Cloud computing has become a prominent paradigm to offer on-demand services for softwares, infrastructures and platforms. Cloud services are contracted by a service level agreement (SLA) between a cloud service provider (CSP) and a cloud service user (CSU) which contains service definitions, quality of service (QoS) parameters, guarantees and obligations. Cloud service providers mostly offer SLAs in descriptive format which is not directly consumable by a machine or a system. The SLA written in natural language may impede the utility of rapid elasticity in a cloud service. Manual management of SLAs with growing usage of cloud services can be a challenging, erroneous and tedious task especially for the CSUs acquiring multiple cloud services. The necessity of automating the complete SLA life cycle (which includes SLA description in machine readable format, negotiation, monitoring and management) becomes imminent due to complex requirements for the precise measurement of QoS parameters. Current approaches toward automating the complete SLA life cycle, lack in standardization, completeness and applicability to cloud services. Automation of different phases of the SLA life cycle (e.g. negotiation, monitoring and management) is dependent on the availability of a machine readable SLA. In this work, a structural specification for the SLAs in cloud computing (S3LACC in short) is presented which is designed specifically for cloud services, covers complete SLA life cycle and conforms with the available standards. A time efficient SLA negotiation technique is accomplished (based on the S3LACC) for concurrently negotiating with multiple CSPs. After successful negotiation process, next leading task in the SLA life cycle is to monitor the cloud services for ensuring the quality of service according to the agreed SLA. A distributed monitoring approach for the cloud SLAs is presented, in this work, which is suitable for services being used at single or multiple locations. The proposed approach reduces the number of communications of SLA violations to a monitoring coordinator by eliminating the unnecessary communications. The presented work on the complete SLA life cycle automation is evaluated and validated with the help of use cases, experiments and simulations.

Blockchain seems to be the hot new innovation that brings disruption to many different industries in the form of decentralization. Groups of peers can finally organize and work together without a central actor having an authority over the transactions that occur. Other than decentralization, due to the distributed and cryptographic nature of the data, the system also enjoys resilience, immutability and safety. In this thesis, we are leveraging permissioned blockchain technology to take steps towards a trustless service level agreement (SLA) management system where both service providers and customers lack the power to tamper with the contracts and their outcomes. The thesis yields a systematic literature review on the state-of-the-art within SLA management and relevant blockchain technology, a proof-of-concept working with Ericssons decentralized edge service marketplace, Nubo, and finally asimulation which evaluates how the proof-of-concept performs in terms of throughput and latency under different network loads. The simulation shows that the network works as expected, until 70 transactions per second (TPS) are reached, at which point the network is limited by throughput. / Blockchain ser ut att vara den nya teknologin som leder till stora förändringar i olika industrier i form av decentralisering. En grupp av noder kan till slut organisera sig och arbeta tillsammmans utan en central figur som styr och har kontroll över arbetet. Utöver decentralisering ger blockchain också fördelen av uthållighet, oföränderlighet och säkerhet till systemet tack vare sin kryptografiska grund. I den här studien utnyttjar vi privat blockchainteknologi för att ta steg mot en decentraliserad service level agreement (SLA) platform, där både tjänsteleverantörer och konsumenter saknar makten att manipulera kontrakt och dess resultat. Studien ger en systematisk literaturstudie på state-of-the-art inom SLA och relevant blockchain teknologi, ett bevis på koncept som fungerar tillsammans med Ericssons decentraliserade Nubo Service Marknad, och till slut en simulation som undersöker hur systemet reagerar i form av genomströmmning och responstid under olika nätverksbelastningar. Undersökningen visar att nätverket fungerar som förväntat upp till 70 transaktioner per sekund, då nätverket begränsas av genomströmning och köer bildas.

The thesis deals with information technologies on different levels of management. The first chapter analyzes a strategy level and a function of strategic documents in the IT management analyzed. The second half of the theoretical part deals with IT governance, its connection to the strategic management, and its chosen tools - decision-rights structure, service-level agreements, and accounting (focused on chargeback). The practical part of the thesis deals with IT management at the University of Economics in Prague. It analyzes and evaluates strategic documents from the IT management point of view. The second half of the practical part evaluates possibility of implementing the chosen tools of IT governance in the university's IT management.

