations has been generated and collected. The standardized framework eliminates the need for logging stakeholders to reinvent their own standards. These guidelines make sure that critical information associated with cloud infrastructure and software as a service (SaaS) use-cases are collected as part of a defense in depth strategy. In addition, they ensure that log consumers can effectively and easily analyze, process, and correlate the emitted log records. The theoretical foundations are emphasized in the second part of the paper that covers the implementation of the framework in an example SaaS offering running on a public cloud service. While the framework is targeted towards and requires the buy-in from application developers, the data collected is critical to enable comprehensive forensic investigations. In addition, it helps IT architects and technical evaluators of logging architectures build a business oriented logging framework.

Service quality in Software-As-A-Service: Developing the SaaS-QUAL measure and examining its role in usage continuance

Abstract: Despite the need to better understand how customers of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions perceive the quality of these software services and how these perceptions influence SaaS adoption and use, there is no extant measure that comprehensively captures service quality evaluations in SaaS. Based on previous SERVQUAL and SaaS literature, field interviews and focus groups, a card-sorting exercise, and two surveys of SaaS using companies, we develop, refine, and test SaaS-Qual, a zones-of-tolerance (ZOT)-based service quality measurement instrument specifically for SaaS solutions. Besides validating already established service quality dimensions (i.e., rapport, responsiveness, reliability, and features), we identify two new factors (i.e., security and flexibility) that are essential for the evaluation of service quality of SaaS solutions. SaaS-Qual demonstrates strong psychometric properties and shows high nomological validity within a framework that predicts the continued use of SaaS solutions by existing customers. In addition to developing a validated instrument that provides a fine-grained measurement of SaaS service quality, we also enrich existing research models on information systems continuance. Moreover, the SaaS-Qual instrument can be used as a diagnostic tool by SaaS providers and users alike to spot strengths and weaknesses in the service delivery of SaaS solutions.

Introduction to Cloud Computing

Abstract: ion The most significant change with cloud computing is that of abstraction. As we will describe in the following section, most cloud providers provide one or more service layers to their consumers. The operational aspect of the layers supporting the service is insulated from the customer. So, a Software as a Service (SaaS) customer will interact with the application itself, but not with the operating system or hardware of the respective cloud. This key difference allows organizations that do not have the necessary system administration skills or compute facilities to leverage enterprise applications hosted by others. Many of the technologies that assist in providing these capabilities have been present for many years. Virtualization and autonomic response are areas of computing that have been well understood for decades, as has the Internet. Providers of cloud computing were able to assemble these disparate technologies into the above capabilities, ultimately defining cloud computing. Defining Cloud Computing & 3 C01 06/09/2011 11:33:45 Page 4 CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICES LAYERS Cloud computing providers provide different kinds of services to cloud computing consumers. In order to understand the different layers of service, it’s important to understand how they would relate in a noncloud computing scenario. See Exhibit 1.1. The kind of service being provided has many implications on the provider, including how they address concerns such as security, resiliency, compliance, and multitenancy. Cloud computing services fall into one of the following categories, as shown in Exhibit 1.2. Operating system Middleware Software Infrastructure as a Service Platform as a Service Software as a Service EXHIBIT 1.1 Traditional Model versus Cloud Computing Model Infrastructure as a Service Platform as a Service Software as a Service EXHIBIT 1.2 Categories of Cloud Computing Services 4 & Introduction to Cloud Computing C01 06/09/2011 11:33:45 Page 5 Infrastructure as a Service Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers allow their customers access to different kinds of infrastructure. The provider typically provides this service by dividing a very large physical infrastructure resource into smaller virtual resources for access by the consumer. Sometimes the service provided is a complete virtual machine with an operating system. In other instances the service provided is simply for storage, or perhaps a bare virtual machine with no operating system. In cases where the operating system or other software is included, the cost of the required license is either amalgamated into the cost for the service, or included as an additional surcharge. IaaS providers are often service providers to other cloud providers (see Integrator). Many current Platform as a Service providers leverage IaaS providers for extra capacity on demand. One of the more popular IaaS providers is Amazon, who provides their EC2 IaaS. Platform as a Service Platform as a Service (PaaS) providers extend the software stack provided by IaaS to include middleware. Middleware generically refers to software such as a DB2 database, or runtime environments such as a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) or a Websphere application server. This middleware is a prerequisite to running more sophisticated applications, and provides a rich operating environment for the application to exploit. PaaS providers have two methods in which they facilitate the extra capacity needed for a large multitenant system. In some cases, they provide IaaS style virtual machines to the consumer. In other cases they provide an interface through which applications in the case of a runtime environment, or data in the case of a database, can be uploaded. A popular example of a PaaS is Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform. Each method has its advantages and challenges. With an IaaS style approach, the provider typically has more control and stronger separation between tenants. This approach is less efficient, however, as common overhead such as the operating system and the virtual machine itself are duplicated across multiple tenants. In the second case, the underlying infrastructure is addressed in a much more efficient manner, with a single system image and middleware overhead amortized amongst multiple clients. Conversely, the main challenge with this approach lies in the degree of separation that can be provided between tenants. A runtime environment that is not robust or a misconfigured database can allow one user to adversely affect the quality of service of other users. Cloud Computing Services Layers & 5 C01 06/09/2011 11:33:45 Page 6 Software as a Service Application as a Service, or Software as a Service (SaaS) providers as they are more commonly known, typically provide a rich web-based interface to their customers. The customer, in most cases, is completely abstracted from the nuances of the application running behind the scenes. Tenant separation is often done at the application layer, leaving a common application, platform, and infrastructure layer underneath. Popular examples of SaaS include Google Apps and Salesforce.com. SaaS providers typically increase the capacity of their systems through scale up or scale out methods—depending on the characteristics of the application. SaaS applications that scale up are usually moved to larger platforms as their capacity requirements grow. SaaS applications that scale out are typically run on large clusters of servers. As additional capacity is required, the provider adds additional machines to the cluster. As there is a significant amount of shared resources used between tenants in an SaaS environment, the ability of one tenant to affect the quality of service of other tenants is always a concern. The ability for an SaaS provider to adequately fence or insulate one tenant from another is key to maintaining quality of service. ROLES IN CLOUD COMPUTING The cloud-computing paradigm defines three key roles. These roles each have different responsibilities and expectations relative to one another. Any party might have multiple roles depending on the context. See Exhibit 1.3.

