Showing papers on "Software as a service published in 2013"

Generalized ocean color inversion model for retrieving marine inherent optical properties

Abstract: Ocean color measured from satellites provides daily, global estimates of marine inherent optical properties (IOPs). Semi-analytical algorithms (SAAs) provide one mechanism for inverting the color of the water observed by the satellite into IOPs. While numerous SAAs exist, most are similarly constructed and few are appropriately parameterized for all water masses for all seasons. To initiate community-wide discussion of these limitations, NASA organized two workshops that deconstructed SAAs to identify similarities and uniqueness and to progress toward consensus on a unified SAA. This effort resulted in the development of the generalized IOP (GIOP) model software that allows for the construction of different SAAs at runtime by selection from an assortment of model parameterizations. As such, GIOP permits isolation and evaluation of specific modeling assumptions, construction of SAAs, development of regionally tuned SAAs, and execution of ensemble inversion modeling. Working groups associated with the workshops proposed a preliminary default configuration for GIOP (GIOP-DC), with alternative model parameterizations and features defined for subsequent evaluation. In this paper, we: (1) describe the theoretical basis of GIOP; (2) present GIOP-DC and verify its comparable performance to other popular SAAs using both in situ and synthetic data sets; and, (3) quantify the sensitivities of their output to their parameterization. We use the latter to develop a hierarchical sensitivity of SAAs to various model parameterizations, to identify components of SAAs that merit focus in future research, and to provide material for discussion on algorithm uncertainties and future emsemble applications.

CloudThings: A common architecture for integrating the Internet of Things with Cloud Computing

Abstract: The Internet of Things presents the user with a novel means of communicating with the Web world through ubiquitous object-enabled networks. Cloud Computing enables a convenient, on demand and scalable network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. This paper mainly focuses on a common approach to integrate the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing under the name of CloudThings architecture. We review the state of the art for integrating Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things. We examine an IoT-enabled smart home scenario to analyze the IoT application requirements. We also propose the CloudThings architecture, a Cloud-based Internet of Things platform which accommodates CloudThings IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS for accelerating IoT application, development, and management. Moreover, we present our progress in developing the CloudThings architecture, followed by a conclusion.

Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology & Architecture

Abstract: This is a great book on the topic of cloud computing.--Kapil Bakshi, Architecture and Strategy, Cisco Systems Inc. We will recommend this book to Oracle customers, partners, and users for their journey toward cloud computing.--Jurgen Kress, Fusion Middleware Partner Adoption, Oracle EMEA A cloud computing book that will stand out and survive the test of time.... I highly recommend this book...--Christoph Schittko, Principal Technology Strategist & Cloud Solution Director, Microsoft Corp. ...a must-read for any IT professional interested in cloud computing.--Andre Tost, Senior Technical Staff Member, IBM Software Group The richness and depth of the topics discussed are incredibly impressive. The depth and breadth of the subject matter are such that a reader could become an expert in a short amount of time.--Jamie Ryan, Solutions Architect, Layer 7 Technologies Thomas, in his own distinct and erudite style, provides a comprehensive and a definitive book on cloud computing. Just like his previous masterpiece, Service-Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Design, this book is sure to engage CxOs, cloud architects, and the developer community involved in delivering software assets on the cloud. Thomas and his authoring team have taken great pains in providing great clarity and detail in documenting cloud architectures, cloud delivery models, cloud governance, and economics of cloud, without forgetting to explain the core of cloud computing that revolves around Internet architecture and virtualization. As a reviewer for this outstanding book, I must admit I have learned quite a lot while reviewing the material. A must have book that should adorn everybodys desk!--Vijay Srinivasan, Chief Architect - Technology, Cognizant Technology Solutions This book provides comprehensive and descriptive vendor-neutral coverage of cloud computing technology, from both technical and business aspects. It provides a deep-down analysis of cloud architectures and mechanisms that capture the real-world moving parts of cloud platforms. Business aspects are elaborated on to give readers a broader perspective on choosing and defining basic cloud computing business models. Thomas Erls Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology & Architecture is an excellent source of knowledge of fundamental and in-depth coverage of cloud computing.--Masykur Marhendra Sukmanegara, Communication Media & Technology, Consulting Workforce Accenture Demystification, rationalization, and structuring of implementation approaches have always been strong parts in each and every one of Thomas Erls books. This book is no exception. It provides the definitive, essential coverage of cloud computing and, most importantly, presents this content in a very comprehensive manner. Best of all, this book follows the conventions of the previous service technology series titles, making it read like a natural extension of the library. I strongly believe that this will be another bestseller from one of the top-selling IT authors of the past decade.--Sergey Popov, Senior Enterprise Architect SOA/Security, Liberty Global International A must-read for anyone involved in cloud design and decision making! This insightful book provides in-depth, objective, vendor-neutral coverage of cloud computing concepts, architecture models, and technologies. It will prove very valuable to anyone who needs to gain a solid understanding of how cloud environments work and how to design and migrate solutions to clouds.--Gijs in t Veld, Chief Architect, Motion10 Companies looking to migrate applications or infrastructure to the cloud are often misled by buzzwords and industry hype. This work cuts through the hype and provides a detailed look, from investigation to contract to implementation to termination, at what it takes for an organization to engage with cloud service providers. This book really lays out the benefits and struggles with getting a company to an IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS solution.--Kevin Davis, Ph.D., Solutions Architect This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the concepts and mechanics behind clouds. Its written for anyone interested in delving into the details of how cloud environments function, how they are architected, and how they can impact business. This is the book for any organization seriously considering adopting cloud computing. It will pave the way to establishing your cloud computing roadmap.--Damian Maschek, SOA Architect, Deutsche Bahn One of the best books on cloud computing I have ever read. It is complete yet vendor technology neutral and successfully explains the major concepts in a well-structured and disciplined way. It goes through all the definitions and provides many hints for organizations or professionals who are approaching and/or assessing cloud solutions. This book gives a complete list of topics playing fundamental roles in the cloud computing discipline. It goes through a full list of definitions very clearly stated. Diagrams are simple to understand and self-contained. Readers with different skill sets, expertise, and backgrounds will be able to understand the concepts seamlessly.--Antonio Bruno, Infrastructure and Estate Manager, UBS AG Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology & Architecture is a comprehensive book that focuses on what cloud computing is really all about.... This book will become the foundation on which many organizations will build successful cloud adoption projects. It is a must-read reference for both IT infrastructure and application architects interested in cloud computing or involved in cloud adoption projects. It contains extremely useful and comprehensive information for those who need to build cloud-based architectures or need to explain it to customers thinking about adopting cloud computing technology in their organization.--Johan Kumps, SOA Architect, RealDolmen I have read every book written by Thomas Erl and Cloud Computing is another excellent publication and demonstration of Thomas Erls rare ability to take the most complex topics and provide critical core concepts and technical information in a logical and understandable way.--Melanie A. Allison, Integrated Consulting Services Clouds are distributed technology platforms that leverage sophisticated technology innovations to provide highly scalable and resilient environments that can be remotely utilized by organizations in a multitude of powerful ways. To successfully build upon, integrate with, or even create a cloud environment requires an understanding of its common inner mechanics, architectural layers, and models, as well as an understanding of the business and economic factors that result from the adoption and real-world use of cloud-based services. In Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology & Architecture, Thomas Erl, one of the worlds top-selling IT authors, teams up with cloud computing experts and researchers to break down proven and mature cloud computing technologies and practices into a series of well-defined concepts, models, technology mechanisms, and technology architectures, all from an industry-centric and vendor-neutral point of view. In doing so, the book establishes concrete, academic coverage with a focus on structure, clarity, and well-defined building blocks for mainstream cloud computing platforms and solutions. Subsequent to technology-centric coverage, the book proceeds to establish business-centric models and metrics that allow for the financial assessment of cloud-based IT resources and their comparison to those hosted on traditional IT enterprise premises. Also provided are templates and formulas for calculating SLA-related quality-of-service values and numerous explorations of the SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS delivery models. With more than 260 figures, 29 architectural models, and 20 mechanisms, this indispensable guide provides a comprehensive education of cloud computing essentials that will never leave your side.

