César Garita

Towards an architecture for virtual enterprises

An approach to the design of an architecture for industrial virtual enterprises (VE), with special emphasis on the identification of main functional requirements, is presented. First, a discussion of the various types of virtual enterprises is provided. Some classification scenarios and discussions of the modelling and reengineering tools and methodologies are described. Due to the importance of the information flows and management in the VE, one section is merely devoted to the analysis of the appropriateness of a federated information management approach. This work is based on and represents the ongoing activities in two European Union funded projects; the Esprit PRODNET II and the INCO-DC SCM+ projects.

VLAM-G: A Grid-based virtual laboratory

The Grid-based Virtual Laboratory AMsterdam (VLAM-G), provides a science portal for distributed analysis in applied scientific research. It offers scientists remote experiment control, data management facilities and access to distributed resources by providing cross-institutional integration of information and resources in a familiar environment. The main goal is to provide a unique integration of existing standards and software packages. This paper describes the design and prototype implementation of the VLAM-G platform. In this testbed we applied several recent technologies such as the Globus toolkit, enhanced federated database systems, and visualization and simulation techniques. Several domain specific case studies are described in some detail. Information management will be discussed separately in a forthcoming paper.

Virtual Enterprises and Federated Information Sharing

In general, a Virtual Enterprise (VE) is an interoperable network of pre-existing enterprises with a common goal, where the enterprises can function together as a single organization. With the objective of developing a reference architecture and a support infrastructure for VEs, the Esprit project PRODNET II (Production Planning and Management in an Extended Enterprise) is conceived. In the PRODNET architecture, the Distributed Information Management System (DIMS) component supports the VE information management requirements and provides a framework to exchange and cooperatively manage data between VE-member enterprises, while preserving the autonomy of individual enterprises. The DIMS design is based on an object-oriented federated/distributed information management architecture, specifically tailored for the VE paradigm. The focus of this paper is on describing the design of the federated architecture of the DIMS component.

The PRODNET cooperative information management for industrial virtual enterprises

When designing an IT platform aimed at supporting industrial virtual enterprises (VEs), certain issues related to information management requirements become especially challenging, such as the physical distribution of data, the enterprise autonomy and privacy enforcement, access rights to shared information, and data visibility levels, among others. In the ESPRIT project PRODNET II, a federated database architecture was designed and implemented as the base support framework to effectively manage these issues associated with the sharing and exchange of information in the VE environment. In this paper, first the general information management requirements identified for the VE network in the PRODNET II project are described, and then the challenging design issues behind the development of the components of the federated information management system are presented.

A reference architecture for scientific virtual laboratories

Abstract Recent advances in the IT can be applied to properly support certain complex requirements in the scientific and engineering domains. In experimental sciences, for instance, researchers should be assisted with conducting their complex scientific experimentation and supporting their collaboration with other scientists. The main requirements identified in such domains include the management of large data sets, distributed collaboration support, and high-performance issues, among others. The virtual laboratory project initiated at the University of Amsterdam aims at the development of a hardware and software reference architecture, and an open, flexible, and configurable laboratory framework to enable scientists and engineers with working on their experimentation problems, while making optimum use of modern information technology approaches. This paper describes the current stage of design of a reference architecture for this scientific virtual laboratory, and focuses further on the cooperative information management component of this architecture, and exemplifying its application to experimentation domain of biology.

Supporting information access rights and visibility levels in virtual enterprises

In the Virtual Enterprise (VE) paradigm, enterprises must share and exchange a part of their internal local information in order to interact and cooperate with each other towards the achievement of the global VE goals. However, the information access level for every VE partner depends on several “determining features” such as the cooperation relationships, degree of trust, the function of the enterprise in the VE, and contractual/legal agreements, among other issues. Considering these aspects, every enterprise needs to precisely define the appropriate access rights and visibility levels on its information individually for every other VE partner. This paper focuses on the VE access rights definition mechanism designed and implemented within the Distributed Information Management System in the context of the ESPRIT project PRODNET II.

Federated Information Management Requirements for Virtual Enterprises

In VE collaborations, many issues related to information management requirements become crucial, such as the privacy enforcement, information access rights, enterprise visibility levels, data redundancy control, and location transparency aspects. Analysis of the information management requirements in the VE environment lead to a federated information management approach, as the comprehensive support environment for effective information sharing among VE enterprises. In this chapter, the main information management requirements for the VE network are identified and the federated support environmental mechanisms are addressed.

Design of the Federated Information Management Architecture for Prodnet

In ESPRIT project PRODNET II, a federated architecture approach is adopted to support the information management requirements of the VE environment. This approach provides an innovative mechanism for information access rights and visibility level among enterprises, which are exploited through the federated query processing. In this chapter, the design issues of the federated information management components are represented.

A Case Study of vo Education in Costa Rica

This paper describes the detailed structure of a Virtual Organization (VO) course, currently being taught as part of undergraduate and Master programs in Computer Science at the Costa Rican Institute of Technology. The course focuses on IT issues and concrete applications of the VO paradigm, and follows a combined theoretical/practical approach with research activities as the base of the learning process.

Toward a Multi-layer Architecture for Scientific Virtual Laboratories

In order to assist researchers with conducting their complex scientific experimentation and to support their collaboration with other scientists, modern advances in the IT area can be properly applied to the domain of experimental sciences. The main requirements identified in this domain include management of large data sets, distributed collaboration support, and high-performance issues, among others. The Virtual Laboratory project initiated at the University of Amsterdam aims at the development of a hardware and software reference architecture, and an open, flexible and configurable laboratory framework to enable scientists and engineers to work on their experimentation problems, while making optimum use of modern information technology approaches. This paper first describes the current design of a multi-layer architecture for this Scientific Virtual Laboratory, and then focuses further on the cooperative information management layer of this architecture, and exemplifying its application to experimentation domain of biology.