Laura Z. Luan

A Generic SLA Semantic Model for the Execution Management of E-business Outsourcing Contracts

It is imperative for a competitive e-business outsourcing service provider to manage the execution of its service level agreement (SLA) contracts in business terms (e.g., minimizing financial penalties for service-level violations, maximizing service-level measurement based customer satisfaction metrics, etc.). In order to do that, the provider must possess a generic means of capturing and managing the SLA contract data (e.g., quality measurement data sources, service-level evaluation rules, etc.) as well as the relationships between them and internal service-level management (SLM) data (e.g., resource management data, system configuration data, etc.). This paper presents the design rationale of a generic SLA semantic model (including a set of semantic elements and relationships) based on an in-depth analysis of nine real e-business outsourcing SLA contracts/templates comprising over 100 service-level guarantees and intents. Our development experience with a state-of-the-art SLA contract execution manager (named SAM) suggests the semantic model is practical and useful.

Low traffic overlay networks with large routing tables

The routing tables of Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs) can vary from size O(1) to O(n). Currently, what is lacking is an analytic framework to suggest the optimal routing table size for a given workload. This paper (1) compares DHTs with O(1) to O(n) routing tables and identifies some good design points; and (2) proposes protocols to realize the potential of those good design points.We use total traffic as the uniform metric to compare heterogeneous DHTs and emphasize the balance between maintenance cost and lookup cost. Assuming a node on average processes 1,000 or more lookups during its entire lifetime, our analysis shows that large routing tables actually lead to both low traffic and low lookup hops. These good design points translate into one-hop routing for systems of medium size and two-hop routing for large systems.Existing one-hop or two-hop protocols are based on a hierarchy. We instead demonstrate that it is possible to achieve completely decentralized one-hop or two-hop routing, i.e., without giving up being peer-to-peer. We propose 1h-Calot for one-hop routing and 2h-Calot for two-hop routing. Assuming a moderate lookup rate, compared with DHTs that use O(log n) routing tables, 1h-Calot and 2h-Calot save traffic by up to 70% while resolving lookups in one or two hops as opposed to O(log n) hops.

Global namespace for files

We propose a name service that enables construction of a uniform, global, hierarchical namespace, a key feature needed to create a file-system grid. Combined with other grid replication and location-lookup mechanisms, it supports independence of position for users and applications as well as transparency of data location in a scalable and secure fashion. This name service enables federation of individual files as well as file-system trees that are exported by a variety of distributed file systems and is extensible to include nonfile-system data such as databases or live data feeds. Such a federated namespace for files can be rendered by network file servers, such as NFS (Network File System) or CIFS (Common Internet File System) servers, proxies supporting the NAS (network-attached storage) protocol, or grid data service interfaces. File access proxies, which handle protocol translation, can also include caching and replication support to enhance data access performance. A uniform namespace with global scope and hierarchical ownership allows sharing file data between and within organizations without compromising security or autonomy.

Multi-dimensional Knowledge Integration for Efficient Incident Management in a Services Cloud

The increasing complexity and dynamics in IT infrastructure and the emerging Cloud services present challenges to timely incident/problem diagnosis and resolution. In this paper we present a problem determination platform with multi-dimensional knowledge integration (e.g. configuration data, system vital data, log data, related tickets) and enablement for efficient incident and problem management of the enterprise. Three features of the platform are discussed: automated ticket classification, the automated association of resource with tickets based on integration with configuration database, and the collection of the system vitals relevant to the ticket through integration with monitoring systems. In response to the emerging Cloud services and their highly dynamic service operation context, we identify the need for a proactive service management approach which incorporates configurations and deployment of incident management tools, policies, and templates throughout the service life cycle in order to enable effective and efficient incident management in service operation.

Towards an optimized model of incident ticket correlation

In recent years, IT Service Management (ITSM) has become one of the most researched areas of IT. Incident and Problem Management are two of the Service Operation processes in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). These two processes aim to recognize, log, isolate and correct errors which occur in the environment and disrupt the delivery of services. Incident Management and Problem Management form the basis of the tooling provided by an Incident Ticket Systems (ITS).

Fresco: a Web services based framework for configuring extensible SLA management systems

A service level agreement (SLA) is a service contract that includes the evaluation criteria for agreed service quality standards. Since agreeable specifications on the evaluation criteria cannot be limited in practice, competitive SLA management products must be extensible in terms of their support for contract-specific SLA compliance evaluations. While the need of running and managing those software products as services increases, we have found that developing a good solution for configuring them as per contractual terms is a challenging task. This paper presents the Fresco framework, which facilitates configuring extensible SLA management systems using Web services. An XML-based specification of SLA management related data called SCOL will also be presented to show how the framework supports contract-specific SLA terms and contract-specific extensions of the deployed SLA management software. The paper furthermore shows how the Fresco system uses a template-based approach to communicate with other Web services applications with support for various input and output formats. Our experience with implementing the Fresco framework for a leading commercial SLA management software product demonstrates that the framework facilitates the creation of effective and efficient solutions for configuring extensible SLA management systems.

PEM: a framework enabling continual optimization of workflow process executions based upon business value metrics

The competitiveness of the market place and the advent of on demand services computing are encouraging many organizations to improve their business efficiency and agility via business process management technologies. A lot of work has been done in process codification, tracking, and automation. However, a significant gap still remains between the way an organizations codified processes execute and the organizations business objectives such as maximizing profit with high-degree of customer satisfaction. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a process execution management (PEM) framework which enables continual optimization of workflow process executions based upon business value metrics such as SLA breach penalty, revenue, and customer satisfaction index. We have implemented the PEM framework based upon leading commercial products. We have also used the framework to develop two representative business performance management solutions for service quality management processes and application execution workflows. Our experimental results show that, when compared with a state-of-the-art commercial workflow product, our PEM system can reduce the loss of business value of a set of process execution requests by 67% on average.

Privileged identity management in enterprise service-hosting environments

IAM needs will only grow as devices, servers, and end points continue to increase . Current schemes are not sustainable as the number of IDs will explode. Environment is heterogeneous, and constantly adding new systems including Cloud. Our solution offers a platform where a user gets an individual user ID on a system - but only if they need it, when they need it, for only as long as they need it . Reusable ID scheme reduces the number of IDs in the system yielding cost savings on lifecycle management activities, improved security compliance . A compliance readiness platform can be enabled to prevent, flag, or monitor questionable access in or near real-time . Provide easily accessible logs to prove compliance policies.