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1811 results in Software Engineering and Development

Page 13 of 91

  • 2 - Project Delivery and Supporting Methodologies

  • Manoj Kumar Lal
  • Book:
    Knowledge Driven Development
    Published online:
    20 October 2018
    Print publication:
    08 March 2018, pp 30-45

  • Summary

    This chapter introduces the reader to the technology and domain aspects of an industry and then details it for IT industry. It elaborates the knowledge-based nature of the IT industry and the factors limiting its natural movement to a process-based industry. It then provides a general overview of the IT project delivery. It also lists project delivery methodologies, standards, guidelines and frameworks used in various scenarios to manage the IT projects.

    IT Industry from Technology and Domain Perspective

    Information Technology (IT) is nascent industry. Let us look at various industries and their ages:

  • 1. Agriculture (12,000 years old)

  • 2. Modern Banking Industry (700 years old)

  • 3. Modern Insurance Industry (350 years old)

  • 4. Modern Pharmaceutical Industry (200 years old)

  • 5. Modern Steel Industry (150 years old)

  • 6. Information Technology (60 years old)

    • Industries have matured with research and experience contributing to enrichment of knowledge in the industry. Old industries have matured enough to have standard and well-defined processes for delivery of various projects. Also, their processes are not generic but detailed and prescriptive. For example, in an agricultural plantation, separation between two plants is well-defined and prescriptive. It primarily depends on plant types. But this would not have been the case a few thousand years ago. At that time the practice must have gone through several phases of research and experience to come to the optimal separation between two plants. Agriculture, then, could be termed as a knowledge-based industry but now it is a process-based industry.

    One of the greatest revolutions in the maturity of industries has been the Industrial Revolution where mechanisation proved immensely beneficial for mass production. Another revolution of a similar or even greater scale is being brought about by the introduction of computers (including smartphones and apps), which has started impacting every aspect of our lives. Computers have brought in the IT industry to the fore.

    The IT industry itself is a new industry and is barely 60 years old. IT is a support industry which assists other industries. Predominantly, IT automates manual, repeatable processes via software.

    An industry has two components at the highest level. These are the implements and the way of using the implements effectively. The implement in IT is ‘technology’ and the knowledge about how to effectively use an implement is ‘domain’.

  • 10 - Enabling DevOps

  • Manoj Kumar Lal
  • Book:
    Knowledge Driven Development
    Published online:
    20 October 2018
    Print publication:
    08 March 2018, pp 198-202

  • Summary

    DevOps is becoming an increasingly popular concept, trying to optimise the product lifecycle, rather than the product development lifecycle, where the development team and service management team are seamlessly integrated. This chapter tries to understand the details of DevOps, issues in the product lifecycle it is trying to solve and how KDD supports DevOps.

    What Is DevOps

    Before the advent of the personal computers, it was almost the same team that used to develop the software and maintain it, until its decommissioning. The advent of personal computers and other advancements in technology led to the specialisation of skills and the formation of development, quality assurance and service management teams. The IT organisation structure has been based on functional specialisations since then. This structure initiated the development of the popular handover-takeover mechanism to pass information from one team to the other. This mechanism has limited effectiveness, as during handover-takeover, it is practically impossible to pass on all the knowledge that is gathered by one team to the other. Often, the functional splitting of the project acts as a barrier to the work rather than being the enabler of project delivery as widely observed in Waterfall methodology.

    The Agile methodology has brought significant improvement in the way software is developed. For example, Agile forms a joint project development team which is co-located and works together for the success of the project. Formal handover-takeover is no longer needed as the teams are physically or virtually co-located. This has made a working style possible that was difficult to imagine a couple of years ago. For example, testers in a Sprint team do not usually raise a defect. They come to developers, discuss and resolve the issue directly, saving a lot of effort in this way.

    However, Agile, like Waterfall, focuses on project delivery. Agile hands over the project knowledge in the form of minimal documents and Waterfall hands over exhaustive documentation that may not be kept updated to service management team. Neither of these two scenarios are ideal from the service management team perspective. There is a need to look into optimising the entire lifecycle of the product and not only product development. In the product lifecycle, the three most important stakeholders are:

  • • Development team (includes business analysts), which develops the product.

  • • Quality Assurance team, which ensures the product is as per the specifications of the customer.

  • Appendix I - Hot Research Topics

  • Sandeep Bhowmik
  • Book:
    Cloud Computing
    Published online:
    31 August 2020
    Print publication:
    17 April 2017, pp 384-387

  • Summary

    A lot of research is happening in and around the field of cloud computing in order to achieve more efficient solutions to different issues and to gain optimal results from them. This section introduces a few, among many, hot research topics related to the wide domain of cloud computing.

    OPTIMAL MANAGEMENT OF CLOUD RESOURCE

    Resource management in cloud computing is the prime responsibility of the IaaS cloud service providers who build and manage the data centers. IaaS cloud provider has two major resource management objectives. First, to make the environment reliable as well as robust for optimal and efficient utilization of the data center infrastructure. The second is related to the SLA, which defines the relation with the consumer party.

    The first objective deals with issues like load balancing, fault tolerance, energy conservation etc. Here, the load should be distributed in a way that in a data center, the utilization rate remains in balance among resources of a similar type. To make a system fault tolerant, the allocation of the resources should happen in a way that the effect of the failure of some resource component remains insignificant. Energy conservation is another important issue while managing resources at a data center. Optimal energy use reduces computing cost and it should also be minimized to reduce the carbon footprint.

    A cloud provider may opt for a number of approaches to handle these issues. It can optimize these parameters by taking a combined approach, or it can work on every metric individually. The cloud provider may use some consistent set of combinations and/or may also decide to employ varied performance goals for individual operational situations. For instance, energy minimization may be a higher priority during low-load conditions, while the service performance may be the higher priority during high load. A balance should be maintained among all these choices without affecting the user expectations. Finding out an optimal balancing point between performance and energy conservation is a critical concern of the research in such cases.

    For resource management objectives related to the Service Level Agreements (SLA), the cloud providers generally adopt an approach called service differentiation. In this approach, different levels of service performances are delivered to different consumers depending on the service level agreements made with them.

  • 1 - Introduction

  • Sandeep Bhowmik
  • Book:
    Cloud Computing
    Published online:
    31 August 2020
    Print publication:
    17 April 2017, pp 1-18

  • Summary

    The catchword Cloud Computing may sound new to the arena of computing as well as information technology; although the concept behind it is not completely new. In a broad sense, it is a step (forward) to access the web-based services through Internet; or in general terms, cloud computing represents an advance in the field of computing technology where management of computing services is outsourced to greater extents and in multiple dimensions. To be specific, computing facilities are being made available as services offered by reputed vendors.

    Computing technology has been evolved over the years. There have been steady developments in the field of computing hardware, software architecture, web technology and network communications over the last decade. The speed of internetworks has increased day by day and it has also become cheaper. All these developments contributed in settinging the stage for the initiation of the revolutionary concept of ‘cloud computing’.

    Cloud computing has changed the way computation happens. It provides the means for smarter ways to do business and accordingly it makes life simpler. This chapter tries to highlight the shortcomings in the traditional computing approaches and it attempts to iterate how the stage was ready for the arrival of this new model of computing.

    Cloud computing has evolved over the years and has changed the way people live and do business over the World Wide Web.

    WHAT IS THE BUZZ ABOUT

    Cloud computing provides the means for users to easily avail computing facilities whenever and wherever required. They need not worry about setting up infrastructure, purchasing new equipment or investing in the procurement of licensed software. Rather they can access any volume, large or small, of computing facilities in exchange for some nominal payment. It is a new model of computing which has become possible through integration of advanced computing models, sophisticated web technologies and modern network communication technologies (especially high-speed Internet).

