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

Cloud computing adoption decision modelling for SMEs: a conjoint analysis

Cloud computing is an emerging technology that promises competitive advantages, cost savings, enhanced business processes and services, and various other benefits to enterprises. Despite the rapid technological advancement, the adoption of cloud computing is still growing slowly among small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). This paper presents a model to support the decisionmaking process, using a multi-criteria decision method PAPRIKA for the socio-technical aspects influencing SMEs cloud adoption decision. Due to the multifaceted nature of the cloud computing adoption process, the evaluation of various cloud services and deployment models have become a major challenge. This paper presents a systematic approach to evaluating cloud computing services and deployment models. Subsequently, we have conducted conjoint analysis activities with five SMEs decision makers as part of the distribution process of this decision modelling based on predetermined criteria. With the help of the proposed model, cloud services and deployment models can be ranked and selected

Standards in Disruptive Innovation: Assessment Method and Application to Cloud Computing

Die Dissertation schlägt ein konzeptionelles Informationsmodell und eine Methode zur Bewertung von Technologie-Standards im Kontext von Disruptiven Innovationen vor. Das konzeptionelle Informationsmodell stellt die Grundlage zur Strukturierung relevanter Informationen dar. Die Methode definiert ein Prozessmodell, das die Instanziierung des Informationsmodells für verschiedenen Domänen beschreibt und Stakeholder bei der Klassifikation und Evaluation von Technologie-Standards unterstützt

Selecting cloud computing service provider with fuzzy ahp

With the growing demand for outsourcing the ICT section of enterprises, Cloud Computing service providers increased their popularity. Selecting the most appropriate provider for a demanding enterprise depends on many criteria that are based on the strategies, requirements, and resources of the enterprise. Since this problem is a kind of decision problem and depends on criteria of decision-maker, it can be modeled as Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem. In this research, a pilot case study is conducted in which the Cloud Computing service provider selection problem is modeled as a MCDM problem. For selecting the most appropriate provider, Fuzzy Extend Analysis is implemented in the case study

SLA Violation Detection Model and SLA Assured Service Brokering (SLaB) in Multi-Cloud Architecture

Cloud brokering facilitates CSUs to find cloud services according to their requirements. In the current practice, CSUs or Cloud Service Brokers (CSBs) select cloud services according to SLA committed by CSPs in their website. In our observation, it is found that most of the CSPs do not fulfill the service commitment mentioned in the SLA agreement. Verified cloud service performances against their SLA commitment of CSPs provide an additional trust on CSBs to recommend services to the CSUs. In this thesis work, we propose a SLA assured service-brokering framework, which considers both committed and delivered SLA by CSPs in cloud service recommendation to the users. For the evaluation of the performance of CSPs, two evaluation techniques: Heat Map and IFL are proposed, which include both directly measurable and non-measurable parameters in the performance evaluation CSPs. These two techniques are implemented using real data measured from CSPs. The result shows that Heat Map technique is more transparent and consistent in CSP performance evaluation than IFL technique. In this work, regulatory compliance of the CSPs is also analyzed and visualized in performance heat map table to provide legal status of CSPs. Moreover, missing points in their terms of service and SLA document are analyzed and recommended to add in the contract document. In the revised European GPDR, DPIA is going to be mandatory for all organizations/tools. The decision recommendation tool developed using above mentioned evaluation techniques may cause potential harm to individuals in assessing data from multiple CSPs. So, DPIA is carried out to assess the potential harm/risks to individuals due to our tool and necessary precaution to be taken in the tool to minimize possible data privacy risks. It also analyzes the service pattern and future performance behavior of CSPs to help CSUs in decision making to select appropriate CSP

Bioinformatics

This book is divided into different research areas relevant in Bioinformatics such as biological networks, next generation sequencing, high performance computing, molecular modeling, structural bioinformatics, molecular modeling and intelligent data analysis. Each book section introduces the basic concepts and then explains its application to problems of great relevance, so both novice and expert readers can benefit from the information and research works presented here