Generalized Nash Equilibria for the Service Provisioning Problem in Multi-Cloud Systems

Abstract: In recent years, the evolution and the widespread adoption of virtualization, service-oriented architectures, autonomic, and utility computing have converged letting a new paradigm to emerge: cloud computing. Clouds allow the on-demand delivering of software, hardware, and data as services. Currently, the cloud offer is becoming wider day by day because all the major IT companies and service providers, like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, HP, IBM, and VMWare, have started providing solutions involving this new technological paradigm. As cloud-based services are more numerous and dynamic, the development of efficient service provisioning policies becomes increasingly challenging. In this paper, we take the perspective of Software as a Service (SaaS) providers that 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 show the existence of equilibria for such game. Moreover, we propose two solution methods based on the best-reply dynamics, and we prove their convergence in a finite number of iterations to a generalized Nash equilibrium. In particular, we develop an efficient distributed algorithm for the runtime allocation of IaaS resources among competing SaaS providers. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by simulation and performing tests on a real prototype environment deployed on Amazon EC2. Results show that, compared to other state-of-the-art solutions, our model can improve the efficiency of the cloud system evaluated in terms of Price of Anarchy by 50-70 percent.

State-of-the-art research study for green cloud computing

Abstract: Although cloud computing has rapidly emerged as a widely accepted computing paradigm, the research on cloud computing is still at an early stage. Cloud computing suffers from different challenging issues related to security, software frameworks, quality of service, standardization, and power consumption. Efficient energy management is one of the most challenging research issues. The core services in cloud computing system are the SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). In this paper, we study state-of-the-art techniques and research related to power saving in the IaaS of a cloud computing system, which consumes a huge part of total energy in a cloud computing system. At the end, some feasible solutions for building green cloud computing are proposed. Our aim is to provide a better understanding of the design challenges of energy management in the IaaS of a cloud computing system.

Securing cloud from ddos attacks using intrusion detection system in virtual machine

Abstract: Cloud Computing is the newly emerged technology of Distributed Computing System. Cloud Computing user concentrate on API security & provide services to its consumers in multitenant environment into three layers namely, Software as a service, Platform as a service and Infrastructure as a service, with the help of web services. It provides service facilities to its consumers on demand . These service provided can easily invites attacker to attack by Saas ,Paas, Iaas. Since the resources are gathered at one place in data centers in cloud computing, the DDOS attacks such as HTTP & XML in this environment is dangerous & provides harmful effects and also all consumer will be affected at the same time. These attacks can be resolved & detected by a proposed methodology, “Securing cloud from DDOS attacks using intrusion detection system in virtual machine”.In this methodology, this problem can be overcome by using proposed system. The different kinds of vulnerabilities are detected in proposed system. The SOAP request makes the communication between the client and the service provider. Through the Service Oriented Traceback Architecture the SOAP request is send to the cloud. In this architecture service oriented trace back mark is present which contain proxy within it. The proxy that marks the incoming packets with source message identification to identify the real client. Then the SOAP message is travelled via XDetector. The XDetectors used to monitors and filters the DDoS attacks such as HTTP and XML DDoS attack. Finally the filtered real clinet message is transferred to the cloud service provider and the corresponding services is given to the client in secured manner .

