The demand for systems i·ntegration has become more and more significant in higher education as institutions want systems that provide coherent information with data that is up to date and not redundant and can seamlessly support the end user experience. Institutions have become more reliant on information systems to support both administrative functions and those involved in teaching, learning and research, but because each department supports a diverse array of computing platforms and applications, it becomes very difficult to integrate these systems. SOA is classified as an innovative approach to integrating existing systems involving the use of independent services that can be accessed without knowledge of the underlying platform implementation. Unfortunately, the SOA initiative will not be success if it is not understood and used correctly by various applications and systems throughout the organisation. SOA introduces complexity and challenges in systems integration, acceptance, governance, data, development planning, security and external opportunities. If an organisation does not embrace or enable change in each of these areas, it is not ready for the adoption of SOA. This research investigates the systems integration challenge in selected South African universities and explores factors for SOA adoption. The framework for the adoption of SOA comprises seven factors, of which Systems Integration is the most significant and represents an efficient starting point for institutions considering SOA adoption. Acceptance, Governance, Data, Development Planning, Security and External Opportunities are other factors of SOA adoption that require careful and thorough consideration before an institution can successfully adopt SOA. The results of this research emphasise the importance of being able to embrace change and innovation and modify strategies in order to reflect the constant changes required for the adoption of SOA. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

Customer profiling has recently gained much recognition in the e-commerce domain because of the benefits it is capable of bringing to online business. Customer profiling has been implemented in various systems development approaches such as in a client-server environment. Recently there has been an increase in the number of organisations adopting and implementing e-commerce systems using service-oriented architecture (SOA) principles. This research set out to determine how a customer profile can be implemented using open source SOA implementation tools, and how SOA-based customer profiles can be utilised to provide appropriate personalisation in an SOA environment. The research further endeavoured to complete a comparative study on customer profile implementation in two different architectures, namely SOA and client-server. An extensive literature review was conducted on SOA, customer profiling and e-commerce systems development. SOA enabling technologies, such as, web services, enterprise service bus (ESB) and open source Sun Java SOA implementation tools, for example, Open ESB, GlassFish application server and Netbeans IDE were analysed. A Java web services-based customer profiling system was prototyped following SOA design principles. An end-user evaluation survey was conducted using eye tracking with a sample of 30 participants. The evaluation was done on two e-commerce systems with the same interface but running on two different customer profile back-ends, SOA and client-server. The results show that participants did not experience significant difference between the two systems, however, eye tracking results showed a significant difference between the two systems. The research concluded that customer profiling using SOA offers more benefits than implementations using other architectures such as client-server. SOA component-based development proved to be easier to manage, develop, integrate and improves interoperability between different technologies. The research brought together necessary techniques and technologies that organisations can use to implement SOA. Using SOA, organisations can integrate and utilise different technologies seamlessly to achieve business goals.

O processo de definição de preços de venda é crítico para o sucesso competitivo das organizações. E a não existência de sistemas ERP gratuitos que implementem diversos métodos de precificação criam um contexto de deficiência de ferramentas que auxiliemos gestores com esta necessidade. O Grupo de Pesquisa em Sistemas de Informação (GPSI) da Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Campus Ponta Grossa, esta desenvolvendo um aplicativo denominado FrameMK (Framework para Definição de Preço de Venda). Assim este trabalho teve por objetivo principal demonstrar o uso de diversos métodos de precificação, por meio do framework de definição de preço de venda - FrameMK em sistemas ERP gratuitos, independentemente da sua plataforma, por intermédio de arquitetura de camada de serviços. Foram utilizadas ferramentas e métodos de desenvolvimento de software para atingir o objetivo, dentre eles a linguagem de modelagem UML e a linguagem de programação Java. As etapas do trabalho se deram inicialmente pelo estudo do framework seguido pela implementação de serviços de exposição direta dos métodos de precificação implementados. A partir deste ponto realizou-se a descrição dos requisitos de serviços e recursos de alto nível que auxiliaram na etapa de implementação dos serviços Web utilizando as tecnologias SOAP/WSDL e REST. Desta forma, os principais resultados obtidos foram: modelos de projeto dos três níveis de serviço. Modelos para implantação do FrameMK e casos de uso utilizados como base para a descrição de requisitos para o desenvolvimento das funções do terceiro nível de serviços. O produto de software que implementa as classes de serviço resultante em uma arquitetura orientada a serviço para o FrameMK, conjuntos de testes unitários de código e a sua implantação nos servidores do Grupo de Pesquisa em Sistemas de Informação da Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Campus Ponta Grossa. Os sistemas ERP: webERP, OpenBravo e OpenERP foram trabalhados para demonstração da aplicação dos serviços e resultaram em versões integradas com o framework. Com estas versões os gestores de negocio beneficiam-se com a melhoria do processo de precificação de seus produtos e serviços. / The sales price definition process is critical for competitive success of organizations. The lack of free ERP systems that implement several pricing methods create a context when managers need of tools that assist then in this task. The Research Group on Information Systems at Federal Technological University of Parana, Campus Ponta Grossa, is developing an application called FrameMK (Framework for Sales Price Definition). Thus, this work has as it’s main goal to demonstrate the use of various pricing methods, through the framework for sale price definition - FrameMK, in free ERP systems, through a service oriented architecture layer. Tools were used and methods of software development to achieve the goal, including UML modeling language and the Java programming language . The stages performed started with the study of the framework followed by the implementation of direct exposure services of pricing methods implemented. From this point there was the description of the service requirements and high-level features that assisted in the implementation stage of the Web services using the technologies SOAP / WSDL and REST. Therefore, the main results were: design models of the three levels of service. Models for deployment FrameMK and use cases as the basis for the description of requirements for the functions development of the third level services. The software product that implements the service classes resulting in a service-oriented architecture for FrameMK, sets of unit testing code and its deployment on the servers of the Research Group on Information Systems at Federal Technological University of Parana, Campus Ponta Grossa.