QoS Based Service Selection and Provisioning in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has become a disruptive technology which has seen significant growth among consumers of various sizes. Consumers can now have access to seemingly unlimited computing resources over the Internet without making significant investment in computing infrastructure. Consequently, this trend has seen a rise in the number of cloud computing providers. Most of these providers offer various services to consumers, which are commonly classified into three main types of service provisioning models such as, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). Cloud computing providers offer multiple services to consumers using one or more of models. However, the large number of services offered by cloud providers introduces a new set of problems for the consumers. Consumers have to choose from a wide range of services and providers such that they meet consumers’ requirements. The problem is further complicated as a large number of consumers do not necessarily have adequate knowledge of cloud services’ concepts and terminologies. To add to the complexity, there is no standard benchmark for cloud services. Therefore cloud providers can package the same cloud services in different ways for consumers. Furthermore, there are no standard service level agreements defined for cloud services selection. Each cloud provider has different service level agreements which make consumer selection process more cumbersome. This research aims to bridge this gap by proposing and developing new methods and techniques that take into account different cloud services and providers as well as quality of services attributes that make it easier for consumers to rank and select cloud services which are tailored to their requirements. This thesis makes various contributions to the current state of knowledge in the cloud service selection and provisioning area. It proposes a new model in order to systematically represent the quality of service (QoS) attributes of cloud services that cover both technical and non-technical aspects of cloud computing. The new model succinctly represents QoS attributes which cloud consumers can easily use and understand when selecting cloud services. The thesis also proposes a new framework for cloud service selection which improves and simplifies the cloud service selection process. It takes into account the level of user’s knowledge of cloud computing technologies. The major benefit is to simplify the selection process for ‘Beginner’ cloud service consumers (who have little knowledge of cloud computing) by presenting the main QoS attributes to them with brief explanations. The other benefit is to give an Intermediate/Expert cloud service consumers an opportunity to go through more details of QoS sub-parameters. Unlike existing approaches, the ii framework developed in this thesis also ensures the credibility of the service selection by utilizing information from three different sources, including, information from cloud service providers’ websites, online monitoring tools and users’ reviews of cloud services. Furthermore, the framework integrates Service Level Agreement (SLA) which is an integral part of cloud services as it is important for the consumer to be able to view it as part of their decision making process. The framework is validated by developing a prototype tool using Python, MongoDB and Amazon AWS EC2 server. The tool is then evaluated using various real life scenarios to rank cloud service providers and also by comparing it against existing tools. The results show that the proposed tool outperforms existing tools using a set of criteria such as operability, mode of data selection and number of cloud providers among others for ranking and selecting cloud services

Comprehensive Framework for Selecting Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) Using Meta synthesis Approach