EMUSIM: an integrated emulation and simulation environment for modeling, evaluation, and validation of performance of Cloud computing applications

Abstract: SUMMARY Cloud computing allows the deployment and delivery of application services for users worldwide. Software as a Service providers with limited upfront budget can take advantage of Cloud computing and lease the required capacity in a pay-as-you-go basis, which also enables flexible and dynamic resource allocation according to service demand. One key challenge potential Cloud customers have before renting resources is to know how their services will behave in a set of resources and the costs involved when growing and shrinking their resource pool. Most of the studies in this area rely on simulation-based experiments, which consider simplified modeling of applications and computing environment. In order to better predict service's behavior on Cloud platforms, we developed an integrated architecture that is based on both simulation and emulation. The proposed architecture, named EMUSIM, automatically extracts information from application behavior via emulation and then uses this information to generate the corresponding simulation model. We performed experiments using an image processing application as a case study and found that EMUSIM was able to accurately model such application via emulation and use the model to supply information about its potential performance in a Cloud provider. We also discuss our experience using EMUSIM for deploying applications in a real public Cloud provider. EMUSIM is based on an open source software stack and therefore it can be extended for analysis behavior of several other applications. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Automated Healthcare Risk Management System Utilizing Real-time Predictive Models, Risk Adjusted Provider Cost Index, Edit Analytics, Strategy Management, Managed Learning Environment, Contact Management, Forensic GUI, Case Management And Reporting System For Preventing And Detecting Healthcare Fraud, Abuse, Waste And Errors

Abstract: The Automated Healthcare Risk Management System is a real-time Software as a Service application which interfaces and assists investigators, law enforcement and risk management analysts by focusing their efforts on the highest risk and highest value healthcare payments. The system's Risk Management design utilizes real-time Predictive Models, a Provider Cost Index, Edit Analytics, Strategy Management, a Managed Learning Environment, Contact Management, Forensic GUI, Case Management and Reporting System for individually targeting, identifying and preventing fraud, abuse, waste and errors prior to payment. The Automated Healthcare Risk Management System analyzes hundreds of millions of transactions and automatically takes actions such as declining or queuing a suspect payment. Claim payment risk is optimally prioritized through a Managed Learning environment, from high risk to low risk for efficient resolution by investigators.

Search-based genetic optimization for deployment and reconfiguration of software in the cloud

Abstract: Migrating existing enterprise software to cloud platforms involves the comparison of competing cloud deployment options (CDOs). A CDO comprises a combination of a specific cloud environment, deployment architecture, and runtime reconfiguration rules for dynamic resource scaling. Our simulator CDOSim can evaluate CDOs, e.g., regarding response times and costs. However, the design space to be searched for well-suited solutions is extremely huge. In this paper, we approach this optimization problem with the novel genetic algorithm CDOXplorer. It uses techniques of the search-based software engineering field and CDOSim to assess the fitness of CDOs. An experimental evaluation that employs, among others, the cloud environments Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Windows Azure, shows that CDOXplorer can find solutions that surpass those of other state-of-the-art techniques by up to 60%. Our experiment code and data and an implementation of CDOXplorer are available as open source software.

The Impact of Cloud Computing: Should the IT Department Be Organized as a Cost Center or a Profit Center?

Abstract: How does the adoption of cloud computing by a firm affect the organizational structure of its information technology (IT) department? To analyze this question, we consider an IT department that procures IT services from a cloud computing vendor and enhances these services for consuming units within the firm. Our model incorporates the competitive environment faced by the cloud vendor, which affects the price of the cloud vendor. We find that when the cloud vendor faces intense competition, the cost-center organizational model is preferred over the profit-center model. Infrastructure services such as basic storage, e-mail, and raw computing face intense competition, and our results suggest that such services be offered as a free corporate resource under the cost-center organizational structure. When the cloud vendor has pricing power, a profit-center organizational structure is likely to be preferred. Our results suggest that highly differentiated services such as cloud-based enterprise-wide enterprise res...

Developing cloud applications using the e-Science Central platform.

