Autonomic Cloud Computing: Open Challenges and Architectural Elements

As Clouds are complex, large-scale, and heterogeneous distributed systems, management of their resources is a challenging task. They need automated and integrated intelligent strategies for provisioning of resources to offer services that are secure, reliable, and cost-efficient. Hence, effective management of services becomes fundamental in software platforms that constitute the fabric of computing Clouds. In this direction, this paper identifies open issues in autonomic resource provisioning and presents innovative management techniques for supporting SaaS applications hosted on Clouds. We present a conceptual architecture and early results evidencing the benefits of autonomic management of Clouds.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, conference keynote pape

Software como um Serviço: uma plataforma eficaz para oferta de sistemas holísticos de gestão da performance

This study main objective was to assess the viability of development of a Performance Management (PM) system, delivered in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS), specific for the hospitality industry and to evaluate the benefits of its use. Software deployed in the cloud, delivered and licensed as a service, is becoming increasingly common and accepted in a business context. Although, Business Intelligence (BI) solutions are not usually distributed in the SaaS model, there are some examples that this is changing. To achieve the study objective, design science research methodology was employed in the development of a prototype. This prototype was deployed in four hotels and its results evaluated. Evaluation of the prototype was focused both on the system technical characteristics and business benefits. Results shown that hotels were very satisfied with the system and that building a prototype and making it available in the form of SaaS is a good solution to assess BI systems contribution to improve management performance.O objetivo principal deste estudo é avaliar a viabilidade de desenvolvimento de um sistema de Gestão da Performance, entregue sob a forma de “Software como Serviço” (SaaS), específico para o setor hoteleiro, e também avaliar os benefícios de seu uso. O software implantado na cloud, entregue e licenciado como um serviço, é cada vez mais aceite num contexto de negócios. Todavia, não é comum que soluções de Business Intelligence (BI) sejam distribuídas neste modelo SaaS. No entanto, existem alguns exemplos de que isso se está a alterar. Para atingir o objetivo do estudo, foi utilizada Design Science Research como metodologia de pesquisa científica para desenvolvimento de um protótipo. Este protótipo foi implementado em quatro hotéis para que os seus resultados pudessem ser avaliados. A avaliação foi focada tanto nas características técnicas do sistema como nos benefícios para o negócio. Os resultados mostraram que os hotéis estavam muito satisfeitos com o sistema e que construir um protótipo e disponibilizá-lo sob a forma de SaaS é uma boa solução para avaliar a contribuição dos sistemas de BI para melhorar o desempenho da gestão.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Revealing the Vicious Circle of Disengaged User Acceptance: A SaaS Provider's Perspective

User acceptance tests (UAT) are an integral part of many different software engineering methodologies. In this paper, we examine the influence of UATs on the relationship between users and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, which are continuously delivered rather than rolled out during a one-off signoff process. Based on an exploratory qualitative field study at a multinational SaaS provider in Denmark, we show that UATs often address the wrong problem in that positive user acceptance may actually indicate a negative user experience. Hence, SaaS providers should be careful not to rest on what we term disengaged user acceptance. Instead, we outline an approach that purposefully queries users for ambivalent emotions that evoke constructive criticism, in order to facilitate a discourse that favors the continuous innovation of a SaaS system. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our approach for the study of user engagement in testing SaaS applications

Assessing database and network threats in traditional and cloud computing

Cloud Computing is currently one of the most widely-spoken terms in IT. While it offers a range of technological and financial benefits, its wide acceptance by organizations is not yet wide spread. Security concerns are a main reason for this and this paper studies the data and network threats posed in both traditional and cloud paradigms in an effort to assert in which areas cloud computing addresses security issues and where it does introduce new ones. This evaluation is based on Microsoft’s STRIDE threat model and discusses the stakeholders, the impact and recommendations for tackling each threat

ClouNS - A Cloud-native Application Reference Model for Enterprise Architects

The capability to operate cloud-native applications can generate enormous business growth and value. But enterprise architects should be aware that cloud-native applications are vulnerable to vendor lock-in. We investigated cloud-native application design principles, public cloud service providers, and industrial cloud standards. All results indicate that most cloud service categories seem to foster vendor lock-in situations which might be especially problematic for enterprise architectures. This might sound disillusioning at first. However, we present a reference model for cloud-native applications that relies only on a small subset of well standardized IaaS services. The reference model can be used for codifying cloud technologies. It can guide technology identification, classification, adoption, research and development processes for cloud-native application and for vendor lock-in aware enterprise architecture engineering methodologies