Advances in Grid Computing

This book approaches the grid computing with a perspective on the latest achievements in the field, providing an insight into the current research trends and advances, and presenting a large range of innovative research papers. The topics covered in this book include resource and data management, grid architectures and development, and grid-enabled applications. New ideas employing heuristic methods from swarm intelligence or genetic algorithm and quantum encryption are considered in order to explain two main aspects of grid computing: resource management and data management. The book addresses also some aspects of grid computing that regard architecture and development, and includes a diverse range of applications for grid computing, including possible human grid computing system, simulation of the fusion reaction, ubiquitous healthcare service provisioning and complex water systems

Cost-effective resource management for distributed computing

Current distributed computing and resource management infrastructures (e.g., Cluster and Grid) suffer from a wide variety of problems related to resource management, which include scalability bottleneck, resource allocation delay, limited quality-of-service (QoS) support, and lack of cost-aware and service level agreement (SLA) mechanisms. This thesis addresses these issues by presenting a cost-effective resource management solution which introduces the possibility of managing geographically distributed resources in resource units that are under the control of a Virtual Authority (VA). A VA is a collection of resources controlled, but not necessarily owned, by a group of users or an authority representing a group of users. It leverages the fact that different resources in disparate locations will have varying usage levels. By creating smaller divisions of resources called VAs, users would be given the opportunity to choose between a variety of cost models, and each VA could rent resources from resource providers when necessary, or could potentially rent out its own resources when underloaded. The resource management is simplified since the user and owner of a resource recognize only the VA because all permissions and charges are associated directly with the VA. The VA is controlled by a ’rental’ policy which is supported by a pool of resources that the system may rent from external resource providers. As far as scheduling is concerned, the VA is independent from competitors and can instead concentrate on managing its own resources. As a result, the VA offers scalable resource management with minimal infrastructure and operating costs. We demonstrate the feasibility of the VA through both a practical implementation of the prototype system and an illustration of its quantitative advantages through the use of extensive simulations. First, the VA concept is demonstrated through a practical implementation of the prototype system. Further, we perform a cost-benefit analysis of current distributed resource infrastructures to demonstrate the potential cost benefit of such a VA system. We then propose a costing model for evaluating the cost effectiveness of the VA approach by using an economic approach that captures revenues generated from applications and expenses incurred from renting resources. Based on our costing methodology, we present rental policies that can potentially offer effective mechanisms for running distributed and parallel applications without a heavy upfront investment and without the cost of maintaining idle resources. By using real workload trace data, we test the effectiveness of our proposed rental approaches. Finally, we propose an extension to the VA framework that promotes long-term negotiations and rentals based on service level agreements or long-term contracts. Based on the extended framework, we present new SLA-aware policies and evaluate them using real workload traces to demonstrate their effectiveness in improving rental decisions

A virtual-community-centric model for coordination in the South African public sector

Organizations face challenges constantly owing to limited resources. As such, to take advantage of new opportunities and to mitigate possible risks they look for new ways to collaborate, by sharing knowledge and competencies. Coordination among partners is critical in order to achieve success. The segmented South African public sector is no different. Driven by the desire to ensure proper service delivery in this sector, various government bodies and service providers play different roles towards the attainment of common goals. This is easier said than done, given the complexity of the distributed nature of the environment. Heterogeneity, autonomy, and the increasing need to collaborate provoke the need to develop an integrative and dynamic coordination support service system in the SA public sector. Thus, the research looks to theories/concepts and existing coordination practices to ground the process of development. To inform the design of the proposed artefact the research employs an interdisciplinary approach championed by coordination theory to review coordination-related theories and concepts. The effort accounts for coordination constructs that characterize and transform the problem and solution spaces. Thus, requirements are explicit towards identifying coordination breakdowns and their resolution. Furthermore, how coordination in a distributed environment is supported in practice is considered from a socio-technical perspective in an effort to account holistically for coordination support. Examining existing solutions identified shortcomings that, if addressed, can help to improve the solutions for coordination, which are often rigidly and narrowly defined. The research argues that introducing a mediating technological artefact conceived from a virtual community and service lenses can serve as a solution to the problem. By adopting a design-science research paradigm, the research develops a model as a primary artefact to support coordination from a collaboration standpoint. The suggestions from theory and practice and the unique case requirement identified through a novel case analysis framework form the basis of the model design. The proposed model support operation calls for an architecture which employs a design pattern that divides a complex whole into smaller, simpler parts, with the aim of reducing the system complexity. Four fundamental functions of the supporting architecture are introduced and discussed as they would support the operation and activities of the proposed collaboration lifecycle model geared towards streamlining coordination in a distributed environment. As part of the model development knowledge contributions are made in several ways. Firstly, an analytical instrument is presented that can be used by an enterprise architect or business analyst to study the coordination status quo of a collaborative activity in a distributed environment. Secondly, a lifecycle model is presented as meta-process model with activities that are geared towards streamlining the coordination of dynamic collaborative activities or projects. Thirdly, an architecture that will enable the technical virtual community-centric, context-aware environment that hosts the process-based operations is offered. Finally, the validation tool that represents the applied contribution to the research that promises possible adaptation for similar circumstances is presented. The artefacts contribute towards a design theory in IS research for the development and improvement of coordination support services in a distributed environment such as the South African public sector

Combining SOA and BPM Technologies for Cross-System Process Automation

This paper summarizes the results of an industry case study that introduced a cross-system business process automation solution based on a combination of SOA and BPM standard technologies (i.e., BPMN, BPEL, WSDL). Besides discussing major weaknesses of the existing, custom-built, solution and comparing them against experiences with the developed prototype, the paper presents a course of action for transforming the current solution into the proposed solution. This includes a general approach, consisting of four distinct steps, as well as specific action items that are to be performed for every step. The discussion also covers language and tool support and challenges arising from the transformation