Abstract: This paper describes the e-Science Central (e-SC) cloud data processing system and its application to a number of e-Science projects. e-SC provides both software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service for scientific data management, analysis and collaboration. It is a portable system and can be deployed on both private (e.g. Eucalyptus) and public clouds (Amazon AWS and Microsoft Windows Azure). The SaaS application allows scientists to upload data, edit and run workflows and share results in the cloud, using only a Web browser. It is underpinned by a scalable cloud platform consisting of a set of components designed to support the needs of scientists. The platform is exposed to developers so that they can easily upload their own analysis services into the system and make these available to other users. A representational state transfer-based application programming interface (API) is also provided so that external applications can leverage the platform's functionality, making it easier to build scalable, secure cloud-based applications. This paper describes the design of e-SC, its API and its use in three different case studies: spectral data visualization, medical data capture and analysis, and chemical property prediction.

The Evolution of the R Software Ecosystem

Abstract: Software ecosystems form the heart of modern companies' collaboration strategies with end users, open source developers and other companies. An ecosystem consists of a core platform and a halo of user contributions that provide value to a company or project. In order to sustain the level and number of high-quality contributions, it is crucial for companies and contributors to understand how ecosystems tend to evolve and can be maintained successfully over time. As a first step, this paper explores the evolution characteristics of the statistical computing project GNU R, which is a successful, end-user programming ecosystem. We find that the ecosystem of user-contributed R packages has been growing steadily since R's conception, at a significantly faster rate than core packages, yet each individual package remains stable in size. We also identified differences in the way user-contributed and core packages are able to attract an active community of users.

Software Analytics for Mobile Applications--Insights a Lessons Learned

Abstract: Mobile applications, known as apps, are software systems running on handheld devices, such as smartphones and tablet PCs. The market of apps has rapidly expanded in the past few years into a multi-billion dollar business. Being a new phenomenon, it is unclear whether approaches to maintain and comprehend traditional software systems can be ported to the context of apps. We present a novel approach to comprehend apps from a structural and historical perspective, leveraging three factors for the analysis: source code, usage of third-party APIs, and historical data. We implemented our approach in a web-based software analytics platform named SAMOA. We detail our approach and the supporting tool, and present a number of findings obtained while investigating a corpus of mobile applications. Our findings reveal that apps differ significantly from traditional software systems in a number of ways, which calls for the development of novel approaches to maintain and comprehend them.

An End-to-End QoS Mapping Approach for Cloud Service Selection

Abstract: In order to select and rank the best services in a cloud computing environment, the end-to-end quality of service (QoS) values of cloud services have to be computed. For a new SaaS provider, the deployment of its software application in the cloud is a challenging job. It has to find a hosting service (IaaS) that hosts its service. The primary goal of the SaaS provider is to make its service at the top of the ranked list of cloud services returned to end users through satisfying their QoS requirements. In this paper, we propose a mechanism to map the users' QoS requirements of cloud services to the right QoS specifications of SaaS then map them to best IaaS service that offers the optimal QoS guarantees. Then together SaaS and IaaS services can provide the best service offer to end users. As a result of the mapping, the end-to-end QoS values can be calculated. We propose a set of rules to perform the mapping process. We hierarchically model the QoS specifications of cloud services using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The AHP based model helps to facilitate the mapping process across the cloud layers, and to rank the candidate cloud services for end users. We use a case study to illustrate and validate our solution approach.

External platform extensions in a multi-tenant environment

Abstract: Methods and systems are described for allowing third party developers to add extensions to a cloud service provider's software as a service (SaaS) services by editing an ‘empty’ config file according to a schema provided by the cloud service provider to form a delta file and then merging the delta file with an internal, full version of the config file. The full config file is then used to initialize and instantiate objects upon a restart of the cloud provider's services.

