Towards Automated and Optimized Security Orchestration in Cloud SLA

In cloud computing, providers pool their resources and make them available to customers. Next-generation computer scientists are flocking to the cutting-edge field of cloud computing for their research and exploration of uncharted territory. There are still several barriers that cloud service providers must overcome in order to provide cloud services in accordance with service level agreements. Each cloud service provider aspires to achieve maximum performance as per Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and this is especially true when it comes to the delivery of services. A cloud service level agreement (SLA) guarantees that cloud service providers will satisfy the needs of large businesses and offer their clients with a specified list of services. The authors offer a web service level agreement–inspired approach for cloud service agreements. We adopt patterns and antipatterns to symbolize the best and worst practices of OCCI (Open Cloud Computing Interface Standard), REST (Representational State Transfer), and TOSCA (Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications) with DevOps solutions, all of which API developers should bear in mind when designing APIs. When using this method, everything pertaining to the cloud service, from creation to deployment to measurement to evaluation to management to termination, may be handled mechanically. When distributing resources to cloud apps, our system takes into account the likelihood of SLA breaches and responds by providing more resources if necessary. We say that for optimal performance, our suggested solution should be used in a private cloud computing setting. As more and more people rely on cloud computing for their day-to-day workloads, there has been a corresponding rise in the need for efficient orchestration and management strategies that foster interoperability

Outsourcing Best Practices

Outsourcing of a software project can have many benefits to an organization, but how to implement a successful outsourcing initiative can be very difficult. The decision to outsource a software project can provide many benefits to an organization, yet they may also incur several challenges. These can include items such as the interaction between current employees and the outsourcing service provider, the technological environment needed to successfully create the proper work environment, and total cost considerations. If executed properly, the outsourcing of a specific project can have a substantial gain in company growth and efficiency. Improper implementation can lead to total project failure and the loss of project resources. In spite of the challenges inherent with outsourcing, this strategy is fast becoming a popular solution to implementing corporate projects without endangering the jobs of current employees. This paper will investigate and suggest best practices that may be used to maximize the anticipated outcome of this endeavor while minimizing potential challenges

A Framework for Relationships in Outsourcing: Contract Management Archetypes

Outsourcing engagements are defined by contracts, but personal relationships drive success. In this paper, we propose a set of behavior archetypes and use them within four action-research cases that altered behavior to achieve positive outcomes. The results suggest that a successful outsourcing engagement can be derived through adaptation of well-considered behavioral approaches rather than contracting techniques

Supercomputing futures : the next sharing paradigm for HPC resources : economic model, market analysis and consequences for the Grid

À la croisée des chemins du génie informatique, de la finance et de l'économétrie, cette thèse se veut fondamentalement un exercice en ingénierie économique dont l' objectif est de contribuer un système novateur, durable et adaptatif pour le partage de resources de calcul haute-performance. Empruntant à la finance fondamentale et à l'analyse technique, le modèle proposé construit des ratios et des indices de marché à partir de statistiques transactionnelles. Cette approche, encourageant les comportements stratégiques, pave la voie à une métaphore de partage plus efficace pour la Grid, où l'échange de ressources se voit maintenant pondéré. Le concept de monnaie de Grid, un instrument beaucoup plus liquide et utilisable que le troc de resources comme telles est proposé: les Grid Credits. Bien que les indices proposés ne doivent pas être considérés comme des indicateurs absolus et contraignants, ils permettent néanmoins aux négociants de se faire une idée de la valeur au marché des différentes resources avant de se positionner. Semblable sur de multiples facettes aux bourses de commodités, le Grid Exchange, tel que présenté, permet l'échange de resources via un mécanisme de double-encan. Néanmoins, comme les resources de super-calculateurs n'ont rien de standardisé, la plate-forme permet l'échange d'ensemble de commodités, appelés requirement sets, pour les clients, et component sets, pour les fournisseurs. Formellement, ce modèle économique n'est qu'une autre instance de la théorie des jeux non-coopératifs, qui atteint éventuellement ses points d'équilibre. Suivant les règles du "libre-marché", les utilisateurs sont encouragés à spéculer, achetant, ou vendant, à leur bon vouloir, l'utilisation des différentes composantes de superordinateurs. En fin de compte, ce nouveau paradigme de partage de resources pour la Grid dresse la table à une nouvelle économie et une foule de possibilités. Investissement et positionnement stratégique, courtiers, spéculateurs et même la couverture de risque technologique sont autant d'avenues qui s'ouvrent à l'horizon de la recherche dans le domaine

Towards an Understanding of Cloud Computing’s Impact on Organizational IT Strategy

Cloud computing has become a dominant IT trend during the past two years for its potential to remarkably change the technology and the business landscape. Although a lot have been discussed regarding its benefits and risks, and cloud strategy itself has been widely studied in the business world, its strategic impacts have not yet been fully addressed. In order to understand how cloud computing is going to bring changes to the overall IT strategy of the organization, we conducted interviews with CIOs/IT directors from 4 US companies which have adopted cloud computing services to understand such impacts. Grounded theory approach was used in this study and a model was generated based on qualitative analysis. Our findings reveals that, cloud computing has profound impacts on various aspects of organization's overall IT strategy: including IT architecture, IT management, data strategy, and IT/ business alignment. Given the trend that more and more organizations are going to embrace cloud computing, the model and findings of this research would have great both research implications for future investigators as well as practical implications for organizations

