Applications integration in a hybrid cloud computing environment: modelling and platform

With the development of application services providers and cloud computing, more and more small- and medium-sized business enterprises use software services and even infrastructure services provided by professional information service companies to replace all or part of their information systems (ISs). These information service companies provide applications, such as data storage, computing processes, document sharing and even management information system services as public resources to support the business process management of their customers. However, no cloud computing service vendor can satisfy the full functional IS requirements of an enterprise. As a result, enterprises often have to simultaneously use systems distributed in different clouds and their intra enterprise ISs. Thus, this article presents a framework to integrate applications deployed in public clouds and intra ISs. A run-time platform is developed and a cross-computing environment process modelling technique is also developed to improve the feasibility of ISs under hybrid cloud computing environments.     

A framework for service enterprise workflow simulation with multi-agents cooperation

Process dynamic modelling for service business is the key technique for Service-Oriented information systems and service business management, and the workflow model of business processes is the core part of service systems. Service business workflow simulation is the prevalent approach to be used for analysis of service business process dynamically. Generic method for service business workflow simulation is based on the discrete event queuing theory, which is lack of flexibility and scalability. In this paper, we propose a service workflow-oriented framework for the process simulation of service businesses using multi-agent cooperation to address the above issues. Social rationality of agent is introduced into the proposed framework. Adopting rationality as one social factor for decision-making strategies, a flexible scheduling for activity instances has been implemented. A system prototype has been developed to validate the proposed simulation framework through a business case study.     

Pricing the cloud: a QoS-based auction approach

ABSTRACT

Cloud computing is an evolutionary technology that offers on-demand resources and elastic services through the Internet. Most providers adopt fixed-price mechanisms (e.g. pay-as-you-go). However, a few providers have recently employed auction-like approaches to price cloud services. Meanwhile, cloud consumers pay more attention to Quality of Service (QoS) such as availability, which measures how well a service is performed. This paper proposes a novel auction approach that can efficiently allocate resources according to customers’ QoS preferences. The QoS-based pricing can generate more revenue than a fixed-price strategy. This research lies at the intersection of cloud computing, economics, and information systems.     

Russia's Evolving Corporate Governance in the Cultural Context

Abstract

The paper explores evolution and current state of the Russian corporate governance in cultural context. Russia has a relatively short history of corporate governance, and securities market and stock capital play a less significant role, compared to the West. The evolution of culture and corporate governance is analyzed in a comparative setting. Under the Soviet framework, business and corporate developments were non-existent or severely restricted. The post-Soviet capitalism is characterized by dynamic and turbulent developments in corporate governance and business culture. The paper examines the Russian findings from the recent international studies of culture and explores cultural impact on corporate governance in the country.     

Extending the enterprise evolution contextualisation model

Enterprise engineering (EE) emerged as a new discipline to encourage comprehensive and consistent enterprise design. Since EE is multidisciplinary, various researchers study enterprises from different perspectives, which resulted in a plethora of applicable literature and terminology, but without shared meaning. Previous research specifically focused on the fragmentation of knowledge for designing and aligning the information and communication technology (ICT) subsystem of the enterprise in order to support the business organisation subsystem of the enterprise. As a solution for this fragmented landscape, a business-IT alignment model (BIAM) was developed inductively from existing business-IT alignment approaches. Since most of the existing alignment frameworks addressed the alignment between the ICT subsystem and the business organisation subsystem, BIAM also focused on the alignment between these two subsystems. Yet, the emerging EE discipline intends to address a broader scope of design, evident in the existing approaches that incorporate a broader scope of design/alignment/governance. A need was identified to address the knowledge fragmentation of the EE knowledge base by adapting BIAM to an enterprise evolution contextualisation model (EECM), to contextualise a broader set of approaches, as identified by Lapalme. The main contribution of this article is the incremental development and evaluation of EECM. We also present guiding indicators/prerequisites for applying EECM as a contextualisation tool.     

Performance indicator evaluation for a cloud computing system from QoS viewpoint

With the development of information technology, the cloud computing system (CCS) has become a new paradigm for the business and clients. The system supervisor has to guarantee the CCS keeps a good quality of service (QoS) to satisfy the clients’ requirements. The maintenance action is thus necessary when the CCS falls to a specific state such that it cannot afford enough capacity to meet demand d. In order to measure the service level of a CCS, this paper constructs a network model and proposes a key performance indicator (KPI), where the KPI is utilized to evaluate the probability that the demand can be satisfied under both transmission time and maintenance budget constraints. A method to derive the interval estimation for the KPI is developed. The system supervisor can conduct the sensitive analysis to improve/investigate the most important part in a large CCS afterwards.     

