Towards a unified management of applications on heterogeneous clouds

J. Carrasco, F. Durán y E. Pimentel. "Towards a Unified Management of Applications on Heterogeneous Clouds". Proceedings of the PhD Symposium at the 5th European Conference on Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing. G. Zavattaro and W. Zimmermann (eds). University Halle-Wittenberg. Technical Report 2016/02, 40-47. 2016.The diversity in the way cloud providers o↵er their services, give their SLAs, present their QoS, or support di↵erent technologies, makes very difficult the portability and interoperability of cloud applications, and favours the well-known vendor lock-in problem. We propose a model to describe cloud applications and the required resources in an agnostic, and providers- and resources-independent way, in which individual application modules, and entire applications, may be re-deployed using different services without modification. To support this model, and after the proposal of a variety of cross-cloud application management tools by different authors, we propose going one step further in the unification of cloud services with a management approach in which IaaS and PaaS services are integrated into a unified interface. We provide support for deploying applications whose components are distributed on different cloud providers, indistinctly using IaaS and PaaS services.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Component-wise application migration in bidimensional cross-cloud environments

We propose an algorithm for the migration of cloud applications' components between different providers, possibly changing their service level between IaaS and PaaS. Our solution relies on three of the key ingredients of the trans-cloud approach: a unified API, agnostic topology descriptions, and mechanisms for the independent specification of providers. We show how our approach allows us to overcome some of the current interoperability and portability issues of cloud environments to propose a solution for migration, present an implementation of our proposed solution, and illustrate it with a case study and experimental results.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Mutantes como apoyo para la valoración de pruebas

En este trabajo proponemos el uso de la técnica de mutation testing, o pruebas basadas en mutación, en asignaturas de pruebas de software para ayudar en la labor de evaluación de las mismas, a la vez que su propio uso ayuda a los alumnos a entender y asimilar la técnica en sí, utilizándola para mejorar sus conjuntos de pruebas. Describimos nuestra experiencia usando mutation testing en una asignatura de pruebas de software. Gracias al uso de una herramienta que automatiza la generación de mutantes y su evaluación, el profesor puede obtener una idea rápida de la calidad de las pruebas que puede servir para guiar/confirmar su evaluación. El alumno, por su parte, puede usarla para obtener una primera evaluación de su trabajo y como guía para mejorar el conjunto de pruebas.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Maude's Internal Strategies

AbstractMaude is a reflective language supporting both rewriting logic and membership equational logic. Reflection is systematically exploited in Maude, endowing the language with powerful metaprogramming capabilities, including declarative strategies to guide the deduction process

Bidimensional Cross-Cloud Application Management with TOSCA and Brooklyn (summary)

The diversity in the way different cloud providers offer their services, give their SLAs, present their QoS, support different technologies, etc., complicates the portability and interoperability of cloud applications, and favors vendor lock-in. Standards like TOSCA, and tools supporting them, have come to help in the provider-independent description of cloud applications. After the variety of proposed cross-cloud application management tools, we propose going one step further in the unification of cloud services with a deployment tool in which IaaS and PaaS services are integrated into a unified interface. We provide support for applications whose components are to be deployed on different providers, indistinctly using IaaS and PaaS services. The TOSCA standard is used to define a portable model describing the topology of the cloud applications and the required resources in an agnostic, and providers- and resources-independent way. We include in this paper some highlights on our implementation on Apache Brooklyn and present a non-trivial example that illustrates our approach. Resumen del artículo publicado en: Jose Carrasco, Javier Cubo, Francisco Durán, Ernesto Pimentel. Bidimensional Cross-Cloud Application Management with TOSCA and Brooklyn, 9th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD 2016), San Francisco, (EEUU). IEEE Computer Society, 2016.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Procesos de periurbanización y cambios en los modelos de ciudad : un estudio europeo de casos sobre sus causas y consecuencias

Los procesos de creciente periurbanización, característicos del mundo desarrollado actual, están suponiendo la progresiva expansión de modelos de ciudad desconcentrada, dispersa o difusa, lo que hace que cada vez sean más borrosas e imprecisas las fronteras físicas y sociales entre lo rural y lo urbano. En esta situación, se está experimentando un progresivo aumento de la importancia de las periferias urbanas y una mejora de la imagen de éstas, las cuales, de ser lugares de frecuente exclusión social y subdesarrollo durante la preponderancia de los modelos centralistas de ciudad, están pasando, en bastantes casos, a manifestar un significativo dinamismo socioeconómico. Este artículo, además de analizar los cambios y los nuevos modelos de ciudad derivados de los presentes procesos de periurbanización, trata de identificar algunas de las causas y consecuencias de tales procesos. Causas y consecuencias que se consideran, tanto a nivel general, como a través de la exposición de parte de los resultados de una investigación empírica llevada a cabo en diferentes áreas periurbanas de la Unión Europea. El trabajo concluye con unas reflexiones que se pretende sean útiles para encarar la generalidad de los retos que se les plantean a las actuales políticas reguladoras de las áreas de urbanización dispersa, en tanto que los procesos de periurbanización que dan lugar a las mismas, aunque originados o propulsados por causas o fuerzas diversas, suelen tener consecuencias socioeconómicas, ambientales y urbanísticas similares.The processes of growing periurbanization, which are so characteristic in the current developed world, are giving rise to a progressive spread of diffuse or disperse models of city, what, in turn, is bringing with it that the geographic and social borders between the rural and urban ambits are more and more blurred and vague. In this situation, the urban peripheries are undergoing an increasing relevance, at the same time that their image is improving. These peripheries, from being traditionally places of frequent social exclusion and underdevelopment when the centralist models of city were preponderant, are nowadays showing often a significant socio-economic dynamism. The article, apart from analysing the changes and new models of city coming with the current periurbanization processes, attempts to identify some of the causes and consequences of such processes. Causes and consequences that are considered, both, from a general viewpoint and by presenting some of the results of an empirical research carried out in different periurban areas from the European Union. While being fuelled by diverse causes, periurbanization entails similar socio-economic, urban and environmental outcomes in all the analysed areas. So, the author concludes by reflecting on some of the common challenges which the policies have now in order to face suitably such outcomes

