Software Service Platform Research Articles

Collaboration-Enabled Intelligent Internet Architecture: Opportunities and Challenges

Since intelligent algorithms such as deep learning (DL) have strong expressiveness, flexibility, and scalability for complex problems, some DL-based methods have been applied to Internet architecture-related scenarios, such as congestion control and malicious traffic detection. However, DL-based models have relatively high requirements for resources such as data and computing, and the existing Internet architecture requires further evolution to break through these limitations. In this article, we propose the collaboration-enabled intelligent Internet architecture, which can leverage intelligence to facilitate the evolution of Internet architecture in more complex scenarios. Specifically, we first discuss the inherent opportunities and challenges of enabling the Internet architecture to be intelligent through collaboration, which are brought by the imbalance of Internet supply and demand, distributed organizational structure, and the lack of built-in security. Immediately after, we present the newly proposed collaboration-enabled intelligent Internet architecture, which consists of heterogeneous hardware infrastructure and a collaboration-oriented software service platform. Through the complementarity of these two components (i.e., providing hierarchical computing and full exploitation of hierarchical capabilities), it promotes the collaboration of intelligent algorithms built into the Internet architecture. Moreover, some flexible algorithmic modules for the proprietary requirements of the Internet architecture are built into the software service platform. Finally, we take multi-classification malicious traffic detection as a case study, and demonstrate the advantages of enabling Internet architecture to be intelligent through collaboration.

Platform Provider Roles in Innovation in Software Service Ecosystems

Following a new innovation strategy, software vendors move their software onto their software service platforms and open up their platforms to third-party software service vendors. Although many studies state that enlarging the scope of software service offerings is the goal of the platform providers, only a few studies have focused on the roles that the platform providers take on to achieve the goal. These studies identified that the platform providers not only manage the platform but also promote and regulate third-party software. In this article, we extend this research by analyzing the activities of how platform providers promote innovation. For the analysis, we use empirical data about software services gathered from AppExchange of Salesforce. The analysis identifies the clusters and positions of software services of Salesforce and third-party vendors in the software service network. Our analysis results show that Salesforce promotes innovation by provisioning software services that are in core positions or that are bridges between service clusters. Third-party vendors release software services that are complementary to those of Salesforce. Overall, the results suggest that platform providers need to position strategically their software services to build successful software ecosystems, and that research on innovation needs to analyze the roles and efforts of the platform providers in detail.

Exploration on Campus Network Construction Mechanism and Application Mode

In recent years, accelerating the process of educational informationization and comprehensively promoting the informatization level and connotative development of educational institutions have been put forward in the National Medium and Long Term Plan for Education Reform and Development (2010-2020). Based on extensive research and repeated argumentation, this paper aims to provide corresponding solutions to the problems existing in the current network structure. On the basis of present situation, this paper puts forward the construction objectives and key contents according to the guideline, that is, overall planning and step-by-step implementation. In order to achieve the expected goals and get satisfied results, the construction mainly includes six parts --the construction of basic hardware platform, application software service platform, high-quality education and teaching resources, security system, operation and maintenance system and information-based team.

Stoichiometry Software Services Based on Cloud Computation

In order to solve the shortcomings of the existing stoichiometry software program, such as high development cost, difficulties in deployment and upgrading and poor controllability, a stoichiometry software service based on cloud computation is proposed in this paper. With software-as-a-service (SaaS) model used, the browser/server architecture is adopted to provide professional stoichiometry software services. Experiments show that the parallel cross validation framework on the platform has greatly improved with regard to the speedup ratio on quad core CPU. Therefore, CloudChem can overcome the shortcomings of traditional stoichiometry software and the software service platform based on this method can realize effective, high- speed and integral storage, analysis and digging regarding chromatography, spectroscopy, NMR, mass spectrometry and other data and minimize infrastructure cost in using the stoichiometry software and software cost.