Implementing Domain-Driven Design

Abstract: For software developers of all experience levels looking to improve their results, and design and implement domain-driven enterprise applications consistently with the best current state of professional practice, Implementing Domain-Driven Design will impart a treasure trove of knowledge hard won within the DDD and enterprise application architecture communities over the last couple decades. Randy Stafford, Architect At-Large, Oracle Coherence Product Development This book is a must-read for anybody looking to put DDD into practice. Udi Dahan, Founder of NServiceBus Implementing Domain-Driven Design presents a top-down approach to understanding domain-driven design (DDD) in a way that fluently connects strategic patterns to fundamental tactical programming tools. Vaughn Vernon couples guided approaches to implementation with modern architectures, highlighting the importance and value of focusing on the business domain while balancing technical considerations. Building on Eric Evans seminal book, Domain-Driven Design, the author presents practical DDD techniques through examples from familiar domains. Each principle is backed up by realistic Java examplesall applicable to C# developersand all content is tied together by a single case study: the delivery of a large-scale Scrum-based SaaS system for a multitenant environment. The author takes you far beyond DDD-lite approaches that embrace DDD solely as a technical toolset, and shows you how to fully leverage DDDs strategic design patterns using Bounded Context, Context Maps, and the Ubiquitous Language. Using these techniques and examples, you can reduce time to market and improve quality, as you build software that is more flexible, more scalable, and more tightly aligned to business goals. Coverage includes Getting started the right way with DDD, so you can rapidly gain value from it Using DDD within diverse architectures, including Hexagonal, SOA, REST, CQRS, Event-Driven, and Fabric/Grid-Based Appropriately designing and applying Entitiesand learning when to use Value Objects instead Mastering DDDs powerful new Domain Events technique Designing Repositories for ORM, NoSQL, and other databases

MERRA Analytic Services: Meeting the Big Data Challenges of Climate Science through Cloud-Enabled Climate Analytics-as-a-Service

Abstract: Climate science is a Big Data domain that is experiencing unprecedented growth. In our efforts to address the Big Data challenges of climate science, we are moving toward a notion of Climate Analytics-as-a-Service (CAaaS). We focus on analytics, because it is the knowledge gained from our interactions with Big Data that ultimately produce societal benefits. We focus on CAaaS because we believe it provides a useful way of thinking about the problem: a specialization of the concept of business process-as-a-service, which is an evolving extension of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS enabled by Cloud Computing. Within this framework, Cloud Computing plays an important role; however, we it see it as only one element in a constellation of capabilities that are essential to delivering climate analytics as a service. These elements are essential because in the aggregate they lead to generativity, a capacity for self-assembly that we feel is the key to solving many of the Big Data challenges in this domain. MERRA Analytic Services (MERRAAS) is an example of cloud-enabled CAaaS built on this principle. MERRAAS enables MapReduce analytics over NASAs Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) data collection. The MERRA reanalysis integrates observational data with numerical models to produce a global temporally and spatially consistent synthesis of 26 key climate variables. It represents a type of data product that is of growing importance to scientists doing climate change research and a wide range of decision support applications. MERRAAS brings together the following generative elements in a full, end-to-end demonstration of CAaaS capabilities: (1) high-performance, data proximal analytics, (2) scalable data management, (3) software appliance virtualization, (4) adaptive analytics, and (5) a domain-harmonized API. The effectiveness of MERRAAS has been demonstrated in several applications. In our experience, Cloud Computing lowers the barriers and risk to organizational change, fosters innovation and experimentation, facilitates technology transfer, and provides the agility required to meet our customers' increasing and changing needs. Cloud Computing is providing a new tier in the data services stack that helps connect earthbound, enterprise-level data and computational resources to new customers and new mobility-driven applications and modes of work. For climate science, Cloud Computing's capacity to engage communities in the construction of new capabilies is perhaps the most important link between Cloud Computing and Big Data.

