An Autonomous Engine for Services Configuration and Deployment.

The runtime management of the infrastructure providing service-based systems is a complex task, up to the point where manual operation struggles to be cost effective. As the functionality is provided by a set of dynamically composed distributed services, in order to achieve a management objective multiple operations have to be applied over the distributed elements of the managed infrastructure. Moreover, the manager must cope with the highly heterogeneous characteristics and management interfaces of the runtime resources. With this in mind, this paper proposes to support the configuration and deployment of services with an automated closed control loop. The automation is enabled by the definition of a generic information model, which captures all the information relevant to the management of the services with the same abstractions, describing the runtime elements, service dependencies, and business objectives. On top of that, a technique based on satisfiability is described which automatically diagnoses the state of the managed environment and obtains the required changes for correcting it (e.g., installation, service binding, update, or configuration). The results from a set of case studies extracted from the banking domain are provided to validate the feasibility of this propos

Management of multimedia resources: from a generic information model to its application to an MPEG2 video codec

New open service architectures provide a management framework for telecommunications services, telecommunications networks and computing resources. However, the introduction of multimedia applications in these architectures will require the management of the underlying multimedia resources (e.g., codecs, converters, etc). Multimedia resources are the basic components that support multimedia communications. In this paper, we tackle this issue by proposing a generic management information model for multimedia resources and then instantiate it for the management of an MPEG2 video codec. This information model provides a data representation of the multimedia resources in order to manage them efficiently

Asset management in urban water utilities: Case study in India

Access to safe and sufficient drinking water and adequate sanitation are now recognized as basic human rights. One Millennium Development Goal is to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. However, ensuring sustainability of existing and new services is considered to be one of the major challenges for the water sector in the years to come. In India, in addition to service expansion, existing water service quality has been observed to be deteriorating over recent years. There is therefore an equally urgent need to address sustainability and improvement of service quality to the presently served population. In this low-income country, where water utilities are unable to recover even the service costs of operations and minor maintenance through user charges, there is a need to determine ways and means to be able to maintain a cost-effective service to consumers. For such a capital intensive service these ways have to include not only the introduction of efficiency measures but also the long-term planning of capital maintenance, that is the maintenance of the fixed assets upon which services depend. Water utilities in high-income countries have been using various fixed asset management techniques to improve asset operational efficiency, to plan capital maintenance and to demonstrate their ability to maintain and improve service to their customers. This study explores the viability of the application of asset management techniques and their potential contribution towards improving water service provision in urban centres in India. Following a literature review, a generic asset management model for a low-income country water utility was developed and then applied in the water utility serving Jaipur, Rajasthan to assess the viability of this adaptation. Having identified strengths and weaknesses during this fieldwork a revised model was proposed, including distinct phases of asset management/data intensity, which could be used as a generic approach in large urban centres in India. Following consultations with prospective users in six States, the study showed that it is feasible to take a first step towards asset management at low cost but this will require a change in the management approach. The study identified lack of relevant data as a key factor influencing an effective and comprehensive application of a generic asset management model. The study concludes that the proposed phased asset management models can contribute to improving serviceability for customers; however the concern that remains is the willingness of the organisation to adapt to the necessary changes

Towards the Control and Prevention of Waste in IT Service Operation Using Fuzzy Logic: Focus in Incident Management Process

All production lines are continuously confronted with the phenomenon of waste, especially in IT operations. A waste is assessed in terms of the required resources and the cost employed to solve the problem behind it. Eliminating the waste in daily operations is essential to improve IT service management. This article aims to provide an estimation of the level of potential waste, where waste generation trends are provoked by the activities of IT service management processes. We are going to focus particularly on the possibility of applying a Lean improvement process to IT services processes when using fuzzy logic method. We specifically demonstrate our contribution through the application of fuzzy analysis to the incident management process. This approach also aims at developing a theoretical and pragmatic model and promoting the knowledge of IT experts. In order to make our framework as generic as possible, concepts of IT operations, including the incident management, are inspired by the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), the most prominent framework for IT service governance according to the current literature

