The GEYSERS optical testbed: a platform for the integration, validation and demonstration of cloud-based infrastructure services

The recent evolution of cloud services is leading to a new service transformation paradigm to accommodate network infrastructures in a cost-scalable way. In this transformation, the network constitutes the key to efficiently connect users to services and applications. In this paper we describe the deployment, validation and demonstration of the optical integrated testbed for the “GEneralized architecture for dYnamic infrastructure SERviceS” (GEYSERS) project to accommodate such cloud based Infrastructure Services. The GEYSERS testbed is composed of a set of local physical testbeds allocated in the facilities of the GEYSERS partners. It is built up based on the requirements specification, architecture definition and per-layer development that constitutes the whole GEYSERS ecosystem, and validates the procedures on the GEYSERS prototypes. The testbed includes optical devices (layer 1), switches (layer 2), and IT resources deployed in different local testbeds provided by the project partners and interconnected among them to compose the whole testbed layout. The main goal of the GEYSERS testbed is twofold. On one hand, it aims at providing a validation ground for the architecture, concepts and business models proposed by GEYSERS, sustained by two main paradigms: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and the coupled provisioning of optical network and IT resources. On the other hand, it is used as a demonstration platform for testing the software prototypes within the project and to demonstrate to the research and business community the project approach and solutions. In this work, we discuss our experience in the deployment of the testbed and share the results and insights learned from our trials in the process. Additionally, the paper highlights the most relevant experiments carried out in the testbed, aimed at the validation of the overall GEYSERS architecture

A service broker for Intercloud computing

This thesis aims at assisting users in finding the most suitable Cloud resources taking into account their functional and non-functional SLA requirements. A key feature of the work is a Cloud service broker acting as mediator between consumers and Clouds. The research involves the implementation and evaluation of two SLA-aware match-making algorithms by use of a simulation environment. The work investigates also the optimal deployment of Multi-Cloud workflows on Intercloud environments

Digitale Transformation aus unternehmensübergreifender Perspektive: Management der Koevolution von Plattformbesitzern und Komplementoren in Plattformökosystemen

Digital platforms have the potential to transform how organizations are doing business in their respective ecosystems. Motivated by this transformation, the purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of digital transformation from an inter-organizational perspective. Therefore, this thesis clarifies the phenomenon of digital transformation, and models and analyzes multiple digital platform ecosystems. Building upon that, this dissertation reflects on multiple case studies on how platform owners can manage the co-evolution of their complementors in digital transformations in digital platform ecosystems.Digitale Plattformen haben das Potential, die Art und Weise, wie Unternehmen in ihren jeweiligen Ökosystemen Geschäfte machen, zu verändern. Motiviert durch diese Transformation, ist das Ziel dieser Arbeit, das Verständnis von digitaler Transformation aus einer inter-organisatorischen Perspektive zu erhöhen. Daher erläutert diese Arbeit das Phänomen der digitalen Transformation, und modelliert und analysiert mehrere digitale Plattformökosysteme. Darauf aufbauend reflektiert diese Dissertation in mehreren Fallstudien darüber, wie Plattformbesitzer die Koevolution ihrer Komplementoren in digitalen Transformationen in digitalen Plattformökosystemen steuern können

Towards a cloud enabler : from an optical network resource provisioning system to a generalized architecture for dynamic infrastructure services provisioning