Developing an explorative model for SaaS adoption

Abstract: Among several types of ''cloud services'', the Software as a Service (SaaS) solution is promising. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and its modified versions have been popularly utilized for examining how users come to accept a new technology, but have not yet been employed to handle issues regarding SaaS adoption. This paper attempts to develop an explorative model that examines important factors affecting SaaS adoption, in order to facilitate understanding with regard to adoption of SaaS solutions. An explorative model using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling is proposed and a number of hypotheses are tested, which integrate TAM related theories with additional imperative constructs such as marketing effort, security and trust. Thus, the findings of this study can not only help enterprise users gain insights into SaaS adoption, but also help SaaS providers obtain inspiration in their efforts to discover more effective courses of action for improving both new product development and marketing strategy.

ViteraaS: Virtual Cluster as a Service

Abstract: The idea behind cloud computing is to deliver Infrastructure-, Platform- and Software-as-a-Service (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) over the network on an easy pay-per-use business model. In this paper, we present our work, Virtual Cluster as a Service (ViteraaS), that provides on-demand high performance computing for research projects, and e-Learning and teaching purposes in a private cloud. Moreover, ViteraaS can be extended to use Amazon's public cloud infrastructure as needed. ViteraaS can be categorized as PaaS that leverages Open Nebula, a virtual infrastructure manager, to dynamically create a cluster of virtual machines (VMs) on idle resources or dedicated servers. In addition, ViteraaS is integrated within the university's existing IT infrastructure like Single Sign-On for seamless authentication and authorization. Finally, a Quality of Service monitoring module is used by ViteraaS to monitor the performance and status of these VMs.

Service Quality in Software-as-a-Service: Developing the SaaS-Qual Measure and Examining Its Role in Usage Continuance

Abstract: Despite the need to better understand how customers of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions perceive the quality of these software services and how these perceptions influence SaaS adoption and use, there is no extant measure that comprehensively captures service quality evaluations in SaaS. Based on previous SERVQUAL and SaaS literature, field interviews and focus groups, a card-sorting exercise, and two surveys of SaaS using companies, we develop, refine, and test SaaS-Qual, a zones-of-tolerance (ZOT)-based service quality measurement instrument specifically for SaaS solutions. Besides validating already established service quality dimensions (i.e., rapport, responsiveness, reliability, and features), we identify two new factors (i.e., security and flexibility) that are essential for the evaluation of service quality of SaaS solutions. SaaS-Qual demonstrates strong psychometric properties and shows high nomological validity within a framework that predicts the continued use of SaaS solutions by existing customers. In addition to developing a validated instrument that provides a fine-grained measurement of SaaS service quality, we also enrich existing research models on information systems continuance. Moreover, the SaaS-Qual instrument can be used as a diagnostic tool by SaaS providers and users alike to spot strengths and weaknesses in the service delivery of SaaS solutions.