IntroductionNowadays, cloud computing has attracted the attention of many organizations. So many of them tend to make their business more agile by using flexible cloud services. Currently, the number of cloud service providers is increasing. In this regard, choosing the most suitable cloud service provider based on the criteria according to the conditions of the service consumer will be considered one of the most important challenges. Relying on previous studies and using a meta-synthesis approach, this research comprehensively searches past researches and provides a comprehensive framework of factors affecting the choice of cloud service providers including 4 main categories and 10 sub-areas. Then, using the opinions of experts who were selected purposefully and using the snowball method, and using the Lawshe validation method, the framework is finalized.Research Question(s)This research aims to complete the results of previous studies and answer the following questions with a systematic review of the subject literature:-What are the components of the comprehensive framework for choosing cloud service providers?-What are the effective criteria to choose a cloud service provider?-What is the selected framework of effective factors? Literature ReviewMany researchers have looked at the problem of choosing the best CSP from different aspects and have tried to provide a solution in this field. In this regard, we can refer to "Tang and Liu" (2015) who proposed a model called "FAGI" which defines the choice of a trusted CSP through four dimensions: security functions, auditability, management capability, and Interactivity helps. "Kong et al." (2013) presented an optimization algorithm based on graph theory to facilitate CSP selection. Some researchers have also provided a framework for CSP selection, such as "Gash" (2015) who provides a framework called "SelCSP" with the combination of trustworthiness and competence to estimate the risk of interaction. "Brendvall and Vidyarthi" (2014) suggest that in order to choose the best cloud service provider, a customer must first identify the indicators related to the level of service quality related to him and then evaluate different providers. Some researchers have focused on using different techniques for selection. For example: "Supraya et al." (2016) use the MCDM method to rank based on infrastructure parameters (agility, financial, efficiency, security, and ease of use). They investigate the mechanisms of cloud service recommender systems and divide them into four main categories and their techniques in four features of scalability, accessibility, accuracy, and trustIn this research, it has been tried to use the models and variables of the subject literature in developing a comprehensive framework. The codes, concepts, and categories related to the choice of cloud service providers are extracted from previous studies, and a comprehensive framework of the factors influencing the choice of cloud service providers is presented using the meta-composite method. MethodologyIn this research, based on the "Sandusky and Barroso" meta-composite qualitative research method, which is more general, a systematic review of the research literature was conducted, and the codes in the research literature were extracted. Then the codes, categories, and finally the proposed model are formed. The seven-step method of "Sandusky and Barroso" consists of: formulation of the research question, systematic review of the subject literature, search and selection of suitable articles, extraction of article information, analysis and synthesis of qualitative findings, quality control, and presentation of findings. Lawshe validation method has been used to validate the research findings. ResultsIn the meta-synthesis method, all the factors extracted from previous studies are considered as codes and concepts are obtained from the collection of these codes. Using the opinion of experts and considering the concept of each of these codes, codes with similar concepts were placed next to each other and new concepts were formed. This procedure was repeated in converting the concepts into categories and the proposed framework was identified. This framework consists of 27 codes, 10 concepts, and 4 categories (Table 1).Table 1: Codes, concepts, and categories extracted from the sourcescategoryConceptCodeNo.TrustSecurityHardware Security1Network Security2Software Security3Confidentiality4Control5Guarantee and AssuranceAccessibility6Stability7Facing ThreatsTechnical Risk8Center for Security Measures9TechnologyEfficiencyService Delivery Efficiency10Interactivity11Hardware and Network InfrastructureConfiguration and Change12Capacity (Memory, CPU, Disk)13Functionality Flexibility14Usability15Accuracy16Service Response Time17Ease of use18ManagerialMaintenanceEducation and Awareness19Customer Communication Channels20StrategicLegal Issues21Data Analysis22Service Level Agreement23CommercialCustomer SatisfactionResponsiveness24Customer Feedback25CostSubscription Fee26Implementation Cost27The lack of a common framework for evaluating cloud service providers is compounded by the fact that no two providers are the same, so that this issue complicates the process of choosing the right provider for each organization. Figure 1 shows the proposed comprehensive framework including 4 categories and 10 concepts covering the issue of choosing cloud service providers. These factors are useful in determining the provider that best matches the personal and organizational needs of the service recipient. The main categories are: trust building, technology, management, and business, which will be explained in the following.Figure 1: Cloud service provider selection framework 5- ConclusionBy comprehensively examining the factors affecting the choice, this research introduces specific areas such as trust building, technology, management, and business as the main areas of cloud service provider selection and add to the previous areas. The category of building trust between the customer, and the cloud service provider is of particular importance. In this research, the concepts related to trust building are: security (including hardware security, network security, software security, confidentiality and control), (availability, stability and stability), and facing threats (technical risk). In 36% of the articles, the concept of trust is mentioned, but in each study, only a limited number of factors affecting this category are discussed. This research takes a comprehensive look at the category of technology, the concepts of productivity (including service delivery efficiency, interactivity), hardware and network infrastructure (including configuration and repair, capacity (memory, processor, disk)), and performance (including flexibility, usability, accuracy of operation, service response time, ease of use). Considering the variety of services on different cloud platforms, service recipients must ensure that the provision of services is managed easily and in the shortest possible time by the cloud provider. The commercial aspect of service delivery deals with the two concepts of customer satisfaction (including responsiveness, customer feedback) and service rates (including: subscription cost and implementation cost), which are of interest to many businesses. The results of this research will help the decision makers of using the cloud space (both organizational managers and cloud customers) in choosing the best cloud service provider to have a comprehensive view of the effective factors before choosing and plan according to their needs