Africa has been seeing a steady increase in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems deployed in health care institutions. This is evidenced by the funding that has been going into health information systems from both the government and the donor organisations. Large numbers of national and international agencies, research organisations, Non- Governmental Organisations(NGOs) etc continue to carry out studies and develop systems and procedures to exploit the power of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in public and private health institutions. This uncoordinated mass migration to electronic medical record systems in Africa has created a heterogeneous and complex computing environment in health care institutions, where most of the deployed systems have technologies that are local, proprietary and insular. Furthermore, the electronic infrastructure in Africa meant to facilitate the electronic exchange of information has a number of constraints. The infrastructure connectivity on which ICT applications run, is still segmented. Most parts of Africa lack the availability of a reliable connectivity infrastructure. In some cases, there is no connectivity at all. This work aims at using Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) to address the problems of interoperability of systems deployed in Africa and suggest design architectures that are able to deal with the state of poor connectivity. SOA offers to bring better interoperability of systems deployed and re-usability of existing IT assets, including those using different electronic health standards in a resource constrained environment like Africa. / Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Technology: Information Technology in the Faculty of Informatics And Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2014

O processo de definição de preços de venda é crítico para o sucesso competitivo das organizações. E a não existência de sistemas ERP gratuitos que implementem diversos métodos de precificação criam um contexto de deficiência de ferramentas que auxiliemos gestores com esta necessidade. O Grupo de Pesquisa em Sistemas de Informação (GPSI) da Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Campus Ponta Grossa, esta desenvolvendo um aplicativo denominado FrameMK (Framework para Definição de Preço de Venda). Assim este trabalho teve por objetivo principal demonstrar o uso de diversos métodos de precificação, por meio do framework de definição de preço de venda - FrameMK em sistemas ERP gratuitos, independentemente da sua plataforma, por intermédio de arquitetura de camada de serviços. Foram utilizadas ferramentas e métodos de desenvolvimento de software para atingir o objetivo, dentre eles a linguagem de modelagem UML e a linguagem de programação Java. As etapas do trabalho se deram inicialmente pelo estudo do framework seguido pela implementação de serviços de exposição direta dos métodos de precificação implementados. A partir deste ponto realizou-se a descrição dos requisitos de serviços e recursos de alto nível que auxiliaram na etapa de implementação dos serviços Web utilizando as tecnologias SOAP/WSDL e REST. Desta forma, os principais resultados obtidos foram: modelos de projeto dos três níveis de serviço. Modelos para implantação do FrameMK e casos de uso utilizados como base para a descrição de requisitos para o desenvolvimento das funções do terceiro nível de serviços. O produto de software que implementa as classes de serviço resultante em uma arquitetura orientada a serviço para o FrameMK, conjuntos de testes unitários de código e a sua implantação nos servidores do Grupo de Pesquisa em Sistemas de Informação da Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Campus Ponta Grossa. Os sistemas ERP: webERP, OpenBravo e OpenERP foram trabalhados para demonstração da aplicação dos serviços e resultaram em versões integradas com o framework. Com estas versões os gestores de negocio beneficiam-se com a melhoria do processo de precificação de seus produtos e serviços. / The sales price definition process is critical for competitive success of organizations. The lack of free ERP systems that implement several pricing methods create a context when managers need of tools that assist then in this task. The Research Group on Information Systems at Federal Technological University of Parana, Campus Ponta Grossa, is developing an application called FrameMK (Framework for Sales Price Definition). Thus, this work has as it’s main goal to demonstrate the use of various pricing methods, through the framework for sale price definition - FrameMK, in free ERP systems, through a service oriented architecture layer. Tools were used and methods of software development to achieve the goal, including UML modeling language and the Java programming language . The stages performed started with the study of the framework followed by the implementation of direct exposure services of pricing methods implemented. From this point there was the description of the service requirements and high-level features that assisted in the implementation stage of the Web services using the technologies SOAP / WSDL and REST. Therefore, the main results were: design models of the three levels of service. Models for deployment FrameMK and use cases as the basis for the description of requirements for the functions development of the third level services. The software product that implements the service classes resulting in a service-oriented architecture for FrameMK, sets of unit testing code and its deployment on the servers of the Research Group on Information Systems at Federal Technological University of Parana, Campus Ponta Grossa.