This work was developed during a period where most of the optical management and provisioning system where manual and proprietary. This work contributed to the evolution of the state of the art of optical networks with new architectures and advanced virtual infrastructure services. The evolution of optical networks, and internet globally, have been very promising during the last decade. The impact of mobile technology, grid, cloud computing, HDTV, augmented reality and big data, among many others, have driven the evolution of optical networks towards current service technologies, mostly based on SDN (Software Defined Networking) architectures and NFV(Network Functions Virtualisation). Moreover, the convergence of IP/Optical networks and IT services, and the evolution of the internet and optical infrastructures, have generated novel service orchestrators and open source frameworks. In fact, technology has evolved that fast that none could foresee how important Internet is for our current lives. Said in other words, technology was forced to evolve in a way that network architectures became much more transparent, dynamic and flexible to the end users (applications, user interfaces or simple APIs). This Thesis exposes the work done on defining new architectures for Service Oriented Networks and the contribution to the state of the art. The research work is divided into three topics. It describes the evolution from a Network Resource Provisioning System to an advanced Service Plane, and ends with a new architecture that virtualized the optical infrastructure in order to provide coordinated, on-demand and dynamic services between the application and the network infrastructure layer, becoming an enabler for the new generation of cloud network infrastructures. The work done on defining a Network Resource Provisioning System established the first bases for future work on network infrastructure virtualization. The UCLP (User Light Path Provisioning) technology was the first attempt for Customer Empowered Networks and Articulated Private Networks. It empowered the users and brought virtualization and partitioning functionalities into the optical data plane, with new interfaces for dynamic service provisioning. The work done within the development of a new Service Plane allowed the provisioning of on-demand connectivity services from the application, and in a multi-domain and multi-technology scenario based on a virtual network infrastructure composed of resources from different infrastructure providers. This Service Plane facilitated the deployment of applications consuming large amounts of data under deterministic conditions, so allowing the networks behave as a Grid-class resource. It became the first on-demand provisioning system that at lower levels allowed the creation of one virtual domain composed from resources of different providers. The last research topic presents an architecture that consolidated the work done in virtualisation while enhancing the capabilities to upper layers, so fully integrating the optical network infrastructure into the cloud environment, and so providing an architecture that enabled cloud services by integrating the request of optical network and IT infrastructure services together at the same level. It set up a new trend into the research community and evolved towards the technology we use today based on SDN and NFV. Summing up, the work presented is focused on the provisioning of virtual infrastructures from the architectural point of view of optical networks and IT infrastructures, together with the design and definition of novel service layers. It means, architectures that enabled the creation of virtual infrastructures composed of optical networks and IT resources, isolated and provisioned on-demand and in advance with infrastructure re-planning functionalities, and a new set of interfaces to open up those services to applications or third parties.Aquesta tesi es va desenvolupar durant un període on la majoria de sistemes de gestió de xarxa òptica eren manuals i basats en sistemes propietaris. En aquest sentit, la feina presentada va contribuir a l'evolució de l'estat de l'art de les xarxes òptiques tant a nivell d’arquitectures com de provisió d’infraestructures virtuals. L'evolució de les xarxes òptiques, i d'Internet a nivell mundial, han estat molt prometedores durant l'última dècada. L'impacte de la tecnologia mòbil, la computació al núvol, la televisió d'alta definició, la realitat augmentada i el big data, entre molts altres, han impulsat l'evolució cap a xarxes d’altes prestacions amb nous serveis basats en SDN (Software Defined Networking) i NFV (Funcions de xarxa La virtualització). D'altra banda, la convergència de xarxes òptiques i els serveis IT, junt amb l'evolució d'Internet i de les infraestructures òptiques, han generat nous orquestradors de serveis i frameworks basats en codi obert. La tecnologia ha evolucionat a una velocitat on ningú podria haver predit la importància que Internet està tenint en el nostre dia a dia. Dit en altres paraules, la tecnologia es va veure obligada a evolucionar d'una manera on les arquitectures de xarxa es fessin més transparent, dinàmiques i flexibles vers als usuaris finals (aplicacions, interfícies d'usuari o APIs simples). Aquesta Tesi presenta noves arquitectures de xarxa òptica orientades a serveis. El treball de recerca es divideix en tres temes. Es presenta un sistema de virtualització i aprovisionament de recursos de xarxa i la seva evolució a un pla de servei avançat, per acabar presentant el disseny d’una nova arquitectura capaç de virtualitzar la infraestructura òptica i IT i proporcionar serveis de forma coordinada, i sota demanda, entre l'aplicació i la capa d'infraestructura de xarxa òptica. Tot esdevenint un facilitador per a la nova generació d'infraestructures de xarxa en el núvol. El treball realitzat en la definició del sistema de virtualització de recursos va establir les primeres bases sobre la virtualització de la infraestructura de xarxa òptica en el marc de les “Customer Empowered Networks” i “Articulated Private Networks”. Amb l’objectiu de virtualitzar el pla de dades òptic, i oferir noves interfícies per a la provisió de serveis dinàmics de xarxa. En quant al pla de serveis presentat, aquest va facilitat la provisió de serveis de connectivitat sota demanda per part de l'aplicació, tant en entorns multi-domini, com en entorns amb múltiples tecnologies. Aquest pla de servei, anomenat Harmony, va facilitar el desplegament de noves aplicacions que consumien grans quantitats de dades en condicions deterministes. En aquest sentit, va permetre que les xarxes es comportessin com un recurs Grid, i per tant, va esdevenir el primer sistema d'aprovisionament sota demanda que permetia la creació de dominis virtuals de xarxa composts a partir de recursos de diferents proveïdors. Finalment, es presenta l’evolució d’un pla de servei cap una arquitectura global que consolida el treball realitzat a nivell de convergència d’infraestructures (òptica + IT) i millora les capacitats de les capes superiors. Aquesta arquitectura va facilitar la plena integració de la infraestructura de xarxa òptica a l'entorn del núvol. En aquest sentit, aquest resultats van evolucionar cap a les tendències actuals de SDN i NFV. En resum, el treball presentat es centra en la provisió d'infraestructures virtuals des del punt de vista d’arquitectures de xarxa òptiques i les infraestructures IT, juntament amb el disseny i definició de nous serveis de xarxa avançats, tal i com ho va ser el servei de re-planificació dinàmicaPostprint (published version

