A new revenue maximization model using customized plans in cloud service allocation (Applied on a real company case study)

Cloud computing is emerging as a promising field offering a variety of computing services to end users. These services are offered at different prices using various pricing schemes and techniques. End users will favor the service provider offering the best quality with the lowest price. Therefore, applying a fair pricing model will attract more customers and achieve higher revenues for service providers. This work focuses on a novel dynamic pricing model which is able to satisfy advance users requirements based on normal fixed price model. This paper considers many factors that affect pricing and user satisfaction, such as fairness, QoS, SLA, and more, by highlighting their importance in recent markets and propose a flexible model which tries to utilize all resources to the highest capacity and offers low prices for underutilized resources. The simulated results shows the appropriateness of dynamic pricing for sharing of computing resources, where providers want to have more customers as a managerial decision and even more income in total.Keywords: Cloud Computing; Digital Pricing; Dynamic Pricin

An exploration of the diffusion dynamics of Open Source Software (OSS): An Agent-Based Computational Economics (ACE) approach

Despite the rising popularity of Open Source Software (OSS), there is limited understanding of the factors that affect the diffusion of OSS at the organizational level. Review of the literature suggests that previous empirical and analytical studies on this subject matter though valuable in their own respect, either did not address the full spectrum of critical factors in one model or did not investigate the impact of critical factors in enough detail leaving some gaps in the literature. In an effort to bridge these gaps, this dissertation develops a model to a) jointly investigate the effect of critical variables other than price on the diffusion dynamics of OSS, b) investigate the effects of social networks or inter-organizational relationships on the diffusion dynamics of OSS, c) propose a new software price discounting scheme and compare its effectiveness against traditional software price discounting schemes on the diffusion dynamics of OSS. An Agent-Based Computational Economics (ACE) approach is adopted to develop a comprehensive simulation model to investigate the aforementioned research problems. Although, desktop operating system software is used as an exemplar to investigate the diffusion of its open source and proprietary alternatives, the framework proposed in the dissertation is general enough to be applied in the investigation of diffusion of other kinds of software as well

A Cost-Benefit-Based Analytical Model for Finding the Optimal Offering of Software Services

In this paper, we introduce an analytical model for maximizingsocial welfare, which can be used for finding the optimal offeringof a set of software services. The analytical model also explainsthe impact of service flexibility on customer’s selection ofbusiness services and on the revenue of service providers. Theanalytical model is based on a utility model and a cost model. Thecost model uses the number of lines of code as the basic measurefor cost and applies linear and polynomial cost functions. Theutility model is derived from a customer-provider relationshipmodel, which relates the user’s utility to the functionality ofbusiness services. The result of the analytical model shows thatthe distribution of functions of an existing business service to alarge number of new business services does not generate anyadditional revenues for the service provider from existingcustomers. Instead, additional revenue is generated through theoffering of business services with fewer functions at lower price.This business services attract customers, which could not affordthe original software service of the provider. The result of theanalytical model also shows that there is an optimal number ofbusiness services that maximizes the net utility of customers

Complex system simulation: agent-based modeling and system dynamics

This thesis deals with some simulation based approaches used to study software market and software development. Nowadays, the term Software as a Service is everywhere and is described as the future of software. SaaS, also called On-Demand Software, is a software application delivery model that together with Commercial Open Source Software another pricing approach is slowly gaining ground. Indeed, in recent years, traditional software also called On-Premise software appears overpriced, user's willingness to buy it is decreased and therefore the purchase preferences are moving from traditional pricing models to new pricing approaches. To study these new pricing tendencies, different models have been realized by using two of the most common numerical techniques: Agent based Modeling and System Dynamics. With agent based modeling two business models have been realized: a model to study the competition among CRM On-Premise and On Demand vendors and another model to study the competition among CRM On-Demand vendors offering CRM products, with and without source code availability. Our goals are to propose business models to analyze and study the CRM software market, and to propose a useful tool to forecast business winning strategy and investment and pricing business policies. Instead, with system dynamics a tool for highlighting how a Global Software Development environment on the Cloud Platform may facilitate GSD with respect to an environment set up On Premise has been realized. All these models are based on many insights from literature and market analysis. However, concerning the business models, this is the first time that the software market has been modeled using heterogeneous agent model and detailing investment and pricing policies of firms and purchase preferences of customers, and consequently building the model on existing scientific knowledge has not been simple. In addition, lack of experimental data to initialize or validate the models clearly limits the validity of the models, and for this reason the future main objective will be to validate the model using real enterprise data

