Carbon-Awareness in CI/CD

While the environmental impact of digitalization is becoming more and more evident, the climate crisis has become a major issue for society. For instance, data centers alone account for 2.7% of Europe's energy consumption today. A considerable part of this load is accounted for by cloud-based services for automated software development, such as continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) workflows. In this paper, we discuss opportunities and challenges for greening CI/CD services by better aligning their execution with the availability of low-carbon energy. We propose a system architecture for carbon-aware CI/CD services, which uses historical runtime information and, optionally, user-provided information. We examined the potential effectiveness of different scheduling strategies using real carbon intensity data and 7,392 workflow executions of Github Actions, a popular CI/CD service. Our results show, that user-provided information on workflow deadlines can effectively improve carbon-aware scheduling.Comment: 21st International Conference on Service-Oriented Computing (ICSOC '24) Workshop

GESTÃO DE PROCESSOS E TECNOLOGIA DE INFORMAÇÃO: EM BUSCA DA AGILIDADE EM SERVIÇO

Organizations grappling with a variety of problems arising from the rapid of information technology (IT) development and the tension caused by the delay in the introduction of this evolution in business management models. The greatest difficulties are in creating an operating environment in which the speeds of decision-making and organizational performance are keys to agility services. Thecombination of IT, as service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web services (WS) with Business Process Management (BPM), promise to revolutionize the way organizations is structured to create an operating environment able to expedite decision-making and tomake better use of business opportunities. However, these technologies still face challenges that need to be overcome. Based on the literature review, the scope of this article is to discuss the main issues of organizational modeling technology and present a proposal for a conceptual model targeted for businessagility

On the Ex Ante Valuation of IT Service Investments - A Decision Theoretical Perspective

The paradigm of service orientation and its incarnation in the form of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and information technology (IT) services play a crucial role in enabling companies to achieve considerable competitive advantages. However, to be able to leverage the opportunities of SOA and IT services, companies need to gain a thorough understanding of the business value of IT service investments. Nevertheless, research on IT services has focused mainly on technical questions so far; the economic perspective largely has been neglected. Therefore, the authors aim to contribute to the ex ante valuation of IT service investments from a decision theoretical point of view. Using decision theory as a theoretical base, the main aim is to identify and discuss specific challenges regarding the financial ex ante valuation of IT service investments, which arise from the inherent flexibility of IT services and the various interdependencies within a company’s IT service portfolio. The authors thereby emphasize that the application of common methods from financial theory for valuating IT service investments has to be treated with caution, as these methods are often tied to rather restrictive assumptions based on the specifics of capital markets. By analyzing different clusters of IT service investment decision problems using decision theory, the authors identify and discuss pitfalls that might occur when applying financial valuation methods to capture the flexibility and interdependencies of IT service investments. The decision theoretical considerations are intended to help build a solid basis for future multi-criteria valuation approaches, of which an essential component is a theoretically well-founded financial valuation

From Sensor to Observation Web with Environmental Enablers in the Future Internet

This paper outlines the grand challenges in global sustainability research and the objectives of the FP7 Future Internet PPP program within the Digital Agenda for Europe. Large user communities are generating significant amounts of valuable environmental observations at local and regional scales using the devices and services of the Future Internet. These communities’ environmental observations represent a wealth of information which is currently hardly used or used only in isolation and therefore in need of integration with other information sources. Indeed, this very integration will lead to a paradigm shift from a mere Sensor Web to an Observation Web with semantically enriched content emanating from sensors, environmental simulations and citizens. The paper also describes the research challenges to realize the Observation Web and the associated environmental enablers for the Future Internet. Such an environmental enabler could for instance be an electronic sensing device, a web-service application, or even a social networking group affording or facilitating the capability of the Future Internet applications to consume, produce, and use environmental observations in cross-domain applications. The term ?envirofied? Future Internet is coined to describe this overall target that forms a cornerstone of work in the Environmental Usage Area within the Future Internet PPP program. Relevant trends described in the paper are the usage of ubiquitous sensors (anywhere), the provision and generation of information by citizens, and the convergence of real and virtual realities to convey understanding of environmental observations. The paper addresses the technical challenges in the Environmental Usage Area and the need for designing multi-style service oriented architecture. Key topics are the mapping of requirements to capabilities, providing scalability and robustness with implementing context aware information retrieval. Another essential research topic is handling data fusion and model based computation, and the related propagation of information uncertainty. Approaches to security, standardization and harmonization, all essential for sustainable solutions, are summarized from the perspective of the Environmental Usage Area. The paper concludes with an overview of emerging, high impact applications in the environmental areas concerning land ecosystems (biodiversity), air quality (atmospheric conditions) and water ecosystems (marine asset management)

Innovative public governance through cloud computing: Information privacy, business models and performance measurement challenges

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze challenges and to discuss proposed solutions for innovative public governance through cloud computing. Innovative technologies, such as federation of services and cloud computing, can greatly contribute to the provision of e-government services, through scaleable and flexible systems. Furthermore, they can facilitate in reducing costs and overcoming public information segmentation. Nonetheless, when public agencies use these technologies, they encounter several associated organizational and technical changes, as well as significant challenges. Design/methodology/approach: We followed a multidisciplinary perspective (social, behavioral, business and technical) and conducted a conceptual analysis for analyzing the associated challenges. We conducted focus group interviews in two countries for evaluating the performance models that resulted from the conceptual analysis. Findings: This study identifies and analyzes several challenges that may emerge while adopting innovative technologies for public governance and e-government services. Furthermore, it presents suggested solutions deriving from the experience of designing a related platform for public governance, including issues of privacy requirements, proposed business models and key performance indicators for public services on cloud computing. Research limitations/implications: The challenges and solutions discussed are based on the experience gained by designing one platform. However, we rely on issues and challenges collected from four countries. Practical implications: The identification of challenges for innovative design of e-government services through a central portal in Europe and using service federation is expected to inform practitioners in different roles about significant changes across multiple levels that are implied and may accelerate the challenges' resolution. Originality/value: This is the first study that discusses from multiple perspectives and through empirical investigation the challenges to realize public governance through innovative technologies. The results emerge from an actual portal that will function at a European level. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited