Vendor Lock-in Research Articles

CVL: A Cloud Vendor Lock-In Prediction Framework

This paper presents the cloud vendor lock-in prediction framework (CVL), which aims to address the challenges that arise from vendor lock-in in cloud computing. The framework provides a systematic approach to evaluate the extent of dependency between service providers and consumers and offers predictive risk analysis and detailed cost assessments. At the heart of the CVL framework is the Dependency Module, which enables service consumers to input weighted factors that are critical to their reliance on cloud service providers. These factors include service costs, data transfer expenses, security features, compliance adherence, scalability, and technical integrations. The research delves into the critical factors that are necessary for dependency calculation and cost analysis, providing insights into determining dependency levels and associated financial implications. Experimental results showcase dependency levels among service providers and consumers, highlighting the framework’s utility in guiding strategic decision-making processes. The CVL is a powerful tool that empowers service consumers to proactively navigate the complexities of cloud vendor lock-in. By offering valuable insights into dependency levels and financial implications, the CVL aids in risk mitigation and facilitates informed decision-making.

Online dynamic replication and placement algorithms for cost optimization of online social networks in two-tier multi-cloud

In social media, a huge number of worldwide data objects are posted every day. The contents of these data objects include text, links, images, audio, and videos which could be small, medium, or large and accessed across the world. Moving these data objects into a single cloud service provider (CSP) is risky and results in four-fold obstacles: vendor lock-in, service availability, cost-ineffective use, and increasing latency. Using multiple CSPs to replicate and distribute the data object solves such obstacles. However, replicating data objects among multiple CSPs increases the cost of creating and maintaining this replication. This study focuses on three issues of Online Social Network (OSN) which include: (1) determining the appropriate number of replicas of each data object based on its popularity on the OSN, (2) identifying the suitable datacenters that host the replicas according to latency time of different regions, and (3) deciding the suitable storage class for the data object at a specific time of its lifetime. Two algorithms are proposed to adapt the replication and placement of the data object according to its popularity in the OSN. The first algorithm is Dynamic Fixed Time (DFT) which uses fixed time periods to adapt replication and placement. The second algorithm is Dynamic Exponential Time (DET) which determines the data object replication and placement based on exponential time periods. A simulation using a synthesized workload generated based on a real Facebook statistic dataset shows that the proposed algorithms produce a monetary cost savings of more than 23% compared to the Static Replication and Local Placement (SRLP) algorithm.

Guarding the Cloud: An Effective Detection of Cloud-Based Cyber Attacks using Machine Learning Algorithms

Cloud computing has gained significant popularity due to its reliability and scalability, making it a compelling area of research. However, this technology is not without its challenges, including network connectivity dependencies, downtime, vendor lock-in, limited control, and most importantly, its vulnerability to attacks. Therefore, guarding the cloud is the objective of this paper, which focuses, in a novel approach, on two prevalent cloud attacks: Distributed Denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and Man-in-the-Cloud (MitC) computing attacks. To tackle the detection of these malicious activities, machine learning algorithms, namely Decision Trees, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naive Bayes, and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), are utilized. Experimental simulations of DDoS and MitC attacks are conducted within a cloud environment, and the resultant data is compiled into a dataset for training and evaluating the machine learning algorithms. The study reveals the effectiveness of these algorithms in accurately identifying and classifying malicious activities, effectively distinguishing them from legitimate network traffic. The finding highlights Decision Trees algorithm with most promising potential of guarding the cloud and mitigating the impact of various cyber threats.

A Framework for Standardization of Distributed Ledger Technologies for Interoperable Data Integration and Alignment in Sustainable Smart Cities

AbstractDistributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are considered one of the foremost emerging technologies which can contribute to transform cities to smarter cities. DLT play important role in municipalities to accelerate the digitalization process toward changing the roles and services of enterprises in sustainable smart cities. Standardization of DLTs aids to reduce data and digital assets silos while decreasing vendor lock-in across distributed applications enabling a digital urban ecosystem that supports migration capabilities making it possible for cities to seamlessly achieve interoperability among DLTs and centralized digital platforms, although a few standards such as IEEE 2418, IEEE P2418.5, and ISO/TC 307 have been developed. The alignment and integration mechanisms required to support standardization of DLT for interoperable services in smart cities is lacking. Therefore, this study presents an understanding on current and open issues on standardization of DLTs in sustainable smart cities with a specific focus on data integration and alignment efforts related to interoperable DLTs. A framework is developed to promote standardization of DLTs to support integration and alignment for interoperability in smart cities. Design science research methodology was adopted based on three use case scenarios which illustrates how IOTA tangle is employs as a DLT for secured standardized communication between physical sensors, devices, and digital platforms in smart city environment. Findings from this article provide exploratory evidence demonstrating the potential uses of IOTA tangle through the developed framework applied for decentralized and centralized digital services. Based on this evidence, this study provides interface integration and alignment strategies to better exploit distributed applications full potential by improving DLT standardization in urban environment.