Evaluating investments in portability and interoperability between software service platforms

Within a closed ecosystem, end-users cannot interoperate with other platforms or port their software and data easily without a cost for interface integration or data re-formatting. The customers of these closed software service platforms are locked-in. Potential customers, who are aware of this lock-in issue, are hesitant to adopt a closed software service platform, slowing down the wide deployment of the software service platform. This paper applies an economic perspective to investigate the value creation for providers and users at different levels of interoperability. For the analysis, a value creation model for software service platforms within a software service ecosystem has been developed. Simulations of the value creation model show that, even if investments in interoperability and portability are aimed at addressing user requirements, their impact also drives the providers’ profitability. Furthermore, emerging providers require investing more than market leading providers, as they have less power to set de facto standards. The simulation results also show that there is an optimal level of investments, with respect to profit and return on investments. Overall, from these results, platform providers cannot only obtain an understanding on how investments in interoperability and portability impact cost, enable cost-effective service integration, and create value, but also design new strategies for optimizing investments.

PROXZONE: One Cloud Computing System for Support PaaS in Energy Power Applications

AbstractAs a core of the cloud computing, PaaS (Platform as a Service) provides a computing and software service platform to support large-scale cloud services. This paper presents one cloud comput...

Structural analysis of value creation in software service platforms

As software service platforms grow in number of users and variety of service offerings, it raises the question of how this phenomenon impacts the value obtained by users. This paper identifies system usability, service variety, and personal connectivity to be the major determinants that contribute to the value offered to users on mobile software service platforms. A structural equation model, which is based on utility theory, technology acceptance theory, and the theory of network externalities, has been constructed from seven observed constructs, reflecting the three determinants and the user value. The lower bound of user value is estimated through the user’s willingness-to-pay for services and the user’s willingness to spend time on using services. For the validation, a co-variance-based structural equation analysis has been conducted on online survey data of 210 users of mobile service platforms (e.g., Android, iOS). The results show that the number of services used and the number of active user connections were found to be the strongest constructs explaining user value. Perceived usefulness did not explain user value as much. In total, they can explain 49 % of the value that the user receives from the platform. The implication of this result is that users’ value from a software service platform cannot be explained by the technology acceptance model itself. Instead, an approach that, as used in this research, of integrating network externality theory, utility theory, and technology acceptance theory is necessary.

Value creation in software service platforms

In order to benefit from operating an IT service platform (e.g., SaaS platform), platform providers need to find a way to keep their existing users and application services active sources of value. However, the understanding of how to achieve that is limited due to the newness of this kind of business. This paper investigates whether all stakeholders of the platform ecosystem can generate sufficient value when participating in the platform. As stakeholders, we consider application service users, service developers, and service platform providers. We also analyse the interrelationship between these stakeholders. The analysis outcome is a value creation model that allows the calculation of the stakeholders’ values. The model also helps inferring the relative impact of different factors on the evolution of values of the software service platform stakeholders. Our simulation results confirm that all stakeholders of a service platform mainly benefit from a growing installed base of application users. However, in a mature market, a large service variety mainly benefits the service platform provider, while the other stakeholders obtain a reduced increase in their benefits. In particular, the utility growth of application users becomes constrained as the benefit from new connections with other users decreases and the number of new services used decreases. Similarly, the revenue of service developer decreases, making service development less profitable. Therefore, we can state that not only a large fraction of the value creation goes to the platform provider but also that the software service ecosystem can collapse, if no mutually beneficial pricing of services is implemented.

A Framework for Annotating Human Genome in Disease Context

Identification of gene-disease association is crucial to understanding disease mechanism. A rapid increase in biomedical literatures, led by advances of genome-scale technologies, poses challenge for manually-curated-based annotation databases to characterize gene-disease associations effectively and timely. We propose an automatic method-The Disease Ontology Annotation Framework (DOAF) to provide a comprehensive annotation of the human genome using the computable Disease Ontology (DO), the NCBO Annotator service and NCBI Gene Reference Into Function (GeneRIF). DOAF can keep the resulting knowledgebase current by periodically executing automatic pipeline to re-annotate the human genome using the latest DO and GeneRIF releases at any frequency such as daily or monthly. Further, DOAF provides a computable and programmable environment which enables large-scale and integrative analysis by working with external analytic software or online service platforms. A user-friendly web interface (doa.nubic.northwestern.edu) is implemented to allow users to efficiently query, download, and view disease annotations and the underlying evidences.