Stable Matching based Resource Allocation for Service Provider\u27s Revenue Maximization in 5G Networks

5G technology is foreseen to have a heterogeneous architecture with the various computational capability, and radio-enabled service providers (SPs) and service requesters (SRs), working altogether in a cellular model. However, the coexistence of heterogeneous network model spawns several research challenges such as diverse SRs with uneven service deadlines, interference management, and revenue maximization of non-uniform computational capacities enabled SPs. Thus, we propose a coexistence of heterogeneous SPs and SRs enabled cellular 5G network and formulate the SPs\u27 revenue maximization via resource allocation, considering different kinds of interference, data rate, and latency altogether as an optimization problem and further propose a distributed many-to-many stable matching-based solution. Moreover, we offer an adaptive stable matching based distributed algorithm to solve the formulated problem in a dynamic network model. Through extensive theoretical and simulation analysis, we have shown the effect of different parameters on the resource allocation objectives and achieves 94 percent of optimum network performance

Outcome-Based SaaS Pricing

Outcome-based pricing (OBP) refers to a contract where at least part of the payments are based on some indicator of the expected outcomes. OBP aims to meet the challenges of value-based pricing by providing tools for measuring value. The market's interest in performance-based pricing has been noticeable over the past few years, but there are hardly any studies on the topic available in the SaaS environment. The existing research investigates outcome-based pricing from the perspectives of the manufacturing industry, where instead of the traditional ownership of products and equipment, for example hours of use or the number of finished pieces, are purchased from the service providers. The objective of the study is to identify the benefits and challenges of OBP in a SaaS environment. The study focuses on examining B2B service providers in the Finnish market. In addition, the study aims to offer service providers a framework for the capabilities required for OBP to support the successful implementation of a complex pricing model. The study has been carried out as a single case study by interviewing employees of the organization ordering the study. To support the interview research, the characteristics of OBP have been collected with a literature review based mainly on studies of the manufacturing industry. The integrative literature review has also included the observations of commercial players studying the market. These findings are based on customer surveys conducted in the SaaS operating environment in recent years. The various sources of the literature review are found to support each other, especially in terms of risks and opportunities related to the pricing model. The close cooperation between the customer and the supplier creates the challenges and opportunities of the pricing model. Based on the analyzed materials, OBP is identified as a complex pricing model. To implement the pricing model, the service provider must evaluate both its own and potential customers' ability to participate in the collaboration. Focusing on studying only one case organization and the relatively small sample size of the interviews and the absence of customer interviews may weaken the general applicability of the results.Tulosperusteinen hinnoittelu (OBP) viittaa sopimukseen, jossa ainakin osa maksuista perustuu johonkin odotetun tuloksen indikaattoriin. OBP pyrkii vastaamaan arvopohjaisen hinnoittelun haasteisiin tarjoamalla työkaluja arvon mittaamiselle. Markkinoiden kiinnostus tulosperusteiseen hinnoitteluun on ollut havaittavissa viime vuosien aikana, mutta SaaS ympäristössä tehtyjä tutkimuksia aiheesta ei juurikaan ole saatavilla. Tarjolla oleva tutkimus tutkii tulospohjaista hinnoittelua valmistavan teollisuuden näkökulmista, joissa perinteisen tuotteiden ja laitteiden omistamisen sijaan ostetaan palveluntarjoajilta esimerkiksi käyttötunteja tai valmistuneiden kappaleiden määrää. Työn tavoitteena on tunnistaa OBP hinnoittelun hyötyjä ja haasteita SaaS toimintaympäristössä. Tutkimuksessa keskitytään tarkastelemaan B2B palveluntarjoajia suomalaisilla markkinoilla. Lisäksi työssä pyritään tarjoamaan palveluntarjoajille viitekehys OBP mallin vaatimista kyvykkyyksistä, jotta kompleksiseksi havaittu OPB malli voidaan implementoida onnistuneesti osaksi organisaatioiden hinnoittelustrategiaa. Työ on toteutettu yksittäistapaustutkimuksena haastattelemalla työn tilaajaorganisaation toimihenkilöitä. Haastattelututkimuksen tueksi OBP hinnoittelun erityispiirteitä on kerätty pääosin valmistavan teollisuuden tutkimuksiin pohjautuvalla kirjallisuuskatsauksella. Integroivaan kirjallisuuskatsaukseen on sisällytetty myös markkinoita tutkivien kaupallisten toimijoiden havaintoja. Nämä havainnot perustuvat SaaS toimintaympäristössä viime vuosina tehtyihin asiakastutkimuksiin. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen eri lähteiden havaitaan tukevan toisiaan varsinkin hinnoittelumalliin liittyvien riskien ja mahdollisuuksien osalta. Tiivis yhteistyösuhde asiakkaan ja toimittajan välillä synnyttää hinnoittelumallin haasteet ja mahdollisuudet. Analysoitujen materiaalien perusteella OBP tunnistettiin kompleksiseksi hinnoittelumalliksi, jonka implementointia varten palveluntarjoajan on arvioitava sekä omaa että potentiaalisten asiakkaiden kykyä osallistua kumppanuussuhteeseen. Työn sovellettavuuden rajoitteina voidaan pitää tutkimuksen keskittymistä yhden tapausorganisaation tutkimiseen. Lisäksi verrattain pieni haastatteluiden otoskoko ja asiakashaastatteluiden puuttuminen voi heikentää tulosten yleistettävyyttä