IS Success Model for Evaluating Cloud Computing for Small Business Benefit: A Quantitative Study

Information system (IS) success has been extensively researched to frame key attributes of an information system or technology to understand its benefit to business. One definition of IS success is the adoption and extensive use of an information system (Robey & Zeller, 1978). In the present era of cloud computing, as in former IS eras, successful implementation is critical for achieving business success in all enterprise types. IS success is also described as a lagging multifaceted measure of technology effectiveness for a business. Early adopters of a new technology are a rich resource to determine benefits for later adopters, and this is true for those businesses looking to implement cloud computing. This is critically important for small businesses. Cloud computing is characterized as a 21st century model of acquiring computational resources and services through convenient on-demand provisioning mechanisms via a shared network (Mell & Grance, 2010, p. 50). With the resource challenges of small businesses, the selection of a particular cloud computing model can result in business success or calamity. Many small businesses realize they need to make key investments in the latest technologies to advance their business, but many have one opportunity to make the best choice and to do it right. Small businesses typically operate with limited capital resources to invest in new IS technologies, as well as fund their ongoing upgrades, enhancements, and support. The intent of this research study is to define an IS framework that small businesses can use to determine the benefits of a particular cloud computing solution before adoption, based on the efforts of select small businesses that are early adopters of cloud computing. This research will determine the essential features and attributes that enable cloud computing success for small businesses in their targeted marketplaces. The primary success constructs of this study will focus on the overall cloud quality, experience, and benefit. The results of this research will lead to an enhanced IS success model that will enable small businesses to target specific cloud-based computing services that align with their business requirements to enable them to achieve business success

Optimized task scheduling based on hybrid symbiotic organisms search algorithms for cloud computing environment

