Shigeru Hosono

A delegation framework for federated identity management

Identity federation is a powerful scheme that links accounts of users maintained distinctly by different business partners. The concept of network identity is a driver for accelerating automation of Web Services on the Internet for users on their behalf while protecting privacy of their personally identifiable information. Although users of Web Services essentially delegate some or all privileges to an entity to perform actions, current identity based systems do not take into sufficient consideration delegation between entities hosting Web Services from a viewpoint of identity and privacy. This paper introduces a delegation model for federated identity management systems and proposes a delegation framework to provide solutions for access control in the context of delegation. The framework has a function of transferring users privileges across the entities encoded in delegation assertion extending SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language). The framework enables users to manage their own privileges, and service providers to control access of entities based on delegated privileges by the users with assistance of a delegation authority that authorizes delegation of a delegating entity and an authentication authority that authenticates a user and manages users name identifiers.

Rare earth perchlorate catalyzed glycosidation of glycosyl fluorides with trimethylsilyl ethers

Abstract A glycosidation of glycosyl fluorides with trimethylsilyl ethers has been found to be promoted more effectively by catalytic La(ClO4)3 than by stoichiometric amounts of rare earth salts. A mechanism for the present glycosidation is proposed.

A Lifetime Supporting Framework for Cloud Applications

This paper proposes a framework, which integrates the development and operation environments for cloud applications. Adopting perspectives on lifecycle management, the framework is equipped with tools and platforms, which seamlessly integrate lifetime phases: requirement analysis, architecture design, application implementation, operation and improvement. These are predicated on theories in design engineering, enabling identification of constraints arising in the development process and of dependencies among functional modules. A case study shows the feasibilities of the design principles, and indicates possibilities for the framework to be an Application Platform as a Service (APaaS), which can form an eco-system of datacenter operators, systems integrators and application providers.

A Framework of Co-creating Business Values for IT Services

The IT industry traditionally offers system services to user companies. The services which integrate software and hardware products are geared toward product-based business models. However, with the emergence of cloud computing, users’ in-house systems and applications are virtualized on the net, and are replaced with ones provided through outsourcing services. The alternative systems will be combinations of service functions of their companies’ and of outsourcers’. This will relieve user companies from their legacy systems, allowing them to concentrate on their competence and to develop new business models effectively. In order to meet this trend, IT vendors should focus not only on the values of platform development but also on those of creating business opportunities. They need to share users’ business goals and collaborate with them to enhance their business values. This paper proposes a framework and supporting tools to co-create business values between IT vendors and clients through the business lifecycle, showing the results from partly applying them to the early stages of development of e-learning services.

Genetic Algorithm-based Test Generation for Software Product Line with the Integration of Fault Localization Techniques

In response to the highly competitive market and the pressure to cost-effectively release good-quality software, companies have adopted the concept of software product line to reduce development cost. However, testing and debugging of each product, even from the same family, is still done independently. This can be very expensive. To solve this problem, we need to explore how test cases generated for one product can be used for another product. We propose a genetic algorithm-based framework which integrates software fault localization techniques and focuses on reusing test specifications and input values whenever feasible. Case studies using four software product lines and eight fault localization techniques were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework. Discussions on factors that may affect the effectiveness of the proposed framework is also presented. Our results indicate that test cases generated in such a way can be easily reused (with appropriate conversion) between different products of the same family and help reduce the overall testing and debugging cost.

Towards Establishing Production Patterns to Manage Service Co-creation

This paper proposes production patterns for web services to provide a standard procedure to assess and optimize the production processes. The patterns consist of design models in each of design, implementation, test and operation phase, and models of practitioners’ tasks and activities through a service lifecycle. These two models are linked together and stored into a repository, and they form patterns of service production. The patterns can give a frame of co-creating services, and it will be used as a template for service production as well as a yardstick to keep track of production progress. A conceptual verification shows that the progress of practitioners’ activities can be assessed and the total lifecycle cost of the service can also be estimated, enabling administrators to perform better production management and decision making.

Towards Establishing Mass Customization Methods for Cloud-Compliant Services

This paper proposes a chain of service models assembled by design, implementation and operation data. To obtain both economy of scale and economy of scope, appropriate chains are required for producing cloud-compliant services. By specifying a target domain and distributing models’ attributes into commonality or variability, a chain, which consists of necessary and sufficient models with utmost customizable interfaces, can be determined decisively. A field trial elicits representative chains of models, and shows that the chains, i.e. lifecycle patterns, can be used as templates to develop new services on mass customization basis and tailored to meet clients’ varied demands.

Toward Establishing Design Methods for Cloud-Based Business Platforms

‘Cloud computing’ enables system integrators to develop business platforms from existing system by combining software and hardware functions provided by virtualized servers and resources. This functional substitution is the essence of cloud computing and it is the embodiment of the concept of Product-Service Systems in the IT industry. Bearing this in mind, this paper proposes design methods for cloud-based business platforms. By applying Axiomatic Design, Design Structure Matrix and Design-for-X, these design methods can be streamlined, thereby identifying better alignment/separation of functionalities and allocating them to physical servers and resources. Accordingly, the methods will facilitate the shift to service-based business in the IT industry.

Consistency Reflection for Automatic Update of Testing Environment

In this paper, we present an approach for maintaining consistency among design models, system under test, and test components. Our approach provides an automatic updating technique to deal with changes that happen frequently in agile software development. Consistency reflection by automatic updating allows us to cut off manual tasks required in maintaining automated tests and speed up testing process which is a bottleneck in service development lifecycle. We introduce the use of metadata, the data structure that describes structural behavior of the system, in our automatic updating technique. Metadata is used as a common medium for communicating changes to keep consistency among design, system under test, and test components. We present an example of testing process to show how we apply this approach in practice.

Architecture Design and Assessment with Design Matrix

Practices of developing applications based on SOA principles need to be renovated to meet new requirements for large-scale data processing and to adapt advancements in IT infrastructures in cloud computing. Resource planners will have a significant role as they bridge the development and operation phases in application development. To accomplish these tasks, this paper presents architecture design methods, which reinforce designing and assessing architecture with an applied Design Structure Matrix (DSM). This approach can embrace development of both business logics of applications and IT resources to run them in the cloud and the methods are established through consulting practices on a datacenter.