Complex system simulation: agent-based modeling and system dynamics

This thesis deals with some simulation based approaches used to study software market and software development. Nowadays, the term Software as a Service is everywhere and is described as the future of software. SaaS, also called On-Demand Software, is a software application delivery model that together with Commercial Open Source Software another pricing approach is slowly gaining ground. Indeed, in recent years, traditional software also called On-Premise software appears overpriced, user's willingness to buy it is decreased and therefore the purchase preferences are moving from traditional pricing models to new pricing approaches. To study these new pricing tendencies, different models have been realized by using two of the most common numerical techniques: Agent based Modeling and System Dynamics. With agent based modeling two business models have been realized: a model to study the competition among CRM On-Premise and On Demand vendors and another model to study the competition among CRM On-Demand vendors offering CRM products, with and without source code availability. Our goals are to propose business models to analyze and study the CRM software market, and to propose a useful tool to forecast business winning strategy and investment and pricing business policies. Instead, with system dynamics a tool for highlighting how a Global Software Development environment on the Cloud Platform may facilitate GSD with respect to an environment set up On Premise has been realized. All these models are based on many insights from literature and market analysis. However, concerning the business models, this is the first time that the software market has been modeled using heterogeneous agent model and detailing investment and pricing policies of firms and purchase preferences of customers, and consequently building the model on existing scientific knowledge has not been simple. In addition, lack of experimental data to initialize or validate the models clearly limits the validity of the models, and for this reason the future main objective will be to validate the model using real enterprise data

Optimized Robust Adaptive Networks in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems

This thesis investigates the application of a Exponential Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) to be used as a memory buffer in conjunction with Special Protection Schemes (SPS) using the Electric Power and Communication Synchronizing Simulator (EPOCHS). It is proposed that using an SPS incorporating EWMA can compensate for the network layer lack of guarantee of packet delivery and provide for the stability and integrity of the power grid under a catastrophic event. The performance of the proposed SPS is evaluated using a discrete event computer simulation developed using the NS2 network simulator and the Power System Simulator for Engineering (PSS/E) power system simulator. Performance and metrics evaluated in terms of the SPS’s ability to properly calculate disturbance size and to react to the disturbance before the system reaches the minimum frequency threshold of 58.8 HZ and before 0.5 second threshold. Experimental results indicate that the proposed SPS with EWMA can be successfully be applied to ensure power grid stability regardless of network background traffic. The results indicate that the proposed EWMA SPS ensures the protection of the grid. The EWMA SPS has a significant impact on performance when applied to a heavy background traffic network without router reservation enabling it to be stable without the additional hardware cost. Overall, in the tested configuration, the new SPS system successfully maintained steady state operation under all traffic intensities

Coordination in Service Value Networks - A Mechanism Design Approach

The fundamental paradigm shift from traditional value chains to agile service value networks (SVN) implies new economic and organizational challenges. This work provides an auction-based coordination mechanism that enables the allocation and pricing of service compositions in SVNs. The mechanism is multidimensional incentive compatible and implements an ex-post service level enforcement. Further extensions of the mechanism are evaluated following analytical and numerical research methods

Value Creation through Co-Opetition in Service Networks

Well-defined interfaces and standardization allow for the composition of single Web services into value-added complex services. Such complex Web Services are increasingly traded via agile marketplaces, facilitating flexible recombination of service modules to meet heterogeneous customer demands. In order to coordinate participants, this work introduces a mechanism design approach - the co-opetition mechanism - that is tailored to requirements imposed by a networked and co-opetitive environment

Business Model Review

This document presents a review of alternative business models from a variety of industries and markets. It complements the Month 27 deliverable [Olofsson and Farr, 2006] on tools and methods for business model evaluation, and the Month 30 deliverable [Scott et al, 3006] from Rolls-Royce that discusses business models for the provision of aero engines and supporting services in particular. Herein, a taxonomy of business models is presented, and a broad range of alternatives are considered, showing how companies have defined a target market, and differentiated their products and/or services, implemented plans for activities such as promotion and distribution, and ultimately pursued a profit. The applicability to these models to the aerospace sector is discussed