iSDS: a self-configurable software-defined storage system for enterprise

ABSTRACT

Storage is one of the most important aspects of IT infrastructure for various enterprises. But, enterprises are interested in more than just data storage; they are interested in such things as more reliable data protection, higher performance and reduced resource consumption. Traditional enterprise-grade storage satisfies these requirements at high cost. It is because traditional enterprise-grade storage is usually designed and constructed by customised field-programmable gate array to achieve high-end functionality. However, in this ever-changing environment, enterprises request storage with more flexible deployment and at lower cost. Moreover, the rise of new application fields, such as social media, big data, video streaming service etc., makes operational tasks for administrators more complex. In this article, a new storage system called intelligent software-defined storage (iSDS), based on software-defined storage, is described. More specifically, this approach advocates using software to replace features provided by traditional customised chips. To alleviate the management burden, it also advocates applying machine learning to automatically configure storage to meet dynamic requirements of workloads running on storage. This article focuses on the analysis feature of iSDS cluster by detailing its architecture and design.     

Buyer-Option Contracts Restored: Renegotiation, Inefficient Threats, and the Hold-Up Problem

"Buyer-option" contracts, in which the buyer selects the productvariant to be traded and chooses whether to accept delivery,are often used to solve holdup problems. We present a simplegame that focuses sharply on subgames in which the buyer proposesinefficient actions in order to improve his bargaining position.We argue for one of several alternative ways to model this situation.We then apply that modeling choice to recent models of the foundationsof incomplete contracts and show that a buyer-option contractis sufficient to induce first-best outcomes.     

Multinationals and Training: Some Evidence from Irish Manufacturing Industries

This paper sets out to analyse the effect of plant and sectoral level characteristics on the provision of training to employees using plant level data for Irish manufacturing. There is no clear evidence that foreign owned plants are more likely to provide training. By contrast, we find that they spend less than domestic plants on training, ceteris paribus. There is also no evidence that plants that receive training grants are more likely to provide training. This may be likely to reflect the targeting of training grants on plants that are otherwise unlikely to provide much training. We do, however, find that training activity in the sector, either by other foreign or domestic plants, has a positive effect on plant level training activity, at least for domestic owned plants.     

Membership has its privileges: the effect of social capital and neighbourhood characteristics on the earnings of microfinance borrowers

In this paper we examine the determinants of self-employment success for microcredit borrowers. Theories of social capital and neighbourhood effects are integrated in an attempt to account for earnings differentials among a unique sample of microfinance borrowers. We posit that social capital – social relations that facilitate individual action – is essential for microentrepreneurial success. Based on a survey and data collected by the authors, it is demonstrated that social capital is a positive determinant of self-employment earnings. The role that neighbourhoods play in fostering social capital and improving microentrepreneurial performance are also highlighted. JEL classification: J23, O17, Z13     

Strategic freedom, constraint, and symmetry in one-period markets with cash and credit payment

Summary. In order to explain in a systematic way why certain combinations of market, financial, and legal structures may be intrinsic to certain capabilities to exchange real goods, we introduce criteria for abstracting the qualitative functions of markets. The criteria involve the number of strategic freedoms the combined institutions, considered as formalized strategic games, present to traders, the constraints they impose, and the symmetry with which those constraints are applied to the traders. We pay particular attention to what is required to make these strategic market games well-defined, and to make various solutions computable by the agents within the bounds on information and control they are assumed to have. As an application of these criteria, we present a complete taxonomy of the minimal one-period exchange economies with symmetric information and inside money. A natural hierarchy of market forms is observed to emerge, in which institutionally simpler markets are often found to be more suitable to fewer and less-diversified traders, while the institutionally richer markets only become functional as the size and diversity of their users gets large.Received: 5 June 2003, Revised: 18 November 2003, JEL Classification Numbers: C7, G10, G20, L10, D40, D50. Correspondence to: Eric SmithEric Smith, Martin Shubik: We are grateful to Lloyd Shapley, Duncan Foley, and Doyne Farmer for discussions in the course of this work.     

The Effects of Health, Wealth, and Wages on Labour Supply and Retirement Behaviour

This paper estimates a life cycle model of labour supply, retirement, and savings behaviour in which future health status and wages are uncertain. Individuals face a fixed cost of work and cannot borrow against future labour, pension, or Social Security income. The method of simulated moments is used to match the life cycle profiles of labour force participation, hours worked, and assets that are estimated from the data to those that are generated by the model. The model establishes that the tax structure of the Social Security system and pensions are key determinants of the high observed job exit rates at ages 62 and 65. Removing the tax wedge embedded in the Social Security earnings test for individuals aged 65 and older would delay job exit by almost one year. By contrast, Social Security benefit levels, health, and borrowing constraints are less important determinants of job exit at older ages. For example, reducing Social Security benefits by 20% would cause workers to delay exit from the labour force by only three months.     

Foreign direct investment, competition and industrial development in the host country

This paper analyses the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the development of local firms. We focus on two likely effects of FDI: A competition effect which deters entry of domestic firms and positive market externalities which foster the development of local industry. Using a simple theoretical model to illustrate how these forces work we show that the number of domestic firms follows a u-shaped curve, where the competition effect first dominates but is gradually outweighed by positive externalities. Evidence for Ireland tends to support this result. Specifically, applying semi-parametric regression techniques on plant level panel data for the manufacturing sector we find that while the competition effect may have initially deterred local firms’ entry, this initial effect has been outpaced by positive externalities making the overall impact of FDI largely positive for the domestic industry.     

On the importance of matching strategic behavior and target market selection to business strategy in high-tech markets

Business strategy is fundamentally concerned with the actions required to create superior customer value in the firm’s target markets with the ultimate goal of achieving superior performance. Marketing theory suggests that two critical marketing activities required to achieve this end are: (1) the adoption of appropriate strategic behaviors (i.e., customer-oriented, competitor-oriented, technology-oriented) and (2) targeting of the appropriate market segments (i.e., innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards). This study builds on prior research which demonstrates that the strategic behavior—firm performance relationship is contingent on the firm’s strategy by examining this relationship in high tech markets and by considering the incremental contribution of appropriate target market selection. Responses from 160 senior marketing managers in high-tech firms reveal strong support for our framework. Thus, this study provides useful guidance to executives and managers in high-tech firms regarding the steps that they should take to increase their probability of success.

Exploring the Existence of Local and Global Knowledge Spillovers:Evidence from Plant‐Level Data*

We investigate the existence of local (within‐country) and global (between‐country) knowledge spillovers within a single analytical framework. Our study is based on a detailed database of domestically owned and foreign‐affiliated manufacturing plants located in Ireland. The results of our econometric analysis show that domestically owned plants benefit from the research and development (R&D) activities of other domestically owned plants, as well as from R&D activities conducted in the country of origin of foreign‐owned plants through their presence in Ireland. A fundamental difference between such locally generated and locally transmitted global spillovers appears to be that the latter are much less constrained by distance decay effects.