[pt] Cada vez mais o transporte de cargas rodoviário desempenha um papel fundamental para a execução dos processos logísticos dentro das empresas. Atualmente as empresas têm optado por utilizar serviços de outras para desempenhar essa função, através da terceirização de serviço. Porém, por observar que muitas vezes as expectativas com relação ao nível de serviço ficam abaixo do esperado, ou ainda por insatisfação dos clientes com a forma de execução dessas empresas terceirizadas, as empresas optam por manter uma frota própria, que prioriza o nível de serviço evitando falhas e consequentemente a depreciação da sua reputação. A partir de análises dos serviços logísticos prestados por uma empresa terceirizada para uma empresa de cosméticos na região metropolitana de Curitiba foi verificada a necessidade de uma nova estratégia no sistema de transportes de cargas, a fim de se obter uma melhora no nível de serviço de entrega e consequentemente a melhora na satisfação dos clientes. O resultado após sete meses de implantação do serviço com frota própria, com a utilização de nove veículos, foi mais eficiente que o serviço prestado anteriormente pela empresa terceirizada, por viabilizar um aumento do número de entregas aos clientes finais em até dois dias úteis, melhorar o nível de serviço nas entregas, gerando assim, um aumento da satisfação dos clientes e proporcionar para a empresa uma redução nos seus custos de transporte. / [en] Cargo road transportation plays a key role in the execution of logistics processes within companies. Currently, companies have chosen to use other services to perform this function, called out sourcing service. However, by observing that the quality of service is less than expected, or that the customers are not satisfied with the service provided by the carriers contracted, companies choose to maintain its own fleet, which prioritizes the quality of service avoiding failures and therefore the depreciation of its reputation. Logistic services analysis provided by a cosmetic company in Curitiba, Brazil verified the need for a new strategy in the transport system in order to obtain an improvement in the level of delivery service and consequently the improvement in customer satisfaction. After seven months with its own transport fleet, comprising nine vehicles, the freight was more efficient than the service provided by the company previously outsourced, resulting in an increase in the number of deliveries to the customers in two days, improving the status of service deliveries, thus providing an increase in customer satisfaction and a reduction in the expenses for their transportation costs.

The operating room (OR) is accountable for most hospital admissions and is one of the most cost and work intensive areas in the hospital. From recent trends, we discover an unexpected parallel increase in expenditure and waiting time. Therefore, improving OR planning has become obligatory, particularly regarding utilization, and service level. Significant challenges in OR planning are the high variations in demand, processing times of surgical specialties, the trade-off between the objectives, and control of OR performance in long-term. Our model provides OR configurations at a strategical level of OR planning to minimize the tradeoff between the utilization and service level accounting for variation in both demand and processing times of surgical specialties. An adaptive control scheme is proposed to aid OR managers to maintain the OR performance within the prescribed controllable limits. Our model is validated using a simulation of demand and processing time data of surgical services at University of Kentucky Health Care.

L'Internet sert de support de communication à un grand nombre d'applications dans le cadre des réseaux d'entreprise. Cependant, un certain nombre d'applications multimédia (e.g. téléphonie IP) nécessite un support de mécanisme de qualité de service dans le réseau. Chaque mécanisme du QoS est provisionné en fonction du contrat (SLA - Service Level Agreement) établit entre l'utilisateur/application et l'ISP (Internet Service Provider). Le rôle important de la gestion du QoS est de conserver toutes les caractéristiques établies par le SLA pendant toute la durée du contrat. Cette gestion peut être statique ou dynamique. Dans le cas statique, la gestion de la QoS dans le réseau est effectuée d'une manière expérimentale et non-efficace, manuellement par l'administrateur de réseau sur une grande échelle de temps. La gestion dynamique de la QoS est effectuée en utilisant des mécanismes adaptables et de façon automatique pour une gestion flexible et efficace des ressources du réseau. Dans cette thèse, nous considérons les éléments suivants qui compose de l'architecture pour la gestion dynamique des ressources : signalisation, algorithmes d'allocation de la bande passante et de contrôle de ressources, algorithmes de mesure des ressources dans le réseau, algorithmes de négociation entre plusieurs domaines. Nous proposons des critères de classification pour les protocoles QoS de signalisation en Internet et nous avons effectué une analyse des protocoles QoS les plus utilisés utilisant cette classification. Nous avons étudié l'impact entre les paramètres de SLA (bande passante, gigue, délai, perte des paquets) et les paramètres de différents mécanismes de QoS implémentés dans un réseau Linux Diffserv. En utilisant le réseau Linux Diffserv, nous montrons que la gestion statique de la QoS dans certains cas n'est pas efficace. Nous proposons un mécanisme d'allocation dynamique de la bande passante dans les routeurs à l'intérieur du réseau (Linux Diffserv). Avec notre algorithme nous proposons plusieurs règles de partage des ressources.