    Cloud computing became a hot topic for large computing vendors (companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft etc.) only from mid-2008, but the concept itself is quite old. People have different perceptions regarding this new computing model. To some, it is a new and radical innovation.

  • 5 - Cloud Computing Services

  • Sandeep Bhowmik
  • Book:
    Cloud Computing
    Published online:
    31 August 2020
    Print publication:
    17 April 2017, pp 76-94

  • Summary

    As discussed in the previous chapter, the NIST model of cloud computing treats the computing methodology from two perspectives as deployment and as service. While cloud can be deployed in four possible ways, the services it offers can be categorized primarily into three different types.

    Apart from three primary cloud services, computing vendors deliver a number of specialized cloud services which are considered as special services under these three primary cloud services. In order to understand how cloud computing can be of value to consumers, it is important to understand the services it offers. This chapter focusses on all of these service delivery models.

    There are many vendors who provide different cloud services in the market today. Along with proprietary public cloud services, many open-source initiatives are also available which mainly focus on to create private as well as hybrid cloud environments. Few among those open-source initiatives have also been discussed in this chapter.

    SERVICE DELIVERY MODELS

    Three categories of computing services that people consume from the days of traditional computing have been already mentioned in the first chapter. They are:

  • ▪ Infrastructure Service

  • ▪ Platform Service

  • ▪ Software Application Service

    • Cloud computing talks about delivering these facilities to consumers as computing services through network/internetwork. The benefit for the consumers is that they can avail these facilities over Internet anytime, as much as required, sitting at their own locations in a cost-effective manner. They only need to have a simple and suitable access device (like PC, laptop, tablet, mobile etc.) to access these services. Using these simple devices anyone can access any kind of computing infrastructure, platform or software application on payment-as-per-actual-usage basis.

    Cloud computing offers computing infrastructure, platform and application delivered ‘as-a-service’. Those services are considered as primary cloud computing services and are referred to as:

  • ▪ Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

  • ▪ Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

  • ▪ Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

    • These services are generally pronounced as ‘i-a-a-s’, ‘pass’, and ‘saas’ respectively. They are the driving forces behind the growth of cloud computing. Clubbed together these three service models are commonly referred as SPI (Service-Platform-Infrastructure) model. Cloud service providers arrange these services for the cloud consumers. The NIST reference architecture represents these services under ‘service orchestration’ component of the providers (Figure 5.1).

  • 17 - Privacy and Compliance Issues

  • Sandeep Bhowmik
  • Book:
    Cloud Computing
    Published online:
    31 August 2020
    Print publication:
    17 April 2017, pp 293-306

  • Summary

    Security and privacy are often mentioned in the same breath, but they are not similar. It is a fact that both of them are important for trustworthiness of a system. However, when it comes to cloud computing, security tends to draw more attention and concern. But that does not mean that privacy can be compromised in anyway. Privacy maintenance in cloud is mainly the responsibility of service providers but consumers should also be conscious about their own privacy while drafting the service-level agreement (SLA).

    Regulatory compliance is another issue that has taken a complicated shape in the context of public cloud computing facility. It often becomes difficult to fulfill all legal compliance requirements in a cloud environment where data centers of a service provider are spread across the globe and more often consumers do not know where (in which country or region) their data are being stored. Cloud consumers must be aware about their responsibilities regarding the information privacy and regulatory compliance maintenance, apart from checking service provider's reputation and approach towards maintenance of these issues.

    Apart from these, this chapter discusses GRC (governance, risk and compliance) issue as another important concern of any business and how the issue becomes more prominent with adoption of cloud computing services for businesses. Regular auditing of these issues may help identify any violation. Standard audit frameworks exist, which when adopted for auditing cloud services can help build trust among the consumers.

    A common misconception is that data privacy is a subset of information security. But, security and privacy do not mean the same.

    WHAT IS PRIVACY?

    Both security and privacy are interrelated but it is a misconception that privacy is a part of information security. Rather, privacy brings its own set of concerns. Privacy of personal kind of information may be very sensitive and needs special attention.

