Twos Company, Threes A Cloud: Challenges To Implementing Service Models

Although three models are currently being used in cloud computing (Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and infrastructure as a service, there remain many challenges before most business accept cloud computing as a reality. Virtualization in cloud computing has many advantages but carries a penalty because of state configurations, kernel drivers, and user interface environments. In addition, many non-standard architectures exist to power cloud models that are often incompatible. Another issue is adequately provisioning the resources required for a multi-tier cloud-based application in such a way that on-demand elasticity is present at vastly different scales yet is carried out efficiently. For networks that have large geographical footprints another problem arises from bottlenecks between elements supporting virtual machines and their control. While many solutions have been proposed to alleviate these problems, some of which are already commercial, much remains to be done to see whether these solutions will be practicable at scale up and address business concerns

Keep The Business Running (KTBR) Data Center

Web based centralizedsystem is an online system that has all its data on one place for easy access by users. The usage of such system among organization has increases over the time due to the advancement of technology that corporate helps to improve work performances and employees efficiency. In order optimize the usage of technology towards the betterment of an organization; integration of information among departments is very crucial. Interactive platform is needed to allow smooth exchange of information. This is where Keep The Business Running (KTBR) Data Center play its role in Enabling User Tool (EUT) Point of Performance (PoP) department in Intel Technologies, Penang, Malaysia to better improvise the current method of their work execution. This paper discuss about the implementation ofintegrated system using the concept of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Agile system development method that focus on addressing problem faced by EUT PoP department in their data management difficulties. The aim of developing the system is mainly to provide a platform that allows data communication and integration across the department and their related client. The system will be able to solve problems such as; the absence of centralized request submission form collection and lack of project details being shared within the department. This will allow both client and KTBR team to be able to perform task proficiently using IT applications which will improve work performance by obtaining just-in-time and just enough information

A Descriptive Literature Review and Classification of Cloud Computing Research

We present a descriptive literature review and classification scheme for cloud computing research. This includes 205 refereed journal articles published since the inception of cloud computing research. The articles are classified based on a scheme that consists of four main categories: technological issues, business issues, domains and applications, and conceptualising cloud computing. The results show that although current research is still skewed towards technological issues, new research themes regarding social and organisational implications are emerging. This review provides a reference source and classification scheme for IS researchers interested in cloud computing, and to indicate under-researched areas as well as future directions

Scheduling of Physicians to Minimize Patients’ Waiting Time

RÉSUMÉ : Chaque phase du processus de soins en radiothérapie se compose de plusieurs étapes. Le patient est d’abord référé au centre de radiothérapie. Après une consultation avec le médecin, un scan permettra de délimiter les contours de la tumeur à soigner afin d’établir le plan de traitement. Les doses sont calculées par des dosimétristes et ensuite validées par le médecin. La phase de prétraitement commence donc par la consultation avec le médecin et se termine lorsque le traitement en tant que tel peut commencer. Dans cette étude, notre objectif est de minimiser la durée de la phase de prétraitement. Bien que plusieurs ressources (humaines et matérielles) soient impliquées dans la phase de prétraitement, nous nous concentrons dans ce projet sur les médecins. En effet, à chacune des étapes du prétraitement le médecin est impliqué et doit donner son aval avant de passer à l’étape suivante. Notre objectif est de déterminer un horaire cyclique et hebdomadaire des tâches à affecter aux médecins, dans le but d’améliorer le flux des patients et de réduire la durée de la phase de prétraitement des patients. Bien que cet objectif soit primordial, nous incluons la satisfaction des médecins quant au choix des tâches affectées chaque jour lors de l’élaboration de l’horaire. Le défi de ce problème réside dans l’incorporation d’éléments incertains (tels que l’arrivée des patients au centre de radiothérapie et leur profil). L’horaire des médecins est identique semaine après semaine tandis que la distribution de l’arrivée des patients varie au courant de l’année. Deux types de patients sont traités par le centre : les patients curatifs et palliatifs. Ces patients n’ont pas le même objectif de traitement, et surtout n’ont pas les mêmes délais d’attente. Afin de résoudre ce problème nous avons développé une méthode de recherche Tabou basée sur trois types de mouvements. Dans un premier temps nous validons la performance de notre algorithme en nous basant sur des instances déterministes. Nous montrons qu’en moyenne, notre méthode est à 0.67% de la solution obtenue par CPLEX dans un temps de calcul raisonnable. Dans un deuxième temps nous incluons les paramètres stochastiques du problème. La fonction d’évaluation du coût des mouvements dans l’algorithme tient désormais compte du fait que l’arrivée et le profil des patients ne sont pas connus d’avance. Nous montrons que l’horaire obtenu par notre algorithme est de meilleure qualité que celui utilisé en pratique sur une cinquantaine de scénarios générés.----------ABSTRACT : Patients are interacting with many different types of healthcare resources. At the same time, new technologies in laboratories, radiology departments and surgeries have increased the number of procedures in diagnosing and curing diseases. Due to financial issues, healthcare organizations are trying to provide the best quality services with reasonable cost by improving the utilization of existing resources. The variability in demand and uncertainty in treatment as well as test duration can cause situations that some resources may not be available at the time they are required which create bottlenecks. Various factors, such as the lack of physical capacity, staff, proper scheduling method, equipment, supplies and sometimes even information, can cause bottlenecks which result in a delay for patients who are receiving the treatment. According to the Canadian Cancer Society reports, every three minutes one person is diagnosed and every seven minutes one person dies from cancer, Canadian Cancer Society (2013). Besides, long waiting times for radiotherapy treatments can cause serious effects on the treatment process. In Quebec, the waiting time for radiation oncology (the time between the patient becomes ready for the treatment and the starting day of treatment) is 4 weeks, Ministère de la santé et des services sociaux (2010). However, time has a major impact on the treatment process and delay in starting radiotherapy has negative effects on treatment progress. The optimal use of existing resources along with keeping the quality of treatment can be the best possible option. In cancer facilities and radiotherapy centers, the sooner the disease is recognized and the treatment is started, strengthen the chance of success in treatment. Since a patient is referred to a radiotherapy center till the start of the treatment, the patient should go through a sequence of tasks. Therefore, reducing the time for the pre-treatment phase becomes crucial, which again explains the importance of this study in making the patient ready for the treatment, thus shortening the pre-treatment phase to less than a week. The objective of this study is Determining a task schedule for physicians in a radiotherapy center. Attempts were made to find a scheme for physicians in order to minimize the pretreatment phase for patients, which would help them to start their treatment earlier by preventing physicians from being bottleneck. Satisfaction of physicians was also considered. To reach this objective, some uncertainty items such as arrival rate of patients and their profiles were considered. A meta-heuristic approach, Tabu Search algorithm, was developed and then compared with two mathematical models, one based on patterns and the other based on tasks of physicians. Due to the size of the problem and different conditions, either task-based model or patternbased one could be used. It is shown that the method developed in this project is compatible with different situations. In addition, two heuristic approaches were developed based on physicians’ tasks

