Thesis Topic Details
Topic ID: |
1278 | |
Title: |
Business-Driven IT Management of Web Services, Cloud Computing Systems, and Business Processes | |
Supervisor: |
Vladimir Tosic | |
Research Area: |
Services, Distributed Systems, Cloud Computing | |
| Associated Staff | ||
|---|---|---|
Assessor: |
Hiroshi Wada | |
| Topic Details | ||
Status: |
Active | |
Type: |
R & D | |
Programs: |
CS CE BIOM BINF SE | |
Group Suitable: |
Yes | |
Industrial: |
No | |
Pre-requisites: |
-- | |
Description: |
To maximize benefits from information technology (IT) systems, their execution should be coordinated with business goals, business value measures, business strategies, and business processes of user organizations. Unfortunately, improvements in IT (e.g., lower response time, higher availability) need not result in expected business benefits (e.g., profit, customer satisfaction), often because of poor alignment between business operations and used IT systems. Business-driven IT management (BDIM) is one approach to make IT systems better aligned with business. Its goal is to determine mappings between technical and business performance metrics and leverage them to make run-time IT system and/or service management (monitoring, control) decisions that maximize business value. For example, it tries to quantify impact on business profits of increased/decreased availability or responsiveness of IT systems and services. Web services are distributed computing application components that use a number of Extensible Markup Language (XML) based technologies to implement the service-oriented architecture (SOA). Cloud computing technologies enable provisioning of computing infrastructure (e.g., memory storage), platforms (e.g., virtualized Linux desktops), and software applications (e.g., customer relationship management suites) over the Internet, as a utility that can be bought on demand. Implementation-independence of Web service and Cloud computing technologies allows different businesses to collaborate and achieve common business goals despite their software being distributed over the Internet, run on different platforms, and implemented in different programming languages. Web service and Cloud computing technologies are already embedded in various products and services of all major computing companies and used for diverse purposes. Web services are also increasingly used for business process management. Our research group (at NICTA) previously developed IT system/service management tools for BDIM, applied it to Web services and business processes implemented with Web service composition. We also started applying these innovative BDIM solutions to cloud computing systems. Students working on this project will design, implement, and test innovative extensions of this NICTA software. Their work will result in novel architectures, components, algorithms, and data structures for autonomic management that uses various metrics to make decisions best for the business. Prior to commencement of software development, the students will first survey the currently leading approaches to BDIM, with particular emphasis on how these approaches suit (or do not suit) business systems implemented with Cloud computing. They will also continue the exploration of technical and business metrics relevant for cloud computing systems (e.g., usage fees, networking costs). Based on the insights from their theoretical research and development experiences, the students will also synthesize recommendations of how to improve the current BDIM approaches. |
|
Comments: |
The students will work closely with researchers at NICTA (http://www.nicta.com.au) in a friendly mixed-gender and multicultural team environment comprised of senior researchers and postgraduate students. For example, a female Ph.D. student with strong academic background and international industrial experience will be able to provide additional expertise and guidance, when needed. For further information, email: Dr. Vladimir Tosic ('vtosic' at the CSE e-mail system; Web page: http://nicta.com.au/people/tosicv) with Subject line UNSW Thesis . | |
| Past Student Reports | ||
| Gareth Macleay EDWARDS in s2, 2009 Business-Driven IT Management of Web Services and Business Processes |
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| Ronald TSANG in s2, 2010 Business-Driven IT Management of Web Services, Cloud Computing Systems, and Business Processes |
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