RFID-enabled real-time advanced planning and scheduling shell for production decision making

Abstract: In a radio frequency identification RFID-enabled real-time manufacturing environment, different decision makers are often confronted with the inconsistency between the highly synchronised information flow and unstandardised decision-making procedures, especially under conflicting objectives and dynamic situations. This study proposes an RFID-enabled real-time advanced production planning and scheduling shell RAPShell, in short to coordinate different decision makers across production processes. RAPShell has several key innovations. First, it uses RFID technology for enhancing information sharing, which provides the basis for coordinating decisions and operations of different parties involved in production planning, scheduling, execution and control. Second, it adopts Software as a Service SaaS model and a standard service-oriented architecture SOA with key modules, adaptive optimisation models, solution algorithms as well as scheduling rules developed and deployed as web services. Finally, extensible makeup language XML-based data models are utilised to achieve easy-to-deploy and simple-to-use system customisation and implementation. A case study demonstrates how RAPShell is customised and deployed in a small-and medium-sized company to facilitate the operations of typical production decision makers and operators. Benefits from qualitative and quantitative are discussed from the case study to show RAPShell's practical effectiveness and efficiency on production decision making.

Horizontal Allocation of Decision Rights for On-Premise Applications and Software-as-a-Service

Abstract: This study addresses a major gap in our knowledge about the allocation of information technology (IT) decision rights between business and IT units at the application level, including the governance of applications delivered on-premise versus those delivered with a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Building on the findings from a multicase qualitative study of organizations that had adopted the same SaaS application, we draw on three theoretical lenses (agency theory, transaction cost economics, and knowledge-based view) to develop a theoretically grounded model with three organization-level factors, three application-level factors, and application-level IT governance. Hypotheses derived from the model, as well as a set of differential hypotheses about factor influences due to on-premise versus SaaS delivery, are tested with survey responses from 207 firms in which application-level governance is operationalized with two dimensions: decision control rights (decision authority) and decision management ri...

Software Analytics in Practice

Abstract: With software analytics, software practitioners explore and analyze data to obtain insightful, actionable information for tasks regarding software development, systems, and users. The StackMine project produced a software analytics system for Microsoft product teams. The project provided lessons on applying software analytics technologies to positively impact software development practice. The lessons include focusing on problems that practitioners care about, using domain knowledge for correct data understanding and problem modeling, building prototypes early to get practitioners' feedback, taking into account scalability and customizability, and evaluating analysis results using criteria related to real tasks.

Towards QoS-oriented SLA guarantees for online cloud services

Abstract: Cloud Computing provides a convenient means of remote on-demand and pay-per-use access to computing resources. However, its ad hoc management of quality-of-service and SLA poses significant challenges to the performance, dependability and costs of online cloud services. The paper precisely addresses this issue and makes a threefold contribution. First, it introduces a new cloud model, the SLAaaS (SLA aware Service) model. SLAaaS enables a systematic integration of QoS levels and SLA into the cloud. It is orthogonal to other cloud models such as SaaS or PaaS, and may apply to any of them. Second, the paper introduces CSLA, a novel language to describe QoS-oriented SLA associated with cloud services. Third, the paper presents a control theoretic approach to provide performance, dependability and cost guarantees for online cloud services, with time-varying workloads. The proposed approach is validated through case studies and extensive experiments with online services hosted in clouds such as Amazon EC2. The case studies illustrate SLA guarantees for various services such as a MapReduce service, a cluster-based multi-tier e-commerce service, and a low-level locking service.

Framework for facilitating implementation of multi-tenant SaaS architecture

Abstract: A framework for implementing multitenant architecture is provided. The framework comprises a framework services module which is configured to provide framework services that facilitate abstraction of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) services and crosscutting services for a Greenfield application and a non SaaS based web application. Further the abstraction results in a SaaS based multitenant web application. The framework further comprises a runtime module configured to automatically integrate and consume the framework services and APIs to facilitate monitoring and controlling of features associated with the SaaS based multitenant web application. The framework further comprises a metadata services module configured to provide a plurality of metadata services to facilitate abstraction of storage structure of metadata associated with the framework and act as APIs for managing the metadata. The framework further comprises a role based administration module that facilitates management of the metadata through a tenant administrator and a product administrator.

