Swarm-Like Distributed Algorithm for Scheduling a Microservice-Based Application to the Cloud Servers

Introduction of virtualization containers and container orchestrators fundamentally changed the landscape of cloud application development. Containers provide an ideal way for practical implementation of microservice-based architecture, which allows for repeatable, generic patterns that make the development of reliable, distributed applications more approachable and efficient. Orchestrators allow for shifting the accidental complexity from inside of an application into the automated cloud infrastructure. Existing container orchestrators are centralized systems that schedule containers to the cloud servers only at their startup. In this paper, we propose a swarm-like distributed cloud management system that uses live migration of containers to dynamically reassign application components to the different servers. It is based on the idea of “pheromone” robots. An additional mobile agent process is placed inside each application container to control the migration process. The number of parallel container migrations needed to reach an optimal state of the cloud is obtained using models, experiments, and simulations. We show that in the most common scenarios the proposed swarm-like algorithm performs better than existing systems, and due to its architecture it is also more scalable and resilient to container death. It also adapts to the influx of containers and addition of new servers to the cloud automatically.

Uncertainty-aware Decisions in Cloud Computing

The rapid growth of the cloud industry has increased challenges in the proper governance of the cloud infrastructure. Many intelligent systems have been developing, considering uncertainties in the cloud. Intelligent approaches with the consideration of uncertainties bring optimal management with higher profitability. Uncertainties of different levels and different types exist in various domains of cloud computing. This survey aims to discuss all types of uncertainties and their effect on different components of cloud computing. The article first presents the concept of uncertainty and its quantification. A vast number of uncertain events influence the cloud, as it is connected with the entire world through the internet. Five major uncertain parameters are identified, which are directly affected by numerous uncertain events and affect the performance of the cloud. Notable events affecting major uncertain parameters are also described. Besides, we present notable uncertainty-aware research works in cloud computing. A hype curve on uncertainty-aware approaches in the cloud is also presented to visualize current conditions and future possibilities. We expect the inauguration of numerous uncertainty-aware intelligent systems in cloud management over time. This article may provide a deeper understanding of managing cloud resources with uncertainties efficiently to future cloud researchers.

Does cloud computing improve team performance and employees' creativity?

Purpose The present investigation goals to empirically test the role of expert cloud on team performance and employee creativity. Here, the expert cloud comprises cloud application, cloud management, cloud infrastructure and cloud resources. The present study aims to identify important and key criteria and examine the relationships among them. In other words, the purpose of this study to find out the impact and relationship between cloud application, cloud management, cloud infrastructure and cloud resources and team performance and employee creativity. Design/methodology/approach Today, human societies’ rapid growth and the environmental changes that surround us every day are clearly visible. They highly affect our activities. In today’s highly complex organizations, people alone cannot handle all the issues that have arisen. As organizational managers are faced with diverse cultures in the governance of organizations, the need to use work teams with different abilities and specializations to achieve the goals of organizations leads managers to use teamwork and focus on employee creativity. On the other hand, the expert cloud makes it possible for human societies like universities, firms, industries, institutes, businesses and colleges to pool and share their human resources’ skills, knowledge and experiences to meet the competitive era’s demands. Therefore, the current investigation examines the impact of expert cloud on team performance and employee creativity. The research information is collected using an online questionnaire. The data collected is analyzed using AMOS and SMART PLS software. Findings All of the formulated hypotheses are supported. The results have shown that cloud application, cloud management, cloud infrastructure and cloud resources positively and significantly affect team performance and employee creativity. Practical implications Managers must be conscious of the vital role that the professional cloud plays in team performance and the innovation of workers. This paper would also make executives more conscious of the powerful tools in the field of cloud computing. Firms can use the outcomes of this paper investigation to improve team performance and employee creativity. Originality/value It is considered one of the initial efforts to demonstrate the impacts of expert cloud on team performance and employee creativity. This study’s value relies on that practitioners and academics may have supporting evidence on the role played by novel technology such as an expert cloud.

Cost-enabled QoS aware task scheduling in the cloud management system

Maintaining the quality of service (QoS) related parameters is an important issue in cloud management systems. The lack of such QoS parameters discourages cloud users from using the services of cloud service providers. The proposed task scheduling algorithms consider QoS parameters such as the latency, make-span, and load balancing to satisfy the user requirements. These parameters cannot sufficiently guarantee the desired user experience or that a task will be completed within a predetermined time. Therefore, this study considered the cost-enabled QoS-aware task (job) scheduling algorithm to enhance user satisfaction and maximize the profit of commercial cloud providers. The proposed scheduling algorithm estimates the cost-enabled QoS metrics of the virtual resources available from the unified resource layer in real-time. Moreover, the virtual machine (VM) manager frequently updates the current state-of-the art information about resources in the proposed scheduler to make appropriate decisions. Hence, the proposed approach guarantees profit for cloud providers in addition to providing QoS parameters such as make-span, cloud utilization, and cloud utility, as demonstrated through a comparison with existing time-and cost-based task scheduling algorithms.