    In line with the concerns about the security of a cloud system, consumers need to be careful about the privacy of their data before they use services or enter into a contract with any cloud vendor. Who owns the data? Who has access to it? How many copies are being maintained? Will the data be erased in the event the customer changes the service provider?

  • 20 - Popular Cloud Services

  • Sandeep Bhowmik
  • Book:
    Cloud Computing
    Published online:
    31 August 2020
    Print publication:
    17 April 2017, pp 351-374

  • Summary

    Computing as a utility service has been a long desired dream in the field of computing. Although the basic idea about cloud computing was introduced many years back, it could not become a reality due to several technological constraints. Later on, technologists succeeded in overcome these technical constraints one after another, and with time computing technology started advancing at a steady pace. The economical and other advantages of cloud computing were visible to everyone including business houses and once all of the required technologies were in place, the computing vendors jumped into the development of cloud services.

    In last ten years, many companies have been successful in offering cloud services in different types, sizes and shapes. List of such companies include the major technology vendors like Microsoft, Amazon and Google whose cloud services have gained a major share in the market. These providers along with many other large and middle size vendors and research institutes have developed and offered a number of service plans suitable for both individual consumers and businesses.

    Cloud computing is the future of computing in forthcoming years. Cloud services are rapidly gaining more and more appreciation globally and the expansion of cloud service industry is evident. It provides swift availability of enterprise-quality resource and high-performance computing services that can significantly improve business productivity. This chapter focuses on some very popular public cloud services presented by computing majors who also have contributed immensely in the development of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.

    AMAZON WEB SERVICES

    Amazon.com, Inc. is an American electronic-commerce company with headquarters in Washington, United States. The company started as an online bookstore but later expanded its business in different domains. Amazon has emerged as a front-runner among the providers of public cloud services. Among the business domain of different cloud services, Amazon is considered as a market leader in Infrastructure-as-a-Service. The suite of cloud computing services offered by Amazon is known as Amazon web services (AWS).

    Amazon Web Services is currently the leading IaaS offering in the market. AWS is offered through the web and has been built strictly based on SOA standards following SOAP, HTTP, REST protocols. It also uses open-source operating system and application servers.

  • 14 - Database Technology

  • Sandeep Bhowmik
  • Book:
    Cloud Computing
    Published online:
    31 August 2020
    Print publication:
    17 April 2017, pp 239-256

  • Summary

    The changing characteristics of data and need for new data processing models as well as file systems in high-performance computing environment have been discussed in previous chapters. The large data-sets produce not only structured data but un-structured data too. Storage requirement for unstructured data is entirely different from that of structured data. There is a need to maintain quicker data storage, search and retrieval as these are basic requirements in high-performance computing.

    Cloud computing not only provides support for traditional DBMSs, modern data processing requirements are also catered to as well. This chapter focuses on the characteristics of this new type of databases and discusses how un-structured data are stored in those databases for efficient processing. Apart from these, the chapter also discusses about different forms of database solutions available on the high-performance cloud computing environment.

    Data storage and database on the cloud is intimately tied with one another and that provides the scope for suitable solutions to optimize the database performance. This has changed the way how database is managed. Many cloud computing vendors have developed new methods of storing data objects which are different from the traditional methods of storing data.

    Data storage and database on cloud like high-performance systems are often intimately tied with one another for efficient processing of large volume unstructured data-sets.

    DATABASE IN CLOUD

    Consumers can avail database facility in cloud in two forms. First one is the general database solution that is implemented through installation of some database solution on IaaS (virtual machine delivered as IaaS). The other one is delivered by service providers as database-as-a-service where the vendor fully manages the backend administration jobs like installation, security management and resource assignment tasks.

    In the first approach, the users can deploy database applications on cloud virtual machines like any other applications software. Apart from this, the ready-made machine images supplied by the vendors are also available with per-installed and pre-configured databases. For example, Amazon provides ready-made EC2 machine image with pre-installed Oracle Database.

