8,647 research outputs found
Microservice Transition and its Granularity Problem: A Systematic Mapping Study
Microservices have gained wide recognition and acceptance in software
industries as an emerging architectural style for autonomic, scalable, and more
reliable computing. The transition to microservices has been highly motivated
by the need for better alignment of technical design decisions with improving
value potentials of architectures. Despite microservices' popularity, research
still lacks disciplined understanding of transition and consensus on the
principles and activities underlying "micro-ing" architectures. In this paper,
we report on a systematic mapping study that consolidates various views,
approaches and activities that commonly assist in the transition to
microservices. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the
transition; it also contributes a working definition of the transition and
technical activities underlying it. We term the transition and technical
activities leading to microservice architectures as microservitization. We then
shed light on a fundamental problem of microservitization: microservice
granularity and reasoning about its adaptation as first-class entities. This
study reviews state-of-the-art and -practice related to reasoning about
microservice granularity; it reviews modelling approaches, aspects considered,
guidelines and processes used to reason about microservice granularity. This
study identifies opportunities for future research and development related to
reasoning about microservice granularity.Comment: 36 pages including references, 6 figures, and 3 table
Network-aware Evaluation Environment for Reputation Systems
Parties of reputation systems rate each other and use ratings to compute reputation scores that drive their interactions. When deciding which reputation model to deploy in a network environment, it is important to find the
most suitable model and to determine its right initial configuration. This calls for an engineering approach for describing, implementing and evaluating reputation
systems while taking into account specific aspects of both the reputation systems and the networked environment where they will run. We present a software tool (NEVER) for network-aware evaluation of reputation systems and their rapid prototyping through experiments performed according to user-specified parameters. To demonstrate effectiveness of NEVER, we analyse reputation models based on the beta distribution and the maximum likelihood estimation
QoS-Aware Middleware for Web Services Composition
The paradigmatic shift from a Web of manual interactions to a Web of programmatic interactions driven by Web services is creating unprecedented opportunities for the formation of online Business-to-Business (B2B) collaborations. In particular, the creation of value-added services by composition of existing ones is gaining a significant momentum. Since many available Web services provide overlapping or identical functionality, albeit with different Quality of Service (QoS), a choice needs to be made to determine which services are to participate in a given composite service. This paper presents a middleware platform which addresses the issue of selecting Web services for the purpose of their composition in a way that maximizes user satisfaction expressed as utility functions over QoS attributes, while satisfying the constraints set by the user and by the structure of the composite service. Two selection approaches are described and compared: one based on local (task-level) selection of services and the other based on global allocation of tasks to services using integer programming
Digital Ecosystems: Ecosystem-Oriented Architectures
We view Digital Ecosystems to be the digital counterparts of biological
ecosystems. Here, we are concerned with the creation of these Digital
Ecosystems, exploiting the self-organising properties of biological ecosystems
to evolve high-level software applications. Therefore, we created the Digital
Ecosystem, a novel optimisation technique inspired by biological ecosystems,
where the optimisation works at two levels: a first optimisation, migration of
agents which are distributed in a decentralised peer-to-peer network, operating
continuously in time; this process feeds a second optimisation based on
evolutionary computing that operates locally on single peers and is aimed at
finding solutions to satisfy locally relevant constraints. The Digital
Ecosystem was then measured experimentally through simulations, with measures
originating from theoretical ecology, evaluating its likeness to biological
ecosystems. This included its responsiveness to requests for applications from
the user base, as a measure of the ecological succession (ecosystem maturity).
Overall, we have advanced the understanding of Digital Ecosystems, creating
Ecosystem-Oriented Architectures where the word ecosystem is more than just a
metaphor.Comment: 39 pages, 26 figures, journa
Talking to the Empowered Consumer Dealing with the Shift of Power
The concept of the empowered consumer cannot be considered as a field of exact scientific
research yet. Nevertheless, it has become part of scholars’ interest and gains more and more
importance in the research of organisational relationships with customers. It is suggested that
two influencing criteria are especially at the forefront: The emergence of the Internet, which
effected that barriers to collect and to disseminate information across boundaries were
decisively reduced. As a consequence consumers could organise globally and collect and
exchange information and experiences about organisations and their products. Furthermore,
flexible interactivity between companies and consumers, but particularly from consumers to
consumers enable direct interaction changing many previously established rules of doing
business. Due to these new opportunities new business models developed and the proposition
is that intangible values such as reputation gained even more importance and influence
tangible outcomes.
Suggestions are that 1.), this concept links communication, corporate behaviour and
legitimacy of activities influencing reputation as a driver of value. 2.), reputation as a
corporate asset can be managed but it is beyond the pure control of an organisation. 3.),
reputation is part of public perception, which an organisation has to build, maintain and
expand depending on communicative abilities and willingness to accept consumers as a centre
of power. The following discussion will present Grunig et al.’s communication model
explaining changed organisational challenges. It is put forward as a framework for marketing
for times in which online opportunities added to the earlier b2b and b2c models c2c and P2P
considerations and architectures.
The annual studies of the market research institute puls undertaking regular representative
research among German consumers since November 2005 will present evidence for the
relationship of improved prices, which may be achieved, and the perception a firm possesses.
This paper deals mostly with German examples and data, but the hypothesis is that a) the
general situation in other Western countries is alike, but needs b) specific additional research,
since cultural differences are expected to have a considerable influence, especially when
criteria such as individualist and collectivist organisation of society and high and low context
communication styles are involved. Hence, the results of the same study in different countries
are therefore expected to present some variation.
Additionally, the Cluetrain Manifesto challenges corporate behaviour of those companies still
believing to have the ability to control information disseminated by and written about it.
Examples provided will support the hypothesis that powerful consumers may have significant
impact on organisational behaviour, decision-making and outcomes.
Keywords: Empowered Consumer Concept, Symmetric Two-way communication,
Reputation, c2c, P2
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