Statistical Model Checking of e-Motions Domain-Specific Modeling Languages

Domain experts may use novel tools that allow them to de- sign and model their systems in a notation very close to the domain problem. However, the use of tools for the statistical analysis of stochas- tic systems requires software engineers to carefully specify such systems in low level and specific languages. In this work we line up both sce- narios, specific domain modeling and statistical analysis. Specifically, we have extended the e-Motions system, a framework to develop real-time domain-specific languages where the behavior is specified in a natural way by in-place transformation rules, to support the statistical analysis of systems defined using it. We discuss how restricted e-Motions sys- tems are used to produce Maude corresponding specifications, using a model transformation from e-Motions to Maude, which comply with the restrictions of the VeStA tool, and which can therefore be used to per- form statistical analysis on the stochastic systems thus generated. We illustrate our approach with a very simple messaging distributed system.Universidad de Málaga Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Research Project TIN2014-52034-R an

Viejas y nuevas formas de organización campesina en el medio agrario español

Con objeto de determinar la actitud ante lo político-burocrático y la racionalidad formal-instrumental de las que aquí se conceptúan como "viejas" formas de organización campesina, la primera parte del trabajo se centra en el carlismo y el anarquismo, movimientos sociales que pueden ser considerados como las manifestaciones más características de las tradicionales formas campesinas de organización en España. A medida que se ha ido modernizando la sociedad rural, las "viejas" formas de organización campesina han ido dejando paso a la paulatina instauración y afianzamiento de otras "nuevas", de acuerdo con el paradigma burocrático-politico, en el que, por lo general, se sustentan los sistemas organizativos de las sociedades modernas. Ello trata de ser mostrado a través de la atención que el artículo le presta a las tres organizaciones sindicales a las que, fundamentalmente, están afiliados los trabajadores del campo. Estas organizaciones son: la Federación de Trabajadores de la Tierra (FTT) de la Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), las Comisiones Obreras (CC.00.) del Campo y el Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC). A continuación, el trabajo pasa revista y evalúa las aportaciones de tres importantes perspectivas teóricas (Hobsbawm, Wolf y Moore), acerca de las actitudes y potencialidades organizativas del campesinado tradicional. Por último, se concluye con un intento de explicación, por parte del autor, de tales actitudes y potencialidades, a partir de la determinación de algunas de las motivaciones ecosistémicas de las mismas.With object of determining the attitude about the political-bureaucractic and the formal-instrumental rationality of that which here they are called as "old" forms of rural organization, the first part of the work is centered in the carlism and the anarchism, social movements that can be considerate like the most characteristic manifestations of the traditional rural forms of organization in Spain. While the rural society has gone modernizing,the "old" forms of rural organization have gone leaving pass to the gradual restoration and strenghening of another "new" in accordance with the bureaucractic-political paradigm, in what, in general, the organizational systems of the modern societies are sustained. It tries to be shown through the attention that the article dedicates to the three syndical organizations that affiliate, fundamentally, to the spanish rural workers. These organizations are: the Federation of Rural Workers (FTT) of the General Union of Workers (UGT), the Rural Workers Commissions (CC.00.) and the Syndicate of Rural Workers (SOC). Then, the work overviews and evaluates the contributions of three important theoretical prospects (Hobsbawm, Wolf and Moore), about the attitudes and organizational potentialities of the traditional peaseants. Finally, it is concluded with an intent of explanation, by the author, of such attitudes and potentialities, through the determination of some of the ecosystemic motivations of themselves

Robust Reconfiguration of Cloud Applications

International audienceCloud applications involve a set of interconnected software components running on remote virtual machines. Once cloud applications are deployed, one may need to reconfigure them by adding/removing virtual machines or components hosted on these machines. These tasks are error-prone since they must preserve the application consistency and respect important architectural invariants related to software dependencies. We present in this paper a protocol for automating these reconfiguration tasks

Robust and reliable reconfiguration of cloud applications

International audienceCloud applications involve a set of interconnected software components running on remote virtual machines. The deployment and dynamic reconfigu-ration of cloud applications, involving the addition/removal of virtual machines and components hosted on these virtual machines, are error-prone tasks. They must preserve the application consistency and respect important architectural invariants related to software dependencies. In this paper, we introduce a protocol for automating these reconfiguration tasks. In order to ensure its correctness and robustness, we implement the protocol with the support of the Maude system for rapid prototyping purposes, and we verify it with its formal analysis tools