Evaluasi Pemilihan Rekan Toll Manufacturing Dalam Pengembangan Produk Obat Generik Injeksi Meropenem Di Sebuah Perusahaan Farmasi Di Jakarta

. A pharmaceutical company at Jakarta developed a generic meropenem sterile dosage form by toll manufacturing business cooperation with another pharmaceutical company. During the process of partner selection, there was a time delay. The target plan was 4 months but in reality it took 12 months. This research evaluates factors which cause the time delay. One of the causes was the unavailability of pre-selection model. This research test a qualitative pre-selection model using variables of management, availability oftransport choices, value added services, rate profile and quality services, service characteristics and performance measurements. The six variables described into 36 dimensions and indicators. The model tested to 10 pharmaceutical companies with sterile production facility needed for production of meropenem sterile dosage form. Research method used is qualitative descriptive analysis with searching data method through observational study. The data source is secondary data. Based on the research result, timedelay was caused by several factors related to product, procedure, quality and fee. The tested pre-selection model can be used as an alternative solution to avoid future time delay in toll manufacturing partner selection

Structuring the Unstructured: Service Innovation in a UK Small Business Services Firm

This study focuses on structured innovation models for the services sector. A plethora of research recognizes the importance of formal and structured innovation processes (Booz et al., 1982; Bowers, 1989; Scheuing and Johnson, 1989; Griffin, 1997; Johne and Storey, 1998; Cooper and Edgett, 1999; Cooper, 1986, 2001; Akamavi, 2005). The literature however lacks process models that specifically address services development. Cooper and Edgett (1999) with their ‘stage-gate’ model attempt to provide such an approach. This generic ‘from idea to launch’ innovation system was generated through research in leading USA business to consumer (B2C) companies. The innovation system, whilst constructed on the basis of best practice, was not designed to meet the needs of business to business (B2B) services firms. Alongside the lack of process models, a number of researchers claim that service firms have no process, or use unstructured, informal and often ‘ad hoc’ service development processes (Sundbo, 1997; Gottfridsson, 2011). It is therefore unclear whether a systematic approach to service innovation, or indeed the implementation of a model such as the ‘stage-gate’ (Cooper and Edgett, 1999) is useful for B2B services firms. This study therefore reports on a case study of a small B2B services firm implementing a novel ‘end-to-end’ innovation system, and considers the implications for its management practices. In this longitudinal case study (18 months), we adopted a participant observational methodology (Jorgensen, 1989), with connotations of action science (Argyris and Schön, 1978). The research involved all those participating in the innovation system in the firm, including decision-makers, middle managers and employees at lower hierarchical levels and the firm’s external networks. The researchers established that a systematic approach to service innovation through structured process could meet the needs of the case study organization and it is found that such a process is appropriate and useful in the context of small B2B services firm. The paper explains the reasons why such an approach was found to be appropriate and useful, in the context of small B2B services firm. A better understanding is provided of how small business services firm can adapt and improve the usefulness of such a structured process. Key words: innovation, services, new service development, B2B, small busines

Asset management in urban water utilities : case study in India

Access to safe and sufficient drinking water and adequate sanitation are now recognized as basic human rights. One Millennium Development Goal is to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. However, ensuring sustainability of existing and new services is considered to be one of the major challenges for the water sector in the years to come. In India, in addition to service expansion, existing water service quality has been observed to be deteriorating over recent years. There is therefore an equally urgent need to address sustainability and improvement of service quality to the presently served population. In this low-income country, where water utilities are unable to recover even the service costs of operations and minor maintenance through user charges, there is a need to determine ways and means to be able to maintain a cost-effective service to consumers. For such a capital intensive service these ways have to include not only the introduction of efficiency measures but also the long-term planning of capital maintenance, that is the maintenance of the fixed assets upon which services depend. Water utilities in high-income countries have been using various fixed asset management techniques to improve asset operational efficiency, to plan capital maintenance and to demonstrate their ability to maintain and improve service to their customers. This study explores the viability of the application of asset management techniques and their potential contribution towards improving water service provision in urban centres in India. Following a literature review, a generic asset management model for a low-income country water utility was developed and then applied in the water utility serving Jaipur, Rajasthan to assess the viability of this adaptation. Having identified strengths and weaknesses during this fieldwork a revised model was proposed, including distinct phases of asset management/data intensity, which could be used as a generic approach in large urban centres in India. Following consultations with prospective users in six States, the study showed that it is feasible to take a first step towards asset management at low cost but this will require a change in the management approach. The study identified lack of relevant data as a key factor influencing an effective and comprehensive application of a generic asset management model. The study concludes that the proposed phased asset management models can contribute to improving serviceability for customers; however the concern that remains is the willingness of the organisation to adapt to the necessary changes.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Supervision des réseaux et services pair à pair : application à la plate-forme JXTA

