Policy issues in interconnecting networks

To support the activities of the Federal Research Coordinating Committee (FRICC) in creating an interconnected set of networks to serve the research community, two workshops were held to address the technical support of policy issues that arise when interconnecting such networks. The workshops addressed the required and feasible technologies and architectures that could be used to satisfy the desired policies for interconnection. The results of the workshop are documented

Cloud Security : A Review of Recent Threats and Solution Models

The most significant barrier to the wide adoption of cloud services has been attributed to perceived cloud insecurity (Smitha, Anna and Dan, 2012). In an attempt to review this subject, this paper will explore some of the major security threats to the cloud and the security models employed in tackling them. Access control violations, message integrity violations, data leakages, inability to guarantee complete data deletion, code injection, malwares and lack of expertise in cloud technology rank the major threats. The European Union invested €3m in City University London to research into the certification of Cloud security services. This and more recent developments are significant in addressing increasing public concerns regarding the confidentiality, integrity and privacy of data held in cloud environments. Some of the current cloud security models adopted in addressing cloud security threats were – Encryption of all data at storage and during transmission. The Cisco IronPort S-Series web security appliance was among security solutions to solve cloud access control issues. 2-factor Authentication with RSA SecurID and close monitoring appeared to be the most popular solutions to authentication and access control issues in the cloud. Database Active Monitoring, File Active Monitoring, URL Filters and Data Loss Prevention were solutions for detecting and preventing unauthorised data migration into and within clouds. There is yet no guarantee for a complete deletion of data by cloud providers on client requests however; FADE may be a solution (Yang et al., 2012)

A prototype and demonstrator of Akogrimo’s architecture: An approach of merging grids, SOA, and the mobile Internet

The trend of merging telecommunication infrastructures with traditional Information Technology (IT) infrastructures is ongoing and important for commercial service providers. The driver behind this development is, on one hand, the strong need for enhanced services and on the other hand, the need of telecommunication operators aiming at value-added service provisioning to a wide variety of customers. In the telecommunications sector, the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a promising service platform, which may become a ''standard'' for supporting added-value services on top of the next generation network infrastructure. However, since its range of applicability is bound to SIP- enabled services, IMS extensions are being proposed by ''SIPifying'' applications. In parallel to these developments within the traditional IT sector, the notion of Virtual Organizations (VO) enabling collaborative businesses across organizational boundaries is addressed in the framework of Web Services (WS) standards implementing a Service-oriented Architecture (SOA). Here, concepts for controlled resource and service sharing based on WS and Semantic Technologies have been consolidated. Since the telecommunications sector has become, in the meantime ''mobile'', all concepts brought into this infrastructure must cope with the dynamics mobility brings in. Therefore, within the Akogrimo project the VO concept has been extended towards a Mobile Dynamic Virtual Organization (MDVO) concept, additionally considering key requirements of mobile users and resources. Especial attention is given to ensure the duality of the merge of both, SOA and IMS approaches to holistically support SOA-enabled mobile added-value services and their users. This work describes major results of the Akogrimo project, paying special attention to the overall Akogrimo architecture, the prototype implemented, and the key scenario in which the instantiated Akogrimo architecture shows a very clear picture of applicability, use, and an additional functional evaluation

Risk-driven proactive fault-tolerant operation of IaaS providers

In order to improve service execution in Clouds, the management of Cloud Infrastructure has to take measures to adhere to Service Level Agreements and Business Level Objectives, from the application layer through to how services are supported at the lowest hardware levels. In this paper a risk model methodology and holistic management approach is developed specific to the operation of the Cloud Infrastructure Provider and is applied through improvements to SLA fault tolerance in Cloud Infrastructure. Risk assessments are used to analyse execution specific data from the Cloud Infrastructure and linked to a business driven holistic management component that is part of a Cloud Manager. Initial results show improved eco-efficiency, virtual machine availability and reductions in SLA failure across the whole Cloud infrastructure by applying our combined risk-based fault tolerance approach.Postprint (author’s final draft

Report of the CBC/CDC Retreat, the Hague, 2-3 September 2000: Towards a Federation of Centers

Documents related to a retreat held by the Center Board Chairs (CBC) and Center Directors Committee (CDC) at ISNAR. The Hague, September 2-3, 2000 to consider organizational, structural and management issues arising from the new vision of the CGIAR. Included are a report of the retreat with two attachments: a draft code of conduct, and a full response from the centers to TAC's seven planks. There is also a further document not mentioned in the table of contents, beginning at page 40. It is a diagnosis of the motivations for change. The document identifies objectives for change, examines ten possible organizational models, and discusses those considered relevant to what the centers do and with whom.The introduction describes this package as work in progress, not representing a full consensus among the centers. The report does, however, recommend consideration of a Federation of Centers, to be composed of Centers, a Federation Office, and a small administrative staff. Some of the functions proposed for the Federation would be transferred from the organs of the CGIAR, not only from the centers. The report reflects agreement among the center board chairs and directors on a schedule of next steps leading to the first meeting of the board of the Federation by the end of 2001.This package was circulated broadly and submitted to TAC 79 and the Synthesis Group for its meeting in Sonning, UK in early October 2000. It was a background document for the report of the Synthesis Group to CGIAR ICW 2000

Towards a unified model for successful implementation of outsourcing and reversibility of information systems

AbstractOutsourcing information systems services is considered a strategic decision for many organizations because it is a risky endeavor. When issues arise during the outsourcing process, many organizations tend to switch their operations from external vendors back to in-house, i.e., implement reversibility or back-sourcing. There is evidence of sufficient scale to warrant further attention to the reversibility process due to the increased failure of outsourcing projects. One of the main goals of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework that can help implement both outsourcing and reversibility projects successfully. In addition to the risks associated with the outsourcing process, most researches focus on the outsourcing process after the relationship between the vendor and the organization is established, while the activities related to pre-outsourcing and post-outsourcing stages are neglected or given little concern. Another objective of this work is to integrate the outsourcing phase with the pre and post outsourcing phases. This paper also aims to identify the critical factors affecting the outsourcing and reversibility processes, thereby dealing with the outsourcing risks from the beginning rather than as an afterthought