Design method and lifecycle management for cloud-compliant web services

Abstract

Cloud services have provided application interfaces consisting of software programs and hardware resources through the net. The cloud services have created a trend in the industry - making ownership of software and hardware products for their system unnecessary. Accordingly, web services are developed through combining these interfaces leased from the cloud. However, this trend has also highlighted the gaps between design and operation. The permeation of virtualization technologies for servers and storages require developers to focus on resources as they become design choices. Likewise, operators are required to have concern over application components as the cloud service interfaces enable rapid prototyping and staging of web applications. However, both parties are not able to combine the application logic and resources as each is supervised by the other party. To address this issue, this paper focuses on resource modeling. This approach enables separation and integration of both application logic and resources in design, test, and operation phases, and it is carried out as follows. The first method enables reasonable requirement definitions while run-time resources in the cloud are referred and adapted to fit. The second one streamlines architectural design of both software and virtualized resources comprehensively, in accordance with Axiomatic Design, DSM and Design- for-X. The third enables independent test of functionality of applications and non-functional requirements, e.g. security and performance, by separating logic and resources of the target web service. The last method enables run-time resource management by determining non-functional requirements. These methods are verified through a prototype, making management of the service lifecycle easier. © 2013 The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.