Elsevier Editorial System(tm) for Computers in Industry Manuscript ...

Elsevier Editorial System(tm) for Computers in Industry Manuscript Draft Manuscript Number: COMIND-D-13-00148R1 Title: The Challenge of Networked Enterprises for Cloud Computing Interoperability Article Type: Research Paper Keywords: Cloud computing, networked enterprise, interoperability, manufacturing, standardization Corresponding Author: Dr. I. Mezgar, PhD, Habilitation Corresponding Author's Institution: Hungarian Academy of Sciences First Author: I. Mezgar, PhD, Habilitation Order of Authors: I. Mezgar, PhD, Habilitation; Ursula Rauschecker, Dipl.-Ing.( Abstract: Manufacturing enterprises have to organize themselves into effective system architectures forming different types of Networked Enterprises (NE) to match fast changing market demands. Cloud Computing (CC) is an important up to date computing concept for NE, as it offers significant financial and technical advantages beside high level collaboration possibilities. As cloud computing is a new concept the solutions for handling interoperability, portability, security, privacy and standardization challenges have not been solved fully yet. The paper introduces the main characteristics of future internet based enterprises and the different CC models. An overview is given on interoperability and actual standardization issues in CC environments. A taxonomy on possible connecting forms of networked enterprises and cloud-based IT systems with reference on interoperability is introduced, parallel presenting four use cases as well. Finally an example of connecting cloud and NE is presented as an effective application of cloud computing in manufacturing industry.

*2. Text without author names/affiliations

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc

The Challenge of Networked Enterprises for Cloud Computing Interoperability

Abstract: Manufacturing enterprises have to organize themselves into effective system architectures forming different types of Networked Enterprises (NE) to match fast changing market demands. Cloud Computing (CC) is an important up to date computing concept for NE, as it offers significant financial and technical advantages beside high level collaboration possibilities. As cloud computing is a new concept the solutions for handling interoperability, portability, security, privacy and standardization challenges have not been solved fully yet. The paper introduces the main characteristics of future internet based enterprises and the different CC models. An overview is given on interoperability and actual standardization issues in CC environments. A taxonomy on possible connecting forms of networked enterprises and cloud-based IT systems with reference on interoperability is introduced, parallel presenting four use cases as well. Finally an example of connecting cloud and NE is presented as an effective application of cloud computing in manufacturing industry. Keywords: Cloud computing, networked enterprise, interoperability, manufacturing, standardization

1

INTRODUCTION

Based on the results of the information and communications technologies (ICTs), a new “digital” economy is arising. This new economy needs a new set of rules and values, which determine the behaviour of its actors. Participants in the digital market realize that traditional attitudes and perspectives in doing business need to be redefined. In this dynamic and turbulent environment that requires flexible and fast responses to changing business needs organizations have to respond by adopting decentralized, team-based, and distributed structures variously described in the literature as e.g. virtual-, networked-, cluster- and resilient virtual organizations /enterprises. One main aspect of this approach is that organizations in this environment are networked, i.e. inter-linked on various levels through the use of different networking technologies. The new organizational architectures need new information and communication architectures as well. The architecture of the organizations is in a recursive connection with the IC systems; the IC technology offers new possibilities for restructuring the organization (and its business processes) itself, in other cases the new demands of a business process force the development of a special IC solution. The final goal of all information systems is to provide secure data-, information-, knowledge-, or different services for the users (human beings), and for firms, enterprises. Today Cloud Computing (CC) is a hot topic, and according to Gartner Inc. there are three cloud-related topics (Hybrid Cloud and IT as Service Broker, Cloud/Client Architecture, The Era of Personal Cloud) among the top 10 strategic information technology list for 2014 [1]. Because of the very positive market forecasts every main player of the IT sector has already developed its own (different) CC architectures, platforms.

Cloud Computing is an important technology for Networked Enterprises, as it offers significant financial advantages (pay only for what you use, less in-house IT staff and costs, etc.) while offering high level collaboration possibilities. In spite of these advantages the spread of CC in the practice seems to be behind the very optimistic forecasts. The main disadvantages lay in privacy, security and interoperability problems. The IT community tries to find the solution for these problems e.g. with applying different Deployment Models; for the Networked Enterprises the Private Cloud – where the CC architecture is owned or leased by one, or by a closed group of enterprises – can be a solution. According to a survey [2] the biggest contradiction between expectations and results can be seen in operational cost savings, as the expected savings were 74% and only 41% was achieved. But organizations have to cut costs, so if early cloud investments prove that they lower costs, investments in cloud computing will increase. SMEs are moving to the cloud much quicker, because it allows them to get a role in the market above their size. In cloud computing there is very fast evolution in every field because of the huge advantages offered for the enterprises. Interoperability, portability problems have to be solved in a short time (together with security/privacy) because these elements are the negative factors of the applications. The paper can give only a snapshot on the actual status of the standardization activities and results as many different organizations and groups are working hard in this field and their

1

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc results can modify the situation introduced in this paper within a short time. The paper introduces the main characteristics of NE and the different CC models, pointing out why CC can be an excellent solution for NE. The advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing are listed as well giving special focus on interoperability challenges. An overview is given on the interoperability and standardization issues of CC and a taxonomy is introduced on possible connection forms of networked enterprise architectures and cloud deployment models. Finally an example is presented briefly to show the application possibilities of cloud computing in production environment, in the manufacturing industry.