基于SOA的知识管理模型研究

描述了一种基于面向服务的知识管理应用模型,利用SOA(面向服务架构)将各种信息资源无缝整合到统一的商务智能环境,简化了数据传输,使得分析、决策更加快捷。同时,基于该架构也能够将企业运营过程中产生的新知识进行管理,形成企业的知识库,并将知识进行共享,提高了企业整体的知识结构。     

A context-based service matching approach towards functional reliability for industrial systems

ABSTRACT

As service-oriented computing is commonly used in industrial systems to deal with the continually changing business environment, matching processes with existing services becomes one of the most important phases in constructing, integrating and optimizing information systems. The precision of semantic service matching becomes a critical factor in ensuring the correctness of functionalities in system processes. However, the dependability of semantic service matching cannot be warranted in complex contexts. To improve semantic service matching for industrial systems, a context-based semantic service matching approach named ‘Process-Based service MatchMaker’(PBMM) is proposed in this paper. It selects the suitable services for the process from candidate services through taking the dependencies of related services process into consideration.     

Reference subsystems for Smart Manufacturing Collaborative System (SMCS) from multi-processes,multi-intersections and multi-operators

ABSTRACT

In this paper, multi-process collaboration subsystem, multi-intersection collaboration subsystem, and multi-operator collaboration subsystem are deduced through the overall architecture of Smart Manufacturing Collaborative System (SMCS). Furthermore, the detailed implementation steps of SMCS are given, and verified by a case study in an automotive enterprise, which can realize the sharing of information, data and resources between adjacent business links and improve the utilization rate of enterprise's overall information and data resources. It also can improve design efficiency, save manufacturing costs and improve supply response speed. Then, it can save communication costs, and improve the utilization rate of information service resources.     

云计算环境下的商业服务模式研究

以云计算平台为核心的商业服务模式将会对现有的商业社会及互联网应用模式产生深远的影响.文章对基于云计算的商业服务模式进行了研究.在分析了几个有代表性的云计算提供商的云计算平台服务模式的基础上,提出了基于云计算平台的商业服务模型,分析了云计算商业服务模式的优势.给出了企业在起步、壮大、成熟等不同发展阶段应选择的云计算服务模式.     

云计算对信息技术外包的影响分析

随着IT技术和管理思想的不断成熟和发展,传统的信息技术外包已经在IT服务市场占据有利的位置。发展到今天,IT服务市场正在经历着前所未有的变化。由于云计算时代的到来,使得企业可以通过云服务的模式和平台,让多个用户同时广泛地运用一个或者多个平台,从而得到相关的IT服务支持。文章从云计算和信息技术外包的相关分析入手,重点分析云计算对信息技术外包的影响。     

DPWeVote: differentially private weighted voting protocol for cloud-based decision-making

ABSTRACT

With the advent of Industry 4.0, cloud computing techniques have been increasingly adopted by industry practitioners to achieve better workflows. One important application is cloud-based decision-making, in which multiple enterprise partners need to arrive an agreed decision. Such cooperative decision-making problem is sometimes formed as a weighted voting game, in which enterprise partners express ‘YES/NO’ opinions. Nevertheless, existing cryptographic approaches to Cloud-Based Weighted Voting Game have restricted collusion tolerance and heavily rely on trusted servers, which are not always available. In this work, we consider the more realistic scenarios of having semi-honest cloud server/partners and assuming maximal collusion tolerance. To resolve the privacy issues in such scenarios, the DPWeVote protocol is proposed which incorporates Randomized Response technique and consists the following three phases: the Randomized Weights Collection phase, the Randomized Opinions Collection phase, and the Voting Results Release phase. Experiments on synthetic data have demonstrated that the proposed DPWeVote protocol managed to retain an acceptable utility for decision-making while preserving privacy in semi-honest environment.     

Integration of hybrid wireless networks in cloud services oriented enterprise information systems

This article presents a hybrid wireless network integration scheme in cloud services-based enterprise information systems (EISs). With the emerging hybrid wireless networks and cloud computing technologies, it is necessary to develop a scheme that can seamlessly integrate these new technologies into existing EISs. By combining the hybrid wireless networks and computing in EIS, a new framework is proposed, which includes frontend layer, middle layer and backend layers connected to IP EISs. Based on a collaborative architecture, cloud services management framework and process diagram are presented. As a key feature, the proposed approach integrates access control functionalities within the hybrid framework that provide users with filtered views on available cloud services based on cloud service access requirements and user security credentials. In future work, we will implement the proposed framework over SwanMesh platform by integrating the UPnP standard into an enterprise information system.     