Increasing number of software vendors are offering or planning to offer their applications as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to leverage the benefits of cloud computing and Internet-based delivery. Therefore, potential clients will face increasing number of providers that satisfy their requirements to choose from. Consequently, there is an increasing demand for automating such a time-consuming and error-prone task. In this work, we develop an architecture for automated service discovery and selection in cloud computing environment. The system is based on an algorithm that recommends service choices to users based on both functional and non-functional characteristics of available services. The system also derives automated ratings from monitoring results of past service invocations to objectively detect badly-behaving providers. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using an early prototype that was developed following object-oriented methodology and implemented using various open-source Java technologies and frameworks. The prototype uses a Chord DHT as its distributed backing store to achieve scalability.

Background: AA Logistics Sweden is having logistic efficiency problems, and at this point they do not have performance measurement in terms of KPI´s. Due to constant development and demand on their products, there have not been enough resources available to perform these measurements. Purpose: Our purpose is, on the basis of service level and turnover speed, to measure efficiency in terms of KPI’s at AA. It is also to design record sheets that can assist AA to increase the efficiency over time. Methodology: Interviews with managers and employees, in order to have a solid foundation for what to look for and analyse in the ERP system. The empirical material that was received was analysed on the basis of different theories. Result, conclusions: We have developed values for each KPI and also suggested SMART goals that in the long run will contribute to increasing the logistic efficiency.

The aim of this study is planning the locations of emergency centers (ECs) as well as the number of vehicles in each EC of Corporation, Man Truck and Bus Group, to respond to the calls (arrival of the mobile/24 emergency service vehicle to the broken vehicle) within the desired time. The company aims to respondto the calls within 90 minutes. If the EC cannot respond to the calls within 90 minutes, they should be satisfiedwithin 180 minutes. We propose a probabilistic programming approach to maximize the number of responded calls in 90 minutes while responding to all the calls in 180 minutes. The model determines the locations of the new ECs addition to the existing ones and also the number of vehicles assigned to those centers. The data source to this study is the emergency service calls of the company within February 2008 and December 2010. There are 30 ECs of the company distributed all over Turkey. By using the data, it is examined if the company can get closer to its target in responding to the calls with the current ECs. Necessary changes are proposed in the number and the locations of emergency centers for the desired target. Furthermore, several scenarios for targets with different quality service levels are generated and the effects of these parameters on the objective are observed.

<p>We study techniques to enforce and provision differentiated service levels in <i>Computational Grid</i> systems. The Grid offers simplified provisioning of peak-capacity for applications with computational requirements beyond local machines and clusters, by sharing resources across organizational boundaries. Current systems have focussed on access control, i.e., managing who is allowed to run applications on remote sites. Very little work has been done on providing differentiated service levels for those applications that are admitted. This leads to a number of problems when scheduling jobs in a fair and efficient way. For example, users with a large number of long-running jobs could starve out others, both intentionally and non-intentionally. We investigate the requirements of High Performance Computing (HPC) applications that run in academic Grid systems, and propose two models of service-level management. Our first model is based on global real-time quota enforcement, where projects are granted resource quota, such as CPU hours, across the Grid by a centralized allocation authority. We implement the SweGrid Accounting System to enforce quota allocated by the Swedish National Allocations Committee in the SweGrid production Grid, which connects six Swedish HPC centers. A flexible authorization policy framework allows provisioning and enforcement of two different service levels across the SweGrid clusters; high-priority and low-priority jobs. As a solution to more fine-grained control over service levels we propose and implement a <i>Grid</i> <i>Market </i>system, using a market-based resource allocator called Tycoon. The conclusion of our research is that although the Grid accounting solution offers better service level enforcement support than state-of-the-art production Grid systems, it turned out to be complex to set the resource price and other policies manually, while ensuring fairness and efficiency of the system. Our Grid Market on the other hand sets the price according to the dynamic demand, and it is further incentive compatible, in that the overall system state remains healthy even in the presence of strategic users.</p>