Resource management in heterogeneous computing systems with tasks of varying importance

2014 Summer.The problem of efficiently assigning tasks to machines in heterogeneous computing environments where different tasks can have different levels of importance (or value) to the computing system is a challenging one. The goal of this work is to study this problem in a variety of environments. One part of the study considers a computing system and its corresponding workload based on the expectations for future environments of Department of Energy and Department of Defense interest. We design heuristics to maximize a performance metric created using utility functions. We also create a framework to analyze the trade-offs between performance and energy consumption. We design techniques to maximize performance in a dynamic environment that has a constraint on the energy consumption. Another part of the study explores environments that have uncertainty in the availability of the compute resources. For this part, we design heuristics and compare their performance in different types of environments

Study on application possibilities of Case-Based Reasoning on the domain of scheduling problems

Ces travaux concernent la mise en place d'un système d'aide à la décision, s'appuyant sur le raisonnement à partir de cas, pour la modélisation et la résolution des problèmes d'ordonnancement en génie des procédés. Une analyse de co-citation a été exécutée afin d'extraire de la littérature la connaissance nécessaire à la construction de la stratégie d'aide à la décision et d'obtenir une image de la situation, de l'évolution et de l'intensité de la recherche du domaine des problèmes d'ordonnancement. Un système de classification a été proposée, et la nomenclature proposée par Blazewicz et al. (2007) a été étendue de manière à pouvoir caractériser de manière complète les problèmes d'ordonnancement et leur mode de résolution. Les difficultés d'adaptation du modèle ont été discutées, et l'efficacité des quatre modèles de littérature a été comparée sur trois exemples de flow-shop. Une stratégie de résolution est proposée en fonction des caractéristiques du problème mathématique. ABSTRACT : The purpose of this study is to work out the foundations of a decision-support system in order to advise efficient resolution strategies for scheduling problems in process engineering. This decision-support system is based on Case-Based Reasoning. A bibliographic study based on co-citation analysis has been performed in order to extract knowledge from the literature and obtain a landscape about scheduling research, its intensity and evolution. An open classification scheme has been proposed to scheduling problems, mathematical models and solving methods. A notation scheme corresponding to the classification has been elaborated based on the nomenclature proposed by Blazewicz et al. (2007). The difficulties arising during the adaptation of a mathematical model to different problems is discussed, and the performances of four literature mathematical models have been compared on three flow-shop examples. A resolution strategy is proposed based on the characteristics of the scheduling problem