Power equalization-based disaggregated optical network using switched gain equalization controlled amplifiers.

Optical network disaggregation is an attractive agreement to avoid vendor lock-in in choosing desirable partners based on lead time of delivery and facilitates strong negotiations. Disaggregation of conventional coherent transceivers (XCVRs) with 400G ZR+ technologies (of similar bandwidth density and form factor QSFP-DD) allows operators to enjoy significant cost reduction and substantial power savings in high-capacity IP over a WDM transmission. However, interoperability between low power and high back-to-back required optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of ZR+ and high power with relatively lower back-to-back required OSNR of conventional coherent XCVRs limits the performance of the latter, which makes disaggregation more complex. This can be avoided by equalizing the power of ZR+ and conventional XCVRs, by wavelength-selective switches (WSSs) in re-configurable optical add/drop multiplexers. However, such power equalization can lead to lower link OSNR, originating from insertion loss and penalty caused by cascaded WSSs. In this Letter, we use a dynamic gain equalizer of a switched gain equalization controlled (SGEC) amplifier at each in-line amplifier site to equalize the powers, without introducing insertion loss or filter penalty. We report a field trial of a low power 400G-ZR+ QSFP-DD-DCO as an alien channel over ten high-power coherent host channels, interoperating with open forward error correction, between two different vendors. We obtain a similar Q-margin in the absence and presence of 400-ZR+ channel, suggesting the equalization by SGEC amplifiers. We further simulate the power and OSNR evolution of channels along the field trial link to verify the equalization. Simulation results are consistent with that of the field trial.

Serverless Computing: Advantages, Limitations and Use Cases

Serverless computing, also known simply as "serverless," represents a significant transformation in how applications are designed, deployed, and executed. Contrary to traditional methods where developers manage servers, serverless allows them to focus only on coding, trusting cloud providers with infrastructure responsibilities. This paradigm shift results in dynamic resource allocation, where users are billed based on actual resource consumption rather than pre-allocated capacities. The article elucidates serverless computing's nature, highlighting its core components - Function as a Service (FaaS) and Backend as a Service (BaaS). The benefits of serverless are underscored, including cost efficiency, inherent scalability, rapid development, and reduced operational demands. Yet, it is not without limitations. Concerns such as "cold starts," potential vendor lock-in, restricted customization, and specific security vulnerabilities are discussed. Practical serverless applications include web applications, data processing, IoT backends, chatbots, and ephemeral tasks. In conclusion, while serverless computing heralds a new age in cloud technology, businesses are encouraged to discerningly evaluate its pros and cons, mainly as the landscape evolves. The future is serverless, prompting organizations to determine their readiness for this revolution.

SHAPES Marketplace: Transparency, Trust and Fair Competition in the Healthy Ageing Market.

Access to digital health and care solutions and services that promote healthy ageing, independent living, and ageing in place is limited due to significant market barriers and challenges. The SHAPES project addresses the challenge of ageing populations by developing a sociotechnical ecosystem comprising a variety of health and care digital solutions, tools and services to enable and facilitate active, independent, and healthy ageing at home. Within the SHAPES project, the SHAPES Marketplace serves as a one-stop-shop for digital solutions and services designed for the Silver Economy that target the smart and healthy ageing and independent living markets. Delivering a dynamic catalogue of health and care digital solutions and services, the Marketplace promotes a transparent expansion of a trusted market offer on digital solutions and services for healthy ageing and independent living on a pan-European scale, thereby preventing vendor lock-in and enhancing the agile and fair competitiveness of the health and care industry, particularly in Europe. This paper introduces the SHAPES Marketplace and considers its function as a market driver to raise awareness on the benefits and impact of health and care digital solutions and services, as well as to shape the healthy ageing market, upholding the Systems-Market for Assistive and Related Technologies (SMART) Thinking Matrix to stimulate transparency, trust and fair competition.