Cloud Testing- Issues, Challenges, Needs and Practice

Abstract: Cloud computing not only changes the way of obtaining computing resources (such as computers, infrastructures, data storage, and application services), but also changes the way of managing and delivering computing services, technologies, and solutions. Cloud computing leads an opportunity in offering testing as a service (TaaS) for SaaS and clouds. Meanwhile, it causes new issues, challenges and needs in software testing, particular in testing clouds and cloud-based applications. This paper provides a comprehensive tutorial on cloud testing and cloud-based application testing. It answers the common questions raised by engineers and managers, and it provides clear concepts, discusses the special objectives, features, requirements, and needs in cloud testing. It offers a clear comparative view between web-based software testing and cloud-based application testing. In addition, it examines the major issues, challenges, and needs in testing cloud-based software applications. Furthermore, it also summarizes and compares different commercial products and solutions supporting cloud testing as services.

A game theoretic formulation of the service provisioning problem in cloud systems

Abstract: Cloud computing is an emerging paradigm which allows the on-demand delivering of software, hardware, and data as services. As cloud-based services are more numerous and dynamic, the development of efficient service provisioning policies become increasingly challenging. Game theoretic approaches have shown to gain a thorough analytical understanding of the service provisioning problem.In this paper we take the perspective of Software as a Service (SaaS) providers which host their applications at an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider. Each SaaS needs to comply with quality of service requirements, specified in Service Level Agreement (SLA) contracts with the end-users, which determine the revenues and penalties on the basis of the achieved performance level. SaaS providers want to maximize their revenues from SLAs, while minimizing the cost of use of resources supplied by the IaaS provider. Moreover, SaaS providers compete and bid for the use of infrastructural resources. On the other hand, the IaaS wants to maximize the revenues obtained providing virtualized resources. In this paper we model the service provisioning problem as a Generalized Nash game, and we propose an efficient algorithm for the run time management and allocation of IaaS resources to competing SaaSs.

Securing the Cloud: Cloud Computer Security Techniques and Tactics

Abstract: As companies turn to cloud computing technology to streamline and save money, security is a fundamental concern. Loss of certain control and lack of trust make this transition difficult unless you know how to handle it. Securing the Cloud discusses making the move to the cloud while securing your peice of it! The cloud offers felxibility, adaptability, scalability, and in the case of security-resilience. This book details the strengths and weaknesses of securing your company's information with different cloud approaches. Attacks can focus on your infrastructure, communications network, data, or services. The author offers a clear and concise framework to secure your business' assets while making the most of this new technology. Provides a sturdy and stable framework to secure your piece of the cloud, consideringalternate approaches such as private vs. public clouds, SaaS vs. IaaS,and loss of control and lack of trustDiscusses the cloud's impact on security roles, highlighting security as a service, data backup and disaster recoveryDetails the benefits of moving to the cloud-solving for limited availability of space, power and storage

Integrated information technology service management for cloud resources

Abstract: Systems and methods described herein use software adapters to provide integrated information technology service management (ITSM) for cloud resources. Software adapters in the cloud resources convert data format types of an input parameter received at a first software application in a backend computing device. An ITSM function of a second software application provides management for the cloud resources. The input parameter in a first data format type is converted by the software adapter to a second data format type, the second data format type supported by a second software application. The ITSM function of the second software application is executed using the input parameter in the second data format type, thereby providing an output of the ITSM function, the output including information and executable instructions for management of the cloud resources.

Integrating Wireless Sensor Networks with Cloud Computing

Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) has been a focus for research for several years. WSN enables novel and attractive solutions for information gathering across the spectrum of endeavour including transportation, business, health-care, industrial automation, and environmental monitoring. Despite these advances, the exponentially increasing data extracted from WSN is not getting adequate use due to the lack of expertise, time and money with which the data might be better explored and stored for future use. The next generation of WSN will benefit when sensor data is added to blogs, virtual communities, and social network applications. This transformation of data derived from sensor networks into a valuable resource for information hungry applications will benefit from techniques being developed for the emerging Cloud Computing technologies. Traditional High Performance Computing approaches may be replaced or find a place in data manipulation prior to the data being moved into the Cloud. In this paper, a novel framework is proposed to integrate the Cloud Computing model with WSN. Deployed WSN will be connected to the proposed infrastructure. Users request will be served via three service layers (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) either from the archive, archive is made by collecting data periodically from WSN to Data Centres (DC), or by generating live query to corresponding sensor network.

Economics of the cloud computing

Abstract: Cloud computing has its root deep into ground and in the market. The evolution of cloud computing is one of the major advances in the computing area as well as in economics of using computing. There are three major technologies which represent cloud computing: Software-asa-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas). In our example we discuss pros and cons of implementing PaaS or SaaS. While there are quite a few papers covering technical aspects of cloud computing technologies, this paper will have focus on economics of the cloud. In this paper we will try to explain which criteria should be considered when deciding to move or not to move to cloud. There is also general view on Return on Investment shown which takes into account various intangible impacts of cloud computing, apart from cost. These impacts include better flexibility, scalability and faster time to market.