In Cloud Computing model, users are charged according to the usage of resources and desired Quality of Service (QoS). Task scheduling algorithms are responsible for specifying adequate set of resources to execute user applications in the form of tasks, and schedule decisions of task scheduling algorithms are based on QoS requirements defined by the user. Task scheduling problem is an NP-Complete problem, due to the NP-Complete nature of task scheduling problems and huge search space presented by large scale problem instances, many of the existing solution algorithms incur high computational complexity and cannot effectively obtain global optimum solutions. Recently, Symbiotic Organisms Search (SOS) has been applied to various optimization problems and results obtained were found to be competitive with state-of-the-art metaheuristic algorithms. However, similar to the case other metaheuristic optimization algorithms, the efficiency of SOS algorithm deteriorates as the size of the search space increases. Moreover, SOS suffers from local optima entrapment and its static control parameters cannot maintain a balance between local and global search. In this study, Cooperative Coevolutionary Constrained Multiobjective Symbiotic Organisms Search (CC-CMSOS), Cooperative Coevolutionary Constrained Multi-objective Memetic Symbiotic Organisms Search (CC-CMMSOS), and Cooperative Coevolutionary Constrained Multi-objective Adaptive Benefit Factor Symbiotic Organisms Search (CC-CMABFSOS) algorithms are proposed to solve constrained multi-objective large scale task scheduling optimization problem on IaaS cloud computing environment. To address the issue of scalability, the concept of Cooperative Coevolutionary for enhancing SOS named CC-CMSOS make SOS more efficient for solving large scale task scheduling problems. CC-CMMSOS algorithm further improves the performance of SOS algorithm by hybridizing with Simulated Annealing (SA) to avoid entrapment in local optima for global convergence. Finally, CC-CMABFSOS algorithm adaptively turn SOS control parameters to balance the local and global search procedure for faster convergence speed. The performance of the proposed CC-CMSOS, CC-CMMSOS, and CC-CMABFSOS algorithms are evaluated on CloudSim simulator, using both standard workload traces and synthesized workloads for larger problem instances of up to 5000. Moreover, CC-CMSOS, CC-CMMSOS, and CC-CMABFSOS algorithms are compared with multi-objective optimization algorithms, namely, EMS-C, ECMSMOO, and BOGA. The CC-CMSOS, CC-CMMSOS, and CC-CMABFSOS algorithms obtained significant improved optimal trade-offs between execution time (makespan) and financial cost (cost) while meeting deadline constraints with no computational overhead. The performance improvements obtained by the proposed algorithms in terms of hypervolume ranges from 8.72% to 37.95% across the workloads. Therefore, the proposed algorithms have potentials to improve the performance of QoS delivery

Measuring the Business Value of Cloud Computing

The importance of demonstrating the value achieved from IT investments is long established in the Computer Science (CS) and Information Systems (IS) literature. However, emerging technologies such as the ever-changing complex area of cloud computing present new challenges and opportunities for demonstrating how IT investments lead to business value. Recent reviews of extant literature highlights the need for multi-disciplinary research. This research should explore and further develops the conceptualization of value in cloud computing research. In addition, there is a need for research which investigates how IT value manifests itself across the chain of service provision and in inter-organizational scenarios. This open access book will review the state of the art from an IS, Computer Science and Accounting perspective, will introduce and discuss the main techniques for measuring business value for cloud computing in a variety of scenarios, and illustrate these with mini-case studies

Pricing the Cloud: An Auction Approach

Cloud computing has changed the processing and service modes of information communication technology and has affected the transformation, upgrading and innovation of the IT-related industry systems. The rapid development of cloud computing in business practice has spawned a whole new field of interdisciplinary, providing opportunities and challenges for business management research. One of the critical factors impacting cloud computing is how to price cloud services. An appropriate pricing strategy has important practical means to stakeholders, especially to providers and customers. This study addressed and discussed research findings on cloud computing pricing strategies, such as fixed pricing, bidding pricing, and dynamic pricing. Another key factor for cloud computing is Quality of Service (QoS), such as availability, reliability, latency, security, throughput, capacity, scalability, elasticity, etc. Cloud providers seek to improve QoS to attract more potential customers; while, customers intend to find QoS matching services that do not exceed their budget constraints. Based on the existing study, a hybrid QoS-based pricing mechanism, which consists of subscription and dynamic auction design, is proposed and illustrated to cloud services. The results indicate that our hybrid pricing mechanism has potential to better allocate available cloud resources, aiming at increasing revenues for providers and reducing expenses for customers in practice