A Survey on Load Balancing Algorithms for VM Placement in Cloud Computing

The emergence of cloud computing based on virtualization technologies brings huge opportunities to host virtual resource at low cost without the need of owning any infrastructure. Virtualization technologies enable users to acquire, configure and be charged on pay-per-use basis. However, Cloud data centers mostly comprise heterogeneous commodity servers hosting multiple virtual machines (VMs) with potential various specifications and fluctuating resource usages, which may cause imbalanced resource utilization within servers that may lead to performance degradation and service level agreements (SLAs) violations. To achieve efficient scheduling, these challenges should be addressed and solved by using load balancing strategies, which have been proved to be NP-hard problem. From multiple perspectives, this work identifies the challenges and analyzes existing algorithms for allocating VMs to PMs in infrastructure Clouds, especially focuses on load balancing. A detailed classification targeting load balancing algorithms for VM placement in cloud data centers is investigated and the surveyed algorithms are classified according to the classification. The goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and comparative understanding of existing literature and aid researchers by providing an insight for potential future enhancements.Comment: 22 Pages, 4 Figures, 4 Tables, in pres

Cost and Performance-Based Resource Selection Scheme for Asynchronous Replicated System in Utility-Based Computing Environment

A resource selection problem for asynchronous replicated systems in utility-based computing environment is addressed in this paper. The needs for a special attention on this problem lies on the fact that most of the existing replication scheme in this computing system whether implicitly support synchronous replication and/or only consider read-only job. The problem is undoubtedly complex to be solved as two main issues need to be concerned simultaneously, i.e. 1) the difficulty on predicting the performance of the resources in terms of job response time, and 2) an efficient mechanism must be employed in order to measure the trade-off between the performance and the monetary cost incurred on resources so that minimum cost is preserved while providing low job response time. Therefore, a simple yet efficient algorithm that deals with the complexity of resource selection problem in utility-based computing systems is proposed in this paper. The problem is formulated as a Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem. The advantages of the algorithm are two-folds. On one fold, it hides the complexity of resource selection process without neglecting important components that affect job response time. The difficulty on estimating job response time is captured by representing them in terms of different QoS criteria levels at each resource. On the other fold, this representation further relaxed the complexity in measuring the trade-offs between the performance and the monetary cost incurred on resources. The experiments proved that our proposed resource selection scheme achieves an appealing result with good system performance and low monetary cost as compared to existing algorithms

Impact of corporate diversification on company performance and risk

Dupla diplomação com a Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University e mestrado APNORThe strategy is the main direction of the company. In the development of the economy, an important role is played by corporate diversification strategies. The study of the essence of the concept of diversification of production shows that its methods are rigidly dependent on the scope of business and enterprise management. Diversification requires a degree of flexibility in the approaches to its implementation, therefore, at the beginning of planning activities, none of them should be excluded. This research focuses on the impact of corporate diversification on company performance and risk. To complete this purpose, the research question will be answered: how does corporate diversification affect enterprise indicators? The company is one of the four largest Russian oil producers. The total installed capacity of Gazprom’s electricity generating assets in Russia is about 16% of the total installed capacity of the Russian power grid. Gazprom ranks first in the world in the production of heat energy. Research is based on the open annual financial statements of PJSC Gazprom. To assess the differences, find the relationship between variables and respond to the hypotheses of the study, various statistical analyses were applied. The result evidence from Russian company showed that unrelated diversification is positively related to firm’s performance. However, related product diversification is negatively related to firm’s performance. In addition, the relationship between geographical diversification and the efficiency of the company is positive, moreover, the hypothesis of product diversification and reducing the risk of the company is confirmed. However, the hypothesis that geographical diversification contributes to reducing the risk of the firm has not been corroborated.A estratégia é a principal orientação da empresa. No desenvolvimento da economia, um papel importante é desempenhado pela diversificação de estratégias empresarial. O conceito de diversificação da produção mostra que os seus métodos são rigidamente dependentes da gestão empresarial e do negócio. A diversificação requer um grau de flexibilidade nas abordagens para sua implementação, porém, no início do planeamento das atividades, nenhuma delas deve ser excluída. A presente investigação foca-se no impacto da diversificação empresarial no desempenho e risco da empresa. Para completar este objetivo existe a necessidade de responder à seguinte questão de investigação: como a diversificação empresarial afeta os indicadores da empresa? A empresa é uma das quatro maiores produtoras de petróleo da Rússia. A capacidade instalada total dos ativos de produção de eletricidade da Gazprom na Rússia ronda os 16% da capacidade instalada total da rede elétrica russa. A Gazprom posiciona-se no primeiro lugar no mundo no que toca à produção de energia para aquecimento. A presente investigação e para a realização da parte empírica teve por base as demonstrações financeiras anuais disponibilizadas pela PJSC Gazprom. As evidências dos resultados da empresa russa mostraram que a diversificação não relacionada encontra-se positivamente correlacionada com o desempenho da empresa. Todavia, a diversificação de produtos relacionados encontra-se negativamente relacionada com o desempenho da empresa. Adicionalmente, a relação entre a diversificação geográfica e o desempenho da empresa é positiva, mas não há correlação entre a diversificação geográfica e a redução do risco da empresa. Além disso, a hipótese sobre diversificação de produtos e redução do risco da empresa não é corroborada.Стратегия является основным направлением деятельности компании. В развитии экономики важную роль играют стратегии корпоративной диверсификации. Изучение сущности концепции диверсификации производства показывает, что ее методы жестко зависят от сферы бизнеса и управления предприятием. Диверсификация требует определенной гибкости в подходах к ее реализации, поэтому в начале планирования деятельности ни один из них не следует исключать. Это исследование фокусируется на влиянии корпоративной диверсификации на результаты и риски компании. Для достижения этой цели на вопрос исследования будет дан ответ: как корпоративная диверсификация влияет на показатели предприятия? Компания входит в четверку крупнейших российских производителей нефти. Общая установленная мощность генерирующих активов Газпрома в России составляет около 16% от общей установленной мощности российской электрической сети. Газпром занимает первое место в мире по производству тепловой энергии. Исследование основано на открытой годовой финансовой отчетности ПАО «Газпром». Чтобы оценить различия, найти взаимосвязь между переменными и ответить на гипотезs исследования, были применены различные статистические анализы. Полученные в результате исследования данные на примере российской компании показали, что несвязанная диверсификация положительно связана с результатами деятельности компании. Тем не менее, связанная с этим диверсификация продукции отрицательно связана с работой фирмы. Кроме того, взаимосвязь между географической диверсификацией и эффективностью фирмы является положительной, более того, гипотеза о диверсификации продукции и снижении риска фирмы подтверждается. Однако гипотеза о том, что географическая диверсификация способствует снижению риска фирмы не подтвердилась