Cloud Storage Forensics

Abstract: To reduce the risk of digital forensic evidence being called into question in judicial proceedings, it is important to have a rigorous methodology and set of procedures for conducting digital forensic investigations and examinations. Digital forensic investigation in the cloud computing environment, however, is in infancy due to the comparatively recent prevalence of cloud computing. Cloud Storage Forensics presents the first evidence-based cloud forensic framework. Using three popular cloud storage services and one private cloud storage service as case studies, the authors show you how their framework can be used to undertake research into the data remnants on both cloud storage servers and client devices when a user undertakes a variety of methods to store, upload, and access data in the cloud. By determining the data remnants on client devices, you gain a better understanding of the types of terrestrial artifacts that are likely to remain at the Identification stage of an investigation. Once it is determined that a cloud storage service account has potential evidence of relevance to an investigation, you can communicate this to legal liaison points within service providers to enable them to respond and secure evidence in a timely manner. Learn to use the methodology and tools from the first evidenced-based cloud forensic framework Case studies provide detailed tools for analysis of cloud storage devices using popular cloud storage services Includes coverage of the legal implications of cloud storage forensic investigations Discussion of the future evolution of cloud storage and its impact on digital forensics

Modeling and simulation as a cloud service: a survey

Abstract: Modelling and simulation as a service (MSaaS) is defined, and the differences between MSaaS and Software as a Service are clarified. MSaaS architectures and deployment strategies are surveyed. The top threats to cloud computing and MSaaS, the other security challenges and technical requirements are explained. Accountability, risk and trust modelling are related to each other and also to security and privacy. Those notions and their relations are presented. MSaaS composition in multi-datacenter and/or multi-cloud scenarios is also elaborated on.

On arbitrating the power-performance tradeoff in SaaS clouds

Abstract: In this paper, we present an analytical framework for characterizing and optimizing the power-performance tradeoff in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud platforms. Our objectives are two-fold: (1) We maximize the operating profit when serving heterogeneous SaaS applications with unpredictable user requests, and (2) we minimize the power consumption when processing user requests. To achieve these objectives, we take advantage of Lyapunov Optimization techniques to design and analyze an optimal control framework to make online decisions on request admission control, routing, and virtual machine (VMs) scheduling. In particular, our control framework can be flexibly extended to incorporate various design choices and practical requirements of a data-center in the cloud, such as enforcing a certain power budget for improving the performance (dollar) per watt. Our mathematical analyses and simulations have demonstrated both the optimality (in terms of a cost-effective power-performance tradeoff) and system stability (in terms of robustness and adaptivity to time-varying and bursty user requests) achieved by our proposed control framework.

Cloud computing models

Abstract: Information Technology has always been considered a major pain point of enterprise organizations, from the perspectives of both cost and management. However, the information technology industry has experienced a dramatic shift in the past decade – factors such as hardware commoditization, open-source software, virtualization, workforce globalization, and agile IT processes have supported the development of new technology and business models. Cloud computing now offers organizations more choices regarding how to run infrastructures, save costs, and delegate liabilities to third-party providers. It has become an integral part of technology and business models, and has forced businesses to adapt to new technology strategies. Accordingly, the demand for cloud computing has forced the development of new market offerings, representing various cloud service and delivery models. These models significantly expand the range of available options, and task organizations with dilemmas over which cloud computing model to employ. This thesis poses analysis of available cloud computing models and potential future cloud computing trends. Comparative analysis includes cloud services delivery (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) and deployment models (private, public, and hybrid). Cloud computing paradigms are discussed in the context of

Automated Processor For Web Content To Mobile-Optimized Content Transformation

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus for dynamically and automatically transforming desktop web content into a mobile-optimized version for consumption by a variety of mobile devices. The system is delivered as SaaS (Software as a Service) platform on a hosting server. Input may be provide by a user who interacts with the system by simply entering a website address, or may be provided in an automated way using a software programming interface method. The system creates the mobile-optimized version that can optionally be cached and served to mobile devices.