Reforming public services: does service logic have anything to offer?

ABSTRACT

This article discusses what service management and the logic of service (SL) can offer to public service management. There are no real inbuilt differences between public and private service organizations and no reasons why public service organizations (PSOs) would be less efficient and less service-focussed and oriented towards service users than private service organizations. Good service management rather than privatization is required to make a PSO more efficient and effectively outward-oriented. Service-focussed value creation management and how service logic can be applied by PSOs to enable them to transform to outward-focussed service organizations are discussed. A change framework is presented.     

A framework for the identification of reusable processes

A significant challenge that faces IT management is that of aligning the IT infrastructure of an enterprise with its business goals and practices, also called business-IT alignment. A particular business-IT alignment approach, the foundation for execution approach, was well-accepted by practitioners due to a novel construct, called the operating model (OM). The OM supports business-IT alignment by directing the coherent and consistent design of business and IT components. Even though the OM is a popular construct, our previous research detected the need to enhance the OM, since the OM does not specify methods to identify opportunities for data sharing and process reuse in an enterprise. In this article, we address one of the identified deficiencies in the OM. We present a process reuse identification framework (PRIF) that could be used to enhance the OM in identifying process reuse opportunities in an enterprise. We applied design research to develop PRIF as an artefact, where the development process of PRIF was facilitated by means of the business-IT alignment model (BIAM). We demonstrate the use of the PRIF as well as report on the results of evaluating PRIF in terms of its usefulness and ease-of-use, using experimentation and a questionnaire.     

企业短信平台关键技术研究

短信平台是企业信息化建设不可或缺的组成部分,然而由于缺乏对短信队列实际有效的管理而使得服务质量受到限制。文章在分析企业短信平台典型结构的基础上,提出设立与管理短信机的前置短信池思想,根据不同系统或不同级别的短信发送需求,设立不同的优先级别,运用一种短信权重轮询调度策略,扩展了企业短信平台搭建方式,保证了重要短信的实时性,并且平滑了突发群短信的输出,该方案已经成功应用于实际系统。     

Improving the process of process modelling by the use of domain process patterns

The use of business process models has become prevalent in a wide area of enterprise applications. But while their popularity is expanding, concerns are growing with respect to their proper creation and maintenance. An obvious way to boost the efficiency of creating high-quality business process models would be to reuse relevant parts of existing models. At this point, however, limited support exists to guide process modellers towards the usage of appropriate model content. In this paper, a set of content-oriented patterns is presented, which is extracted from a large set of process models from the order management and manufacturing production domains. The patterns are derived using a newly proposed set of algorithms, which are being discussed in this paper. The authors demonstrate how such Domain Process Patterns, in combination with information on their historic usage, can support process modellers in generating new models. To support the wider dissemination and development of Domain Process Patterns within and beyond the studied domains, an accompanying website has been set up.     

Cloud manufacturing: from concept to practice

The concept of cloud manufacturing is emerging as a new promising manufacturing paradigm, as well as a business model, which is reshaping the service-oriented, highly collaborative, knowledge-intensive and eco-efficient manufacturing industry. However, the basic concepts about cloud manufacturing are still in discussion. Both academia and industry will need to have a commonly accepted definition of cloud manufacturing, as well as further guidance and recommendations on how to develop and implement cloud manufacturing. In this paper, we review some of the research work and clarify some fundamental terminologies in this field. Further, we developed a cloud manufacturing systems which may serve as an application example. From a systematic and practical perspective, the key requirements of cloud manufacturing platforms are investigated, and then we propose a cloud manufacturing platform prototype, MfgCloud. Finally, a public cloud manufacturing system for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) is presented. This paper presents a new perspective for cloud manufacturing, as well as a cloud-to-ground solution. The integrated solution proposed in this paper, including the terminology, MfgCloud, and applications, can push forward this new paradigm from concept to practice.     

企业智能化网络管理系统

企业智能化网络管理系统是信息技术运用于现代化的最新研究成果。文章指出,企业智能化网络管理系统是在企业统一规划和组织下,在生产、营销、决策、管理及后勤服务各个方面应用现代信息技术,深入开发、广泛共享各种信息资源,在现实企业基础之上,建立全面实现数字化的虚拟企业。