The deployement of P2P applications in environments where the quality of offered services must be ensured requires the integration of management mechanisms. In this paper, we present a management infrastructure for the JXTA P2P framework. It relies on a generic management information model for P2P networks and services we designed previously. We show the way we instantiated this model through a manager-agent model which makes it possible to get a global view of elements of a JXTA P2P community as well as its evolution.Le déploiement d'applications pair à pair (P2P) dans des environnements où la qualité de service doit être garantie passe par l'intégration de mécanismes de supervision. Nous présentons ici une infrastructure de supervision pour la plate-forme JXTA. Celle-ci repose sur un modèle de l'information de gestion générique pour la gestion des réseaux et services P2P que nous avons conçu préalablement. Nous présentons la manière dont nous avons instancié ce modèle à travers une architecture de supervision reposant sur un modèle gestionnaire/agent qui nous permet d'obtenir une vue globale des éléments d'une communauté P2P JXTA ainsi que de son évolution

A generic scheduling architecture for service oriented distributed computing infrastructures

In state-of-the-art distributed computing infrastructures different kinds of resources are combined to offer complex services to customers. As of today, service-oriented middleware stacks are the work-horses to connect resources and their users, and to implement all functions needed to provide those services. Analysing the functionality of prominent middleware stacks, it becomes evident that common challenges, like scalability, manageability, efficiency, reliability, security, or complexity, exist, and that they constitute major research areas in information and communication technologies in general and distributed systems in particular. One core issue, touching all of the aforementioned challenges, is the question of how to distribute units of work in a distributed computing infrastructure, a task generally referred to as scheduling. Integrating a variety of resources and services while being compliant with well-defined business objectives makes the development of scheduling strategies and services a difficult venture, which, for service-oriented distributed computing infrastructures, translates to the assignment of services to activities over time aiming at the optimisation of multiple, potentially competing, quality-of-service criteria. Many concepts, methods, and tools for scheduling in distributed computing infrastructures exist, a majority of which being dedicated to provide algorithmic solutions and schedulers. We approach the problem from another angle and offer a more general answer to the question of ’how to design an automated scheduling process and an architecture supporting it’. Doing so, we take special care of the service-oriented nature of the systems we consider and of the integration of our solutions into IT service management processes. Our answer comprises a number of assets that form a comprehensive scheduling solution for distributed computing infrastructures. Based on a requirement analysis of application scenarios we provide a concept consisting of an automated scheduling process and the respective generic scheduling architecture supporting it. Process and architecture are based on four core models as there are a model to describe the activities to be executed, an information model to capture the capabilities of the infrastructure, a model to handle the life-cycle of service level agreements, which are the foundation for elaborated service management solutions, and a specific scheduling model capturing the specifics of state-of-the-art distributed systems. We deliver, in addition to concept and models, realisations of our solutions that demonstrate their applicability in different application scenarios spanning grid-like academic as well as financial service infrastructures. Last, but not least, we evaluate our scheduling model through simulations of artificial as well as realistic workload traces thus showing the feasibility of the approach and the implications of its usage. The work at hand therefore offers a blueprint for developers of scheduling solutions for state-of-the-art distributed computing infrastructures. It contributes essential building blocks to realise such solutions and provides an important step to integrate them into IT service management solutions