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ROMANIA

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main opportunities and limitations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The survey was defined with the aim to involve the highest possible number of relevant CSR topics and give the issue a more wholesome perspective. It provides a basis for further comprehension and deeper analyses of specific CSR areas. The conditions determining the success of CSR in Romania have been defined in the paper on the basis of the previously cumulative knowledge as well as the results of various researches. This paper provides knowledge which may be useful in the programs promoting CSR.Corporate social responsibility, Supportive policies, Romania

Energy-Investment Decision-Making for Industry: Quantitative and Qualitative Risks Integrated Analysis

Industrial SMEs may take the decision to invest in energy efficient equipment to reduce energy costs by replacing or upgrading their obsolete equipment or due to external socio-political and legislative pressures. When upgrading their energy equipment, it may be beneficial to consider the adoption of new energy strategies rising from the ongoing energy transition to support green transformation and decarbonisation. To face this energy-investment decision-making problem, a set of different economic and environmental criteria have to be evaluated together with their associated risks. Although energy-investment problems have been treated in the literature, the incorporation of both quantitative and qualitative risks for decision-making in SMEs has not been studied yet. In this paper, this research gap is addressed, creating a framework that considers non-risk criteria and quantitative and qualitative risks into energy-investment decision-making problems. Both types of risks are evaluated according to their probability and impact on the company’s objectives and, additionally for qualitative risks, a fuzzy inference system is employed to account for judgmental subjectivity. All the criteria are incorporated into a single cost–benefit analysis function, which is optimised along the energy assets’ lifetime to reach the best long-term energy investment decisions. The proposed methodology is applied to a specific industrial SME as a case study, showing the benefits of considering these risks in the decision-making problem. Nonetheless, the methodology is expandable with minor changes to other entities facing the challenge to invest in energy equipment or, as well, other tangible assets.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::7 - Energia Assequible i No ContaminantPostprint (published version

GTTC Future of Ground Testing Meta-Analysis of 20 Documents

National research, development, test, and evaluation ground testing capabilities in the United States are at risk. There is a lack of vision and consensus on what is and will be needed, contributing to a significant threat that ground test capabilities may not be able to meet the national security and industrial needs of the future. To support future decisions, the AIAA Ground Testing Technical Committees (GTTC) Future of Ground Test (FoGT) Working Group selected and reviewed 20 seminal documents related to the application and direction of ground testing. Each document was reviewed, with the content main points collected and organized into sections in the form of a gap analysis current state, future state, major challenges/gaps, and recommendations. This paper includes key findings and selected commentary by an editing team