    In the Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) model, the operational burden of provisioning, configuration, backup facilities are managed by the service operators.

  • 9 - Scaling in the Cloud

  • Sandeep Bhowmik
  • Book:
    Cloud Computing
    Published online:
    31 August 2020
    Print publication:
    17 April 2017, pp 157-174

  • Summary

    Resource virtualization technique creates room for the adoption of dynamic approach in computing resource provisioning. The dynamic resource provisioning approach in turn creates the scope for developing scalable computing systems and applications. Scalability of systems and applications is an essential feature of cloud computing.

    Computing cost depends on the total volume of resources acquired by an application. Any acquired and unutilized resource unnecessarily increases computing cost. Again, low acquisition of resource may affect application performance during higher demand. Hence, any system must run with minimum volume of required resources and should have the ability to expand itself with growing workload which is critical from business point of view. Again, a system should also have the ability to reduce itself with declining workload in terms of acquired resources. Otherwise unnecessary resource acquisition increases the cost.

    This ability of expanding and shrinking of a system as per workload is known as scaling. Dynamic resource provisioning plays a key role in building of a scalable system but that alone cannot ensure the scaling. A system should also have the ability to integrate the provisioned resources effectively into itself (or release extra resources) and still run as the same system without any interruption or hitch. This ensures smooth user experience and at the same time reduces cost of computing and improves performance of applications.

    WHAT IS SCALING?

    Scaling is the characteristic of a system, model or function that describes its ability of growing or shrinking whenever required. In computing, scaling represents the capability of a system or application to deal with varying workload efficiently without bringing in a situation where resource shortage hampers performance or resource surplus increases the computation cost.

    In simple words, scaling is defined as the ability of being enlarged (or shrunk) for accommodating growth (or fall-off) to fulfill the business needs. A system or application architecture can be termed as scalable if its performance improves on adding new resources and the improvement is proportional to the capacity added.

    A system that scales well can maintain its level of performance or efficiency when it works under larger or growing operational demands.

  • 3 - Benefits and Challenges

  • Sandeep Bhowmik
  • Book:
    Cloud Computing
    Published online:
    31 August 2020
    Print publication:
    17 April 2017, pp 38-55

  • Summary

    The emergence of cloud computing provides benefits of the utility service model to the computing users. Users of computing are now being called subscribers or consumers as they move towards cloud computing. Cloud computing is delivered to its subscribers over the internetwork as well as Internet. Subscribers can access the computing facility on subscription basis, anytime and anywhere.

    The scores of benefits of cloud computing are attracting users towards it. But any new innovation comes with few challenges and cloud computing is not an exception. This chapter discusses various benefits of cloud computing and also presents the challenges before it.

    The biggest challenge is related to data security and compliance issue. Most of the other critical challenges are due to the absence of open standards where vendors develop clouds using their own proprietary standard or technology. The good aspect is that, significant efforts have been undertaken to resolve all of these issues. Apart from these, this chapter briefly presents the role of web services in cloud computing development.

    ORIGIN OF THE TERM ‘CLOUD COMPUTING’

    The origin of the term ‘cloud computing’ dates back to the early 1990s. In those early days of network design, network engineers used to draw network diagrams representing different devices and connections among them. In such diagrams, they used to represent outer network arenas with cloud symbol since those details were not in their knowledge. This was known as ‘network cloud’ or ‘cloud’ in the networking industry during that period, but today we do not mean ‘cloud computing’ in the same sense.

    With the beginning of utility computing initiatives towards the end of the last century, major software firms focussed on deliver applications over the Internet. Email services gained pace during this period as the vendors started to offer the facility to their users. And the most remarkable initiative came from Salesforce.com when they delivered business application for enterprises over the Internet in 1999. But all of these efforts were seen as part of utility computing facility development. Cloud computing did not emerge till then.

    The term ‘cloud computing’ appeared in the market with its present meaning in the year 2006.

Page 13 of 91