Challenges for adopting cloud-based software as a service (saas) in the public sector.

Abstract: Technological advances such as the creation of bandwidth, modular applications and cloud computing have enabled the creation of a distributed collaborative sourcing model named Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS presents the embodiment of a new service delivery model in which a service provider is delivering its electronic services over the web to many users on a pay per use or period basis. SaaS is still unexplored in the public sector context and its use has been limited. Based on interviews and a group session the main challenges for adopting SaaS are explored from the government perspective. It was found that SaaS could provide many benefits which are related to the outsourcing of the local control, installation and development of software which could result in potential cost-savings and better cost control. Disadvantages and risks are related to the more difficult control of the IT function. Several items were mentioned as both a benefit and disadvantage, as this will be dependent on the organizational arrangements. There are also many challenges that need to be addressed including ensuring the quality, privacy, security and business continuity which require the implementation of organizational changes and governance mechanisms for public sector organizations that are considering SaaS.

EduCloud: PaaS versus IaaS Cloud Usage for an Advanced Computer Science Course

Abstract: The cloud has become a widely used term in academia and the industry. Education has not remained unaware of this trend, and several educational solutions based on cloud technologies are already in place, especially for software as a service cloud. However, an evaluation of the educational potential of infrastructure and platform clouds has not been explored yet. An evaluation of which type of cloud would be the most beneficial for students to learn, depending on the technical knowledge required for its usage, is missing. Here, the first systematic evaluation of different types of cloud technologies in an advanced course on network overlays with 84 students and four professors is presented. This evaluation tries to answer the question whether cloud technologies (and which specific type of cloud) can be useful in educational scenarios for computer science students by focusing students in the actual tasks at hand. This study demonstrates that platform clouds are valued by both students and professors to achieve the course objectives and that clouds offer a significant improvement over the previous situation in labs where much effort was devoted to setting up the software necessary for course activities. These results most strongly apply to courses in which students interact with resources that are non-self-contained (e.g., network nodes, databases, mechanical equipment, or the cloud itself), but could also apply to other science disciplines that involve programming or performing virtual experiments.

Monitoring Cloud Computing by Layer, Part 1

Abstract: The general characteristics of cloud computing's three service models-software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infra structure as a service (IaaS)-include on-demand self service, broad network access, pooling of resources, rapid elasticity of provisioning resources, and service or resource monitoring. On the basis of the Cloud Security Alliance's work, a cloud is modeled in seven layers: facility, network, hardware, OS, middle ware, application, and the user. These layers can be controlled by either the cloud provider or the cloud customer. The paper present a set of recommended restrictions and audits to facilitate cloud security. Although the recommendations might be overkill for deployments involving no sensitive data, they might be insufficient to allow certain information to be hosted in any public or community cloud. Owing to space constraints, the paper only cover the lower four layers. Part 2 will complete the discussion by covering the middleware, application, and user layers.

Wireless Network Service Interfaces

Abstract: A uniform wireless network service selection information exchange interface system is provided to facilitate a consistent user experience across multiple wireless networks that may have different service plan activation or service plan purchase processes. Network detection of service usage anomalies based on device-based data usage reports is provided to enable the network to determine whether an end-user device is likely operating in accordance with the established policy, or whether the end-user device may be operating fraudulently.

Mobile cloud computing as future for mobile applications - Implementation methods and challenging issues

Abstract: In recent years cloud computing has gained a momentum and is transforming the internet computing infrastructure. Also the mobile applications and mobile devices are developing rapidly. Cloud computing is anticipated to bring an innovation in mobile computing, where the mobile devices can use clouds for data processing, storage and other intensive operations. Already there are some mobile cloud applications for example Google's Map, Gmail for iPhone and Cisco's WebEx on iPad, however these applications are using the Software as a Service model. In this paper we introduce state-of-the-art Mobile Cloud Computing and its implementation methods. We also investigate some critical issues to be solved and point-out further future research directions.

Cloud Computing – Outsourcing 2.0 or a new Business Model for IT Provisioning?

Abstract: The term cloud computing is sometimes used to refer to a new paradigm – some authors even speak of a new technology – that flexibly offers IT resources and services over the Internet. Gartner market research sees cloud computing as a so-called “emerging technology” on its way to the hype. When looking at the number of searches for the word pair “cloud computing” undertaken with the Google search engine one can get an imagination of the high interest on the topic. Even terms like “outsourcing”, “Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)” or “grid computing” have already been overtaken.