Orientador: Edmundo Roberto Mauro Madeira / Dissertação (mestrado) ¿ Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T01:33:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_GeraldoMagela_M.pdf: 6211710 bytes, checksum: 5a88c999846d2e6c89c5a5487e7cbed2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Agências governamentais ao redor do mundo estão realizando grandes investimentos na utilização de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação em suas atividades. Essa tendência, conhecida como Governo eletrônico, impulsiona grande demanda por pesquisas cujo foco principal é o desenvolvimento de aplicações destinadas a um governo mais transparente e colaborativo. Aplicações para esse tipo de cenário introduzem uma série de desafios que precisam ser enfrentados, incluindo maior interoperabilidade entre sistemas, escalabilidade, questões de segurança, entre outros. Nesse sentido, o paradigma de Arquitetura Orientada a Serviços (SOA) apresenta-se como uma interessante proposta para mitigar a heterogeneidade dos serviços prestados pelas diversas entidades envolvidas. Além disso, computação em grade pode ser considerada uma solução promissora para aplicações de middleware em Governo eletrônico, graças à sua alta capacidade de armazenamento e processamento, além de sua recente orientação a serviços, tornando-a uma poderosa ferramenta para aplicações intra-domínio. Considerando esses desafios, este trabalho propõe uma plataforma para aplicações de Governo eletrônico em sistemas em grades utilizando serviços de suporte fornecidos pelo Globus Toolkit 4 (GT4) no contexto da Web Semântica. O trabalho inclui a implementação de um protótipo do middleware e sua validação através de um cenário de aplicação / Abstract: Government agencies around the world are making large investments in the use of Information and Communication Technology in their activities. This trend, known as electronic government, drives a demand for research focused on development of applications aimed at a more transparent and collaborative government. Applications for this type of scenario pose a series of challenges to be faced, including greater interoperability between systems, scalability, and security issues, among others. In this sense, the paradigm of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) presents itself as an interesting proposal to mitigate the heterogeneity of services provided by various involved entities. Furthermore, grid computing can be considered a promising solution for middleware applications in e-Government due to its high storage and processing capacity, and also its recent service orientation, making it a powerful tool for intra-domain applications. Considering these challenges, this dissertation proposes a platform for e-Government applications on grid computing, using the support services provided by the Globus Toolkit 4 (GT4) in the context of the Semantic Web. The work includes the implementation of a middleware prototype and its validation through an application scenario / Mestrado / Ciência da Computação / Mestre em Ciência da Computação

M.Tech. / Service Oriented Architecture has many advantages. For example, organisations can align business with Information Technology, reuse the developed functionality, reduce development and maintain cost for applications. Organisations adopt Service Oriented Architecture with the aim of automating and integrating business processes. However, it has information security vulnerabilities that should be considered. For example, applications exchange information across the Internet, where it can be tampered with. Information security is therefore one of the crucial qualities that need to be satisfied within information systems. This dissertation addresses the issue of information security within Service Oriented Architecture applications. Some organisations rely on Service Oriented Architecture governance tools when securing information in their Service Oriented Architecture environment. However, they may purchase them without investigating whether they include information security. The aim of this dissertation is to analyse whether these tools include information security. Each tool is benchmarked against the five information security services, defined by the ISO 7498/2 document and including identification and authentication, authorisation, confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation. The dissertation concludes with a table summarising the results. This dissertation offers decision-makers information that can assist them in analysing whether Service Oriented Architecture governance tools includes information security. It also assists organisations to be aware of security vulnerabilities within Service Oriented Architecture applications, and the consequences that may arise if information security measures are ignored.