The Impact of Cloud Computing in the field of Finance: A Comprehensive Analysis

Abstract: The advent of cloud computing has revolutionized the landscape of various industries, and the finance sector is no exception. This research paper explores the impact of cloud computing in finance, focusing on its potential benefits, challenges, and implications for financial institutions. The paper begins by providing an overview of cloud computing, highlighting its fundamental characteristics such as on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service. It then delves into the specific applications of cloud computing in the finance industry, including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS). The benefits of adopting cloud computing in finance are examined, such as cost reduction, scalability, flexibility, enhanced collaboration, and improved accessibility. Moreover, the research paper investigates the challenges associated with cloud adoption in the finance sector. Security and privacy concerns, regulatory compliance, data sovereignty, vendor lock-in, and integration complexities are among the key issues discussed. The paper explores strategies and best practices for mitigating these challenges, including encryption, authentication protocols, compliance frameworks, and hybrid cloud models. Furthermore, the implications of cloud computing in finance are analyzed, focusing on its impact on financial operations, risk management, data analytics, customer experience, and innovation. The research paper also explores the evolving role of financial institutions and the changing skill requirements for professionals in a cloud-enabled environment. Finally, the paper concludes by summarizing the findings and emphasizing the transformative potential of cloud computing in the finance industry. It highlights the need for financial institutions to carefully evaluate the risks and benefits of cloud adoption, develop robust security measures, and adapt their business models to fully leverage the advantages offered by cloud computing.

The Benefits and Challenges of Customization within SaaS Cloud Solutions

The Benefits and Challenges of Customization within SaaS Cloud Solutions

Extending the OSLC Standard for ECA-Based Automation

Workflow automation is taking over software development systems, helping businesses increase efficiency, accelerate production, and adapt quickly to market changes. Combined with agile principles, it has given birth to the DevOps paradigm. However, practitioners often face an important issue known as vendor lock-in caused by the cost of tool replacement or migration to different platforms. This issue could be addressed by standardising service interfaces to facilitate their integration. Linked Data is an attractive choice for implementing such a standard without sacrificing versatility. Following this approach, the Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) proposal aims to build an environment where services can interoperate using standard models. Therefore, this article proposes an extension of the existing OSLC specification, based on the Event-Condition-Action (ECA) model, for event-based interoperable automation. This extension enables a new path in the field of semantic automation for OSLC services, which allows the self-interaction of services among them and with human users. The article presents the key concepts of the proposed model and exemplifies its application in an automation scenario with two real-life services. The validation of the proposal has been carried out using established ontology evaluation methods, such as coverage and similarity metrics and competency questions.

Replacing academic journals.

Replacing traditional journals with a more modern solution is not a new idea. Here, we propose ways to overcome the social dilemma underlying the decades of inaction. Any solution needs to not only resolve the current problems but also be capable of preventing takeover by corporations: it needs to replace traditional journals with a decentralized, resilient, evolvable network that is interconnected by open standards and open-source norms under the governance of the scholarly community. It needs to replace the monopolies connected to journals with a genuine, functioning and well-regulated market. In this new market, substitutable service providers compete and innovate according to the conditions of the scholarly community, avoiding sustained vendor lock-in. Therefore, a standards body needs to form under the governance of the scholarly community to allow the development of open scholarly infrastructures servicing the entire research workflow. We propose a redirection of money from legacy publishers to the new network by funding bodies broadening their minimal infrastructure requirements at recipient institutions to include modern infrastructure components replacing and complementing journal functionalities. Such updated eligibility criteria by funding agencies would help realign the financial incentives for recipient institutions with public and scholarly interest.

Technological diversity of quantum computing providers: a comparative study and a proposal for API Gateway integration

After decades of advances, mainly theoretical, in recent years quantum computing has begun to show its first practical applications. This new and revolutionary technology aims to enhance essential areas such as cybersecurity, financial services, or medicine. The growth of this technology has encouraged different research centers and big companies such as IBM, Amazon, and Google to dedicate considerable efforts to developing new technologies that bring quantum computing to the market. However, these technologies are not yet mature and create a significant vendor lock-in problem. Therefore, new tools are needed that facilitate access to this technology and that allow developers to increase the abstraction level at which they work. Given that the integration of quantum software should not be very different from that of classical services, we can take advantage of the knowledge acquired and use current techniques of service-oriented computing. In this work, we have carried out a technical comparison between different quantum computing service providers using a case study, by performing empirical tests based on the Travelling Salesman Problem. This study highlights the differences between the main providers. To address these differences and reduce the vendor lock-in effect, we propose an extension of the Quantum API Gateway to support the different providers and the casuistry that each one presents. This would allow programmers to deploy quantum code without vendor-specific knowledge of the major providers, which would facilitate access and simplify the development of quantum applications.