Sustainability in China: Bridging Global Knowledge with Local Action

China’s road to sustainability has attracted global attention. Since the “Reform & Opening Up” policy, China’s rapid pace of both urbanization and industrialization has made its being the second largest economy but meantime a heavy environmental price has been paid over the past few decades for addressing the economic developmental target. Today, as the biggest developing country, China needs to take more responsibilities for constructing its local ecological-civilization society as well as for addressing the global challenges such as climate change, resources scary and human beings well-fare; therefore, we need to have deeper understandings into China’s way to sustainability at very different levels, both spatially and structurally, concerns ranging from generating sustainable household livelihoods to global climate change, from developing technological applications to generate institutional changes. In this spirit, this publication, “Sustainability in China: Bridging Global Knowledge with Local Action” aims to investigate the intended and spontaneous issues concerning China’s road to sustainability in a combined top-down and bottom-up manner, linking international knowledge to local-based studies

Initialization of a Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms Knowledge Acquisition System for Renewable Energy Power Plants

pp. 185-204The design of Renewable Energy Power Plants (REPPs) is crucial not only for the investments' performance and attractiveness measures, but also for the maximization of resource (source) usage (e.g. sun, water, and wind) and the minimization of raw materials (e.g. aluminum: Al, cadmium: Cd, iron: Fe, silicon: Si, and tellurium: Te) consumption. Hence, several appropriate and satisfactory Multi-objective Problems (MOPs) are mandatory during the REPPs' design phases. MOPs related tasks can only be managed by very well organized knowledge acquisition on all REPPs' design equations and models. The proposed MOPs need to be solved with one or more multiobjective algorithm, such as Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs). In this respect, the first aim of this research study is to start gathering knowledge on the REPPs' MOPs. The second aim of this study is to gather detailed information about all MOEAs and available free software tools for their development. The main contribution of this research is the initialization of a proposed multi-objective evolutionary algorithm knowledge acquisition system for renewable energy power plants (MOEAs-KAS-FREPPs) (research and development loopwise process: develop, train, validate, improve, test, improve, operate, and improve). As a simple representative example of this knowledge acquisition system research with two selective and elective proposed standard objectives (as test objectives) and eight selective and elective proposed standard constraints (as test constraints) are generated and applied as a standardized MOP for a virtual small hydropower plant design and investment. The maximization of energy generation (MWh) and the minimization of initial investment cost (million €) are achieved by the Multi-objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA), the Niched Sharing Genetic Algorithm/Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-I), and the NSGA-II algorithms in the Scilab 6.0.0 as only three standardized MOEAs amongst all proposed standardized MOEAs on two desktop computer configurations (Windows 10 Home 1709 64 bits, Intel i5-7200 CPU @ 2.7 GHz, 8.00 GB RAM with internet connection and Windows 10 Pro, Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 650 @ 3.20 GHz, 6,00 GB RAM with internet connection). The algorithm run-times (computation time) of the current applications vary between 20.64 and 59.98 seconds.S

Optimising thermal energy recovery, utilisation and management in the process industries

The persistent increase in the price of energy, the clamour to preserve our environment from the harmful effects of the anthropogenic release of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels and the need to conserve these rapidly depleting fuels has resulted in the need for the deployment of industry best practices in energy conservation through energy efficiency improvement processes like the waste heat recovery technique. In 2006, it was estimated that approximately 20.66% of energy in the UK is consumed by industry as end-user, with the process industries (chemical industries, metal and steel industries, food and drink industries) consuming about 407 TWh, 2010 value stands at 320.28 TWh (approximately 18.35%). Due to the high number of food and drink industries in the UK, these are estimated to consume about 36% of this energy with a waste heat recovery potential of 2.8 TWh. This work presents the importance of waste heat recovery in the process industries in general, and in the UK food industry in particular, with emphasis on the fryer section of the crisps manufacturing process, which has been identified as one of the energy-intensive food industries with high waste heat recovery potential. The work proposes the use of a dual heat source ORC system for the recovery and conversion of the waste heat from the fryer section of a crisps manufacturing plant to electricity. The result, obtained through modelling and simulation, shows that the proposed technology can produce about 92% of the daily peak electricity need of the plant which is currently 216 kW. Also, the economic analysis shows that the proposed technology is viable (even at an inflation rate of 5.03% and discounted rate of 6%), with a payback period of approximately three years and net present value of over £2.2 million if the prices of electricity and carbon is at an average value of £0.16 and £13.77 respectively throughout the 30 years service life of the plant. The life cycle assessment study shows that the proposed technology can reduce the CO2 emission by 139,580 kg/year if the electricity produced is used to displace that which would have been produced from a conventional coal-fired power plant