Orientador: Cecília Mary Fischer Rubira / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T09:31:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NascimentoeSilva_AmandaSavio_D.pdf: 8931458 bytes, checksum: 448739042e9597c70abf120976d316b8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A confiabilidade é um requisito de qualidade indispensável a muitos sistemas orientados a serviços, cada vez mais disseminados em várias atividades humanas. Composições confiáveis de serviços são formadas por um conjunto de serviços com diversidade de projetos, isto é, um conjunto de serviços funcionalmente equivalentes, ou serviços alternativos, usados para implementar técnicas de tolerância a falhas. Uma determinada técnica, como por exemplo, Recovery Blocks ou N-version Programming, pode ser mais adequada para um contexto específico de execução do que outra, dependendo dos requisitos exigidos pela aplicação, como por exemplo, desempenho. Sistemas orientados a serviços são usualmente implantados num ambiente altamente dinâmico, em que são comuns alterações nos requisitos dos clientes e flutuações na qualidade de serviços. Portanto, uma composição de serviços confiável deveria poder modificar seu próprio comportamento dinamicamente em resposta a essas mudanças. Entretanto, as soluções existentes, que usam diversidade de projetos para implementar composições confiáveis, apresentam algumas limitações: (i) não apóiam a seleção de serviços alternativos adequados que garantam que a composição realmente tolere falhas de software; (ii) em geral implementam uma única técnica de tolerância a falhas, não apoiando os requisitos diversos de clientes; e (iii) não apoiam um mecanismo autoadaptativo capaz de mudar a estratégia de tolerância a falhas em tempo de execução. Nessa tese, é apresentada uma solução baseada em linhas de produtos de software, que explora a variabilidade de software existente nas técnicas de tolerância a falhas e nas mudanças ocorridas no ambiente de execução, para a implementação de composições de serviços tolerantes a falhas e autoadaptativas. A solução encompassa: (a) um conjunto de diretrizes para investigar até que ponto serviços alternativos são realmente diversos entre si para tolerar falhas de software; (b) uma família de técnicas de tolerância a falhas para construir composições confíaveis que permite a escolha de uma técnica mais adequada para o contexto; e (c) uma infraestrutura autoadaptiva que apoia a instanciação de técnicas diferentes de tolerância a falhas como resposta a mudanças ocorridas no contexto, baseando-se no gerenciamento dinâmico de variabilidades de software. Resultados de estudos empíricos sugerem que a solução é eficiente para apoiar composições de serviços tolerantes a falhas e autoadaptativas. Direções para trabalhos futuros são apresentadas / Abstract: Nowadays, society is dependent on systems based on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) for its basic day-to-day functioning. As a consequence, these systems should be reliable. Fault-tolerant service compositions encompass a set of services, each with equivalent functionality yet different designs, called alternate services, that are used to implement fault tolerance techniques. A particular technique, for example, Recovery Blocks or N-version Programming, might be more suitable in a context than in another one, depending on non-functional requirements of an application, for example, performance or reliability. SOA-based applications often rely in an environment that is highly dynamic and several decisions should be postponed until runtime, where we have different stakeholders with conflicting requirements, and fluctuations in the quality of services (QoS) are recurrent. Therefore, a fault-tolerant service composition should adapt itself to meet the dynamically and widely changing context. Nevertheless, the existing diversity-based solutions for fault-tolerant service compositions present some drawbacks: (i) they do not support the selection of alternate services that in fact efficient to support a reliable service composition; (ii) they usually support only one fault tolerance technique, thus not being able to face various clients' requirements; (iii) they do not support an adaptive fault tolerance mechanism able to instantiate different fault tolerance strategies at runtime to cope with dynamic changes in the context. In this thesis, we present a solution based on software product line, which explores the variability among various software fault tolerance techniques and changes in the execution environment, to implement fault-tolerant and self-adaptive service compositions. The proposed solution encompasses: (a) a set of directives to investigate to what extent alternate services are able to tolerate software faults; (b) a family of software fault tolerance techniques to support reliable service compositions, such as the most suitable technique can be chosen according to the context; (c) a self-adaptive infrastructure to instantiate at runtime appropriate fault tolerance techniques in response to changes in the context, through dynamic management of software variability. Results from empirical studies suggest that the proposed solution is efficient to support fault-tolerant and self-adaptive service compositions. Directions for future work are also presented / Doutorado / Ciência da Computação / Doutora em Ciência da Computação

