Elastic Business Process Management: State of the Art and Open Challenges for BPM in the Cloud

With the advent of cloud computing, organizations are nowadays able to react rapidly to changing demands for computational resources. Not only individual applications can be hosted on virtual cloud infrastructures, but also complete business processes. This allows the realization of so-called elastic processes, i.e., processes which are carried out using elastic cloud resources. Despite the manifold benefits of elastic processes, there is still a lack of solutions supporting them. In this paper, we identify the state of the art of elastic Business Process Management with a focus on infrastructural challenges. We conceptualize an architecture for an elastic Business Process Management System and discuss existing work on scheduling, resource allocation, monitoring, decentralized coordination, and state management for elastic processes. Furthermore, we present two representative elastic Business Process Management Systems which are intended to counter these challenges. Based on our findings, we identify open issues and outline possible research directions for the realization of elastic processes and elastic Business Process Management.Comment: Please cite as: S. Schulte, C. Janiesch, S. Venugopal, I. Weber, and P. Hoenisch (2015). Elastic Business Process Management: State of the Art and Open Challenges for BPM in the Cloud. Future Generation Computer Systems, Volume NN, Number N, NN-NN., http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2014.09.00

A Taxonomy of Workflow Management Systems for Grid Computing

With the advent of Grid and application technologies, scientists and engineers are building more and more complex applications to manage and process large data sets, and execute scientific experiments on distributed resources. Such application scenarios require means for composing and executing complex workflows. Therefore, many efforts have been made towards the development of workflow management systems for Grid computing. In this paper, we propose a taxonomy that characterizes and classifies various approaches for building and executing workflows on Grids. We also survey several representative Grid workflow systems developed by various projects world-wide to demonstrate the comprehensiveness of the taxonomy. The taxonomy not only highlights the design and engineering similarities and differences of state-of-the-art in Grid workflow systems, but also identifies the areas that need further research.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figure

Environmental analysis for application layer networks

Die zunehmende Vernetzung von Rechnern über das Internet lies die Vision von Application Layer Netzwerken aufkommen. Sie umfassen Overlay Netzwerke wie beispielsweise Peer-to-Peer Netzwerke und Grid Infrastrukturen unter Verwendung des TCP/IP Protokolls. Ihre gemeinsame Eigenschaft ist die redundante, verteilte Bereitstellung und der Zugang zu Daten-, Rechen- und Anwendungsdiensten, während sie die Heterogenität der Infrastruktur vor dem Nutzer verbergen. In dieser Arbeit werden die Anforderungen, die diese Netzwerke an ökonomische Allokationsmechanismen stellen, untersucht. Die Analyse erfolgt anhand eines Marktanalyseprozesses für einen zentralen Auktionsmechanismus und einen katallaktischen Markt. --Grid Computing

Integration of the Cimosa and high-level coloured Petri net modelling techniques with application in the postal process using hierarchical dispatching rules

Enterprise processes, i.e. business and manufacturing, rely on enterprise modelling and simulation tools to assess the quality of their structure and performance in an unobtrusive and cost-effective way. Each of these processes is a collaboration of inseparable elements such as resources, information, operations, and organization. In order to provide a more complete assessment of enterprise processes, a simulation approach that allows communication and interaction among these elements needs to be provided. The simulation approach requires an analysis of the performance of each element and its influence on other elements in an object-oriented way. It also needs to have the capability to represent the structures and dynamics of the elements mentioned, and to present the performance assessment comprehensively. This will ensure a more holistic simulation modelling task. These simulation requirements have motivated the investigation of the novel integration of two popular enterprise process modelling methods: Cimosa and high-level coloured Petri net. The Cimosa framework is used to formalize the enterprise modelling procedure in the aspects of representing process elements, structure, behaviours, and relationships. The high-level coloured Petri nets method provides the mechanism to simulate the dynamics of objects and their characteristics, and also to enable communication among the objects. The approach is applied on a postal process model, which involves elements from manufacturing processes, i.e. machine processing (sorting), inventory (storage), product flow, and resource planning. Simulation studies based on the hierarchical dispatching rules show that the integrated approach is able to present vital information regarding the communication method, resource management, and the effect of interactions among these manufacturing process elements, which are not provided by the current modelling system in the postal company. The current paper has presented a novel mechanism, i.e. Cimosa—HCTSPN modelling approach, to extract information on process elements and their interactions. It has also presented the novel hierarchical dispatching rules and contributed to the extension of information that can be represented for a postal process

A reference model for information specification for metalworking SMEs

The work reported in this thesis offers a novel basis for the realisation of specifications for information requirements to meet the distinct operational requirements of metalworking SMEs. This has been achieved through the development of a reference SME enterprise model based on fundamental ideas of the holon and fractal factory concepts. The novel concept of a node holon is introduced, which allows the representation of the human dominated interactions in a company based on the fundamental concepts of the holon. This offers a competitive alternative to the methods for enterprise modelling and information specification which are based solely around business processes and procedural rules. A new representation for the organisation of the SME has been based on identifying the major zones of activity within the enterprise, which is seen to provide a more appropriate representation for companies whose basis for operation is informally structured. Two classes of zones have been identified, these are the business support zone and manufacturing zone. The relationship between a top down description of the enterprise as zones and the complementary bottoms up modelling of the enterprise based on concepts of the node holon are described in detail. A critical study of two candidate modelling architectures, namely CIN40SA and ARIS will show the applicability of the individual architectures for the task information specification. The constituents of the SMEE enterprise reference model is placed within the context of contemporary enterprise modelling practice by mapping against one of the architectures. This will demonstrate how the architectures can readily accommodate new modelling approaches whilst retaining their major advantages, thereby increasing their applicability and potential uptake. The reference SME enterprise model has been readily applied in the study of an SME, where a representation of the company has been achieved solely on the current organisation of its business support and manufacturing activities. The holonic aspects of the enterprise have also been successfully modelled. This process is supported by a CASE tool which has it constructs underpinned by the reference SME enterprise model

Cooperation platform for distributed manufacturing

The aim of the paper is to analyse contemporary trends in distributed manufacturing (DM) research and to present a concept to develop and test some task allocation, planning and scheduling algorithms for DM network organisations. Some concepts to identify key factor criteria and reasoning policies and rules for production/manufacturing decision support system are also undertaken. And finally, an aim is to draw a proposal for a development of a prototype decision support system with necessary communication and knowledge oriented modules to be implemented in an example of dynamic, DM and logistics network structure, particularly for very popular dynamic cluster forms in Poland. The developed concept of the organization of a multi-entity DM network will enable business-effective use of the system, supporting manufacturing decision making, consulting and offering information services in the control centre (the so-called Competence Centre) by constructing virtual reality and access to services in a distributed network of cloud computing type. Integration of the whole system into one information system will enable analysis and network resource optimization of manufacturing and logistics processes, new analytical functions, reduction of delays in the manufacturing system, management of changes and risks, and visualization of the current state of the DM system

An agile and adaptive holonic architecture for manufacturing control

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores. 2004. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Port

Preliminary specification and design documentation for software components to achieve catallaxy in computational systems

This Report is about the preliminary specifications and design documentation for software components to achieve Catallaxy in computational systems. -- Die Arbeit beschreibt die Spezifikation und das Design von Softwarekomponenten, um das Konzept der Katallaxie in Grid Systemen umzusetzen. Eine Einführung ordnet das Konzept der Katallaxie in bestehende Grid Taxonomien ein und stellt grundlegende Komponenten vor. Anschließend werden diese Komponenten auf ihre Anwendbarkeit in bestehenden Application Layer Netzwerken untersucht.Grid Computing