Analysis of Issues and Solutions to avoid Vendor Lock-In Situation in Cloud Migration

Cloud computing has become a widespread technology that offers many benefits to businesses, including scalability, flexibility, and affordability. However, cloud computing comes with an inherent risk known as dependency on cloud service providers. Suspension of a cloud provider refers to a situation where a customer cannot change cloud provider due to various reasons such as: B. high switching costs, proprietary technologies and provider-specific functions. This article takes a detailed look at the problem of dependency on cloud service providers, its causes and impact on organizations with examples, statistics and charts. Keywords - Vendor lock-in, cloud computing, cloud migration issues

Cloud computing in supply chain management: Exploring the relationship

This research study addresses the advantages and difficulties of Cloud Computing (CC) in Supply Chain Management (SCM). An overview of the current state of SCM and the difficulties businesses in this sector confront is presented at the beginning of the article. It then explores how cloud-based solutions can address these challenges, such as through the use of real-time data analytics, collaborative platforms, and intelligent automation. Additionally, the paper investigates the potential risks and challenges associated with cloud-based SCM, including data security and privacy concerns, vendor lock-in, and the need for robust disaster recovery plans. To provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic, the paper includes a case study that illustrates how a company successfully implemented cloud-based SCM solutions to improve their operations. The paper concludes by highlighting the key takeaways and insights from the research, and by identifying potential future directions for research in this field. Overall, this study delivers insightful information about the function of CC in SCM and offers useful suggestions for companies looking to use this technology to enhance their supply chain operations.

Cloud ERP systems architectural challenges on cloud adoption in large international organizations: A sociomaterial perspective

This combined literature review and case employs a sociomaterial perspective to explore architectural challenges and countermeasures that BioOrganism, the case company, should consider in a decision to adopt a cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The case has experiences with an on-premises model, but not the cloud model per se. The study is designed with an element of case to provide a solid backdrop toward the sociomaterial perspective, which focuses on a reciprocal enactment between the cloud ERP systems architecture and the BioOrganism contextual surrounding. Six architecture challenges were identified: (1) data security, (2) data privacy, (3) network dependency, (4) system mobility, (5) vendor lock-in, and (6) scalability. Countermeasures that BioOrganism, and other large international organizations of similar nature, can take to mitigate risks from the six challenges are presented in the review.

Enterprise Risk Management Strategy - SLA, Analytics, and Vendor Lock-in

Enterprise Risk Management Strategy - SLA, Analytics, and Vendor Lock-in

Assessing the implications of ICT Projects Vendor Lock-in to the Namibian Government Digital Transformation

Assessing the implications of ICT Projects Vendor Lock-in to the Namibian Government Digital Transformation

ChaordicLedger: Knowledge Transfer for Industry

In the development of large-scale, integrated systems, the consistent clarity and distribution of knowledge and relevant status is crucial to success. There are many existing methods and commercial tools for providing context and traceability from requirements and specifications to a system's artifacts, but these tools are often vendor-locked and require access to cloud-based services and necessitate high licensing costs. Further, modern large-scale systems development involves multiple business partners, each of which needs to ensure their teams have granular, role-based access to all relevant information without impediment; centralized warehousing and gatekeeping should not be handled by a single entity if the information is to remain readily accessible. Instead, a permissioned, distributed knowledgebase that avoids vendor lock-in enables a consistent, real-time view of information that provides equivalent context for developers and other stakeholders. ChaordicLedger, a free and open source (FOSS) project joins the transparency and smart contract aspects of Distributed Ledger Technology with the storage capabilities of a Distributed File System to fulfill this industrial application while allowing for industry-specific customizations.

Decentralization using Blockchain as a Service

Abstract: Due to its immutability, traceability, anonymity, and transparency as a decentralised distributed ledger, blockchain has seen significant development in cryptocurrencies and production as a new trend. The emergence of Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) in the interim aids in the mitigation of the Blockchain system complexity and management challenges make it simpler for developers to concentrate on implementing business logic. However, the majority of current BaaS solutions are hosted by cloud providers, increasing the risk of vendor lock-in and undermining blockchain's intrinsic trustlessness. Although current BaaS systems use edge computing or the cloud as their infrastructure, their availability is constrained by the availability of network connections and the data centre itself. Most developers or teams find it challenging and expensive to create, maintain, and watch over a blockchain network that supports their apps due to the intricacy of blockchain technology. The majority of regular developers or teams are unable to guarantee the dependability and security of the blockchain system, which in part lowers the calibre of their programmes. The BaaS platform we create in this study,BaaS, offers blockchain services across cloud computing environments, including network deployment and system monitoring, smart contract analysis, and testing. Based on these services, developers don't have to worry about maintaining and monitoring the system and can instead concentrate on the business code to investigate how to apply blockchain technology to their business scenarios more effectively.

Design of a microkernelbased services manager for IoT with isolated processing

The development of projects related to the Internet of Things has generated a significant impact on the growth of the software industry. Although there are several alternatives to their development, users are limited by inherent factors, such as vendor lock-in, software development flexibility, and security. This article shows a platform design that provides a deployment and management system for IoT projects avoiding some of the limitations of the current tools, such as vendor lockin and limitations in the development technologies.