Orientador: Eliane Martins / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T12:17:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PalmaSalas_MarceloInvert_M.pdf: 1721846 bytes, checksum: a5c6a8727658455a92eade9c6c09e948 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Devido a sua natureza distribuída e aberta, os Web Services geram novos desafios de segurança da informação. Esta tecnologia Web, desenvolvida pela W3C e OASIS, é susceptível a ataques de injeção e negação de serviços. Desta forma, o atacante pode coletar e manipular informação para procurar vulnerabilidades nos serviços. Nesse estudo analisamos o uso do injetor de falhas (IF) WSInject, para emular ataques com testes de segurança nos Web Services. A motivação para o uso de um injetor de falhas, ao invés do uso de vulnerabilities scanners, que são comumente usados na prática para testar a segurança, foi permitir melhor cobertura dos ataques. Em um estudo preliminar, usando um vulnerability scanner não comercial, foi possível determinar: (i) os serviços, bem como seus parâmetros e suas operações que seriam mais interessantes de utilizar durante a injeção de falhas, por terem sido os que apresentaram maior número de vulnerabilidades; (ii) um conjunto de regras para analisar os resultados dos testes de segurança. Esses resultados preliminares serviram de guia para os testes usando o injetor de falhas. As falhas foram injetadas em Web Services reais, sendo que alguns implementaram mecanismos de segurança de acordo com o padrão Web Services Security (WS-Security), como credenciais de segurança (Security Tokens) / Abstract: Due to its distributed and open nature, the Web Services give rise to new information security challenges. This technology, standardized by W3C and OASIS, is susceptible to both injection and denial of services (DoS) attacks. In this way, the attacker can collect and manipulate information in search of Web Services vulnerabilities. In this study we analyses the use of the WSInject fault injector, in order to emulate attacks with security tests on Web Services. The proposed approach makes use of WSInject Fault Injector to emulate attacks with Security Testing on Web Services. The motivation for using a fault injector, instead of vulnerabilities scanners, which are commonly used in practice for security testing, was to enable better coverage of attacks. In a preliminary study, using a non-commercial vulnerability scanner, it was possible to determine: (i) the Web Services to be tested as well as its parameters and operations more interesting to use during fault injection, by presenting the highest number of vulnerabilities; and (ii) a set of rules to analyze the results of security testing. These preliminary results served as a guide for the tests using the fault injector. The faults have been injected into real Web Services, and some of them have security mechanisms implemented, in compliance with the Web Services Security (WS-Security) with Security Tokens / Mestrado / Ciência da Computação / Mestre em Ciência da Computação

Modern science relies on workflow technology to capture, process, and analyse data obtained from scientific instruments. Scientific workflows are precise descriptions of experiments in which multiple computational tasks are coordinated based on the dataflows between them. Orchestrating scientific workflows presents a significant research challenge: they are typically executed in a manner such that all data pass through a centralised computer server known as the engine, which causes unnecessary network traffic that leads to a performance bottleneck. These workflows are commonly composed of services that perform computation over geographically distributed resources, and involve the management of dataflows between them. Centralised orchestration is clearly not a scalable approach for coordinating services dispersed across distant geographical locations. This thesis presents a scalable decentralised service-oriented orchestration system that relies on a high-level data coordination language for the specification and execution of workflows. This system's architecture consists of distributed engines, each of which is responsible for executing part of the overall workflow. It exploits parallelism in the workflow by decomposing it into smaller sub-workflows, and determines the most appropriate engines to execute them using computation placement analysis. This permits the workflow logic to be distributed closer to the services providing the data for execution, which reduces the overall data transfer in the workflow and improves its execution time. This thesis provides an evaluation of the presented system which concludes that decentralised orchestration provides scalability benefits over centralised orchestration, and improves the overall performance of executing a service-oriented workflow.