A COLLABORATIVE MODEL FOR VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE

Collaborative process characteristics have three dimensions: actors, activities and action’s logic. The aim of this paper is to present a virtual portal’s model that helps managing consortiums. Our model based on dynamic e-collaboration and it has a modular structure, multilayer approach. System’s functionality of virtual enterprise is collaborative model is concern on users’ login, based on role and access control, searching and providing distributed resources, accessibility, metadata management and improved information’s management. Our proposal for developing solution offers a functional architecture of a virtual enterprise using dynamic e-collaboration and shared space.dynamic e-collaboration, multilayer solution, modular approach

Secure external access to Odoo

Tämän kirjallisuustutkimuksena toteutettavan opinnäytetyön tavoitteena on tutkia kuinka Odoo-toiminnanohjausjärjestelmän (ERP) käyttöönotto toteutetaan turvallisesti ulkoisten toimijoiden kanssa. Lisäksi tavoitteena on löytää parhaita käytänteitä, miten ulkoiset käyttäjät liitetään ERP:iin vaarantamatta yrityksen ydintietoa. Työn toimeksiantaja on suomalainen teollisuusalan yritys, jolla on käytössä avoimen lähdekoodin ERP-järjestelmä Odoo. Yrityksessä on tulevaisuudessa vahva tarve laajentaa Odoon toiminnallisuuksia siten, että myös ulkoiset toimijat kuten partnerit, toimittajat sekä asiakkaat saadaan integroitua osaksi yrityksen Odoota. Teoriaosuudessa perehdytään ERP-järjestelmien tarkoitukseen, etuihin ja haittapuoliin sekä eri toimitus- sekä hankintamalleihin. Lisäksi luodaan lyhyt katsaus tietoturvaan, keskittyen etenkin sovellusten ja tietokantojen tietoturvaan. Lisäksi tarkastellaan myös ERP-tietoturvamenetelmiä. ERP:n arkkitehtuurimalli yhdessä sovellus- ja tietokantaturvamekanismien kanssa nähdään ratkaisevaksi tietoturvahaasteisiin vastaamisessa. Kolmitasoinen arkkitehtuurimalli, jota myös Odoo tukee, nähdään turvallisempana ratkaisuna kuin yksi- tai kaksitasoiset mallit. Koska yritykset toimivat tänä päivänä verkostoissa, joissa liiketoimintapartnerit ovat osa ERP-järjestelmää, tarvitaan uudenlaisia tapoja mahdollistamaan pääsy ERP:iin mutta kuitenkin samalla suojaamaan yrityksen ydindataa. Perinteiset ERP-tietoturvamekanismit eivät välttämättä enää riitä. Tarvitaan uusia ratkaisuja, joilla ERP:n turvallinen ulkoinen käyttö voidaan mahdollistaa. Nämä parhaat käytänteet ovat vasta muovautumassa.The aim of this thesis is to investigate based on the literature review that how to implement Odoo enterprise resource planning system (ERP) securely with external connectivity. Additionally, the target was to form an understanding of the best practises available to create the external connections in ERP without risking the core data of the company. The commissioner of this thesis is a manufacturing company in Finland which is using open source ERP called Odoo. In the future there is a strong need to enable connectivity also with external partners meaning that several modules from the same ERP application need to be enabled for external usage. The theory framework is introducing main purpose of ERP systems, its advantages, disadvantages, different delivery models and acquisition options. Information security on high level is introduced with focus on application, database and ERP specific security aspects. The architectural structure of ERPs, together with application and database security mechanisms, are seen crucial to respond to security challenges. The three tier architecture model, supported also by Odoo, is seen more secure than one or two tier models. As companies today are operating over the traditional company borders, secure business partner access to enterprise data is needed. Traditional security methods of ERP have to be re-considered to enable usage also with external connections to fulfil the security needs of companies. It seems that at the moment the best practise security mechanisms for web ERPs are not yet widely established

Improving Information Flow within the Production Management System with Web Services

The efficiency of the production planning and control process in construction depends significantly on the reliability and timely availability of resource information. The Last Planner system for production control mandates that a construction task should not be started unless all the seven resource prerequisites are in satisfactory condition. Failure to do so results in wasteful processes. However, this information is not readily available due to the lack of systems integration that prevails within the industry. Current implementations of the last planner system mostly rely on the team leaders‘ and foreman‘s ability to gather the required information for the weekly planning meetings and also for the look-ahead planning. However, much time is wasted chasing relevant information due to the above-mentioned problems. Also, the reliability of planning could be much improved if there is a system available, which aggregates resource information from various project stakeholders in one place. In such a situation, web services could provide an ideal platform for integration as they provide a flexible way to integrate disparate systems, with choreography based on identified business processes drawn from Last Planner and implemented using BPMN/BPEL. With the improvement in connectivity as a result of better availability of high speed Internet through mobile and fixed networks, there is a better opportunity for information integration through web services. A conceptual framework based on web services is put forward which aims to improve the information flow within the industry and provide the right information at the right time to enable better planning and control within the production system

Observing the clouds : a survey and taxonomy of cloud monitoring

This research was supported by a Royal Society Industry Fellowship and an Amazon Web Services (AWS) grant. Date of Acceptance: 10/12/2014Monitoring is an important aspect of designing and maintaining large-scale systems. Cloud computing presents a unique set of challenges to monitoring including: on-demand infrastructure, unprecedented scalability, rapid elasticity and performance uncertainty. There are a wide range of monitoring tools originating from cluster and high-performance computing, grid computing and enterprise computing, as well as a series of newer bespoke tools, which have been designed exclusively for cloud monitoring. These tools express a number of common elements and designs, which address the demands of cloud monitoring to various degrees. This paper performs an exhaustive survey of contemporary monitoring tools from which we derive a taxonomy, which examines how effectively existing tools and designs meet the challenges of cloud monitoring. We conclude by examining the socio-technical aspects of monitoring, and investigate the engineering challenges and practices behind implementing monitoring strategies for cloud computing.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Interference Aware Cognitive Femtocell Networks

Femtocells Access Points (FAP) are low power, plug and play home base stations which are designed to extend the cellular radio range in indoor environments where macrocell coverage is generally poor. They offer significant increases in data rates over a short range, enabling high speed wireless and mobile broadband services, with the femtocell network overlaid onto the macrocell in a dual-tier arrangement. In contrast to conventional cellular systems which are well planned, FAP are arbitrarily installed by the end users and this can create harmful interference to both collocated femtocell and macrocell users. The interference becomes particularly serious in high FAP density scenarios and compromises the ensuing data rate. Consequently, effective management of both cross and co-tier interference is a major design challenge in dual-tier networks. Since traditional radio resource management techniques and architectures for single-tier systems are either not applicable or operate inefficiently, innovative dual-tier approaches to intelligently manage interference are required. This thesis presents a number of original contributions to fulfill this objective including, a new hybrid cross-tier spectrum sharing model which builds upon an existing fractional frequency reuse technique to ensure minimal impact on the macro-tier resource allocation. A new flexible and adaptive virtual clustering framework is then formulated to alleviate co-tier interference in high FAP densities situations and finally, an intelligent coverage extension algorithm is developed to mitigate excessive femto-macrocell handovers, while upholding the required quality of service provision. This thesis contends that to exploit the undoubted potential of dual-tier, macro-femtocell architectures an interference awareness solution is necessary. Rigorous evidence confirms that noteworthy performance improvements can be achieved in the quality of the received signal and throughput by applying cognitive methods to manage interference