2 2.1

CHALLENGES OF NETWORKED ENTERPRISES FOR CLOUD COMPUTING Main characteristics of networked enterprises

In order to fulfil the market demands the flexible, effective manufacturing system architectures become more and more popular around the world. Manufacturing enterprises have a geographically distributed nature, so computer networks for production management is an important feature of their operation. There are different approaches, different names that basically cover the same idea; a flexible network of co-operating autonomous manufacturing units. Enterprise architectures of this kind are e.g. the collaborative enterprise, digital enterprise, smart organization, extended enterprise, virtual enterprise. Main characteristic of theses architectures is that organizations in this environment are networked, i.e. inter-linked on various levels through the use of different networking technologies. Besides the Internet new (or pilot phase) solutions are offered; wireless networks (Wi-Fi and mobile), powerline communication (using the electric power grid), the Grid technology and lately the cloud computing. The main characteristics of the digital economy for market participants are as follows:     

Networking and horizontal communication, including the smart product, Networked environment , Knowledge based technologies, Simplification and coordination of structure, Customer focus and real-time, ubiquitous responsiveness to technical and market trends (what customers want, anytime, anywhere),  Flexibility, adaptability, agility, mobility,  Organizational extendibility, virtuality,  Shared values, trust, confidence, transparency and integrity,  Ability to operate globally co-operating with local cultures. In this turbulent environment only those organizations can survive which effectively apply the results of the different disciplines.

2.2

Collaboration in Networked Enterprises

The collaboration and cooperation are main characteristics of networked enterprises, so the contacts among the users, the human beings have outstanding importance. A very important element of this human contact is trust. In a networked organization, trust is the atmosphere, the medium in which actors are moving. Trust is the base of cooperation, the normal behaviour of the human being in the society. As the rate of cooperation is increasing in all fields of life, the importance of trust is evolving even faster. Himmelman developed a hierarchy of partnerships [3]. The levels of this hierarchy are distinguished from each other by the amount of trust, time, and risk needed to establish and maintain the partnership. In Himmelman's framework, networking, coordinating, cooperating, and collaborating mean different concepts and are built on each other. Collaboration means exchanging information, altering activities, sharing resources, and enhancing the capacity of another individual or organization for mutual benefit and to achieve a common purpose. A new approach, the collaborative network paradigm has been developed and described in [4] that covers the main characteristic of all different networked units providing a framework to describe these organizations. A collaborative network (CN) is a network consisting of different entities (e.g. organization units and humans) that are autonomous, geographically distributed, and heterogeneous considering their operating goals, environment, social capital and culture. The collaboration is supported by computer network and makes possible to achieve common or compatible goals easier, thus generating joint value.

2

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc Most forms of collaborative networks can be connected to an organization that covers the activities of its units, giving rules for the participants. These organizations can be called as collaborative networked organizations (CNOs). The key concept related to CNOs is described in [5] parallel providing a high level classification of collaborative networks, and introducing some application cases in the manufacturing industry. The virtual enterprise (VE) has a dynamic and least of all stable nature in the CNOs. In a VE capabilities and competencies coming from different enterprises are put together but no node in the network plays a central role. This is a temporary association of existing or newly created business entities offered by several companies to form a new agile business entity to satisfy a one-off market need. The communication and collaboration is on highest level in VEs, so the need for interoperability, portability and security is the highest in these organizational architectures.

2.3

Trends in Networked Enterprises

Forecasts and reports on the future of manufacturing and the connected organizations (factories, enterprises) are regularly published by different institutes, committees to appoint the research directions, themes in this field. The Industrial Advisory Group working for Unit G2 issued a report with the title “Factories of the Future PPP - Strategic Multi-annual Roadmap” [6]. In this study it has been stated that the successful development of high added value technology should consider the following strategic sub-domains:  Sustainable manufacturing  ICT-enabled intelligent manufacturing  High performance manufacturing  Exploiting new materials through manufacturing The further integration of any newly developed ICT into the production and the industrial environments requires complementary research and innovation efforts. These integration aspects will play a key role for generating and using smart production systems for factories in different industrial sectors. According to the study ICT is a key enabler for improving manufacturing systems at three levels: 

Agile manufacturing and customization involving process automation control, planning, simulation and optimization technologies, robotics (smart factories);



Value creation from global networked operations involving global supply chain management, product-service connection and management of distributed manufacturing units (virtual factories);



Better understanding and design of production and manufacturing systems for better product life cycle management involving simulation, modelling and knowledge management from the product conception level down to manufacturing, (digital factories).

The main research areas related to ICT-enabled intelligent manufacturing should include in the virtual factories: “Product/service systems: Supporting the manufacturing industry in its transition towards providing customer value via product-linked services and solutions based on integrated product/service systems and the co-creation of value”. The European Technology Platform Manufuture aims to propose, develop and implement a strategy based on Research and Innovation. A fundamental concept of the Manufuture vision is that of „innovating production‟, which embraces new business models, new modes of „manufacturing engineering‟ and an ability to profit from ground-breaking manufacturing sciences and technologies. The „virtual factory‟ of the future will manufacture in adaptable networks linking medium- and large-sized OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) with value-chain partners and suppliers of factory equipment/services selected according to needs at a given time. Its composition will not be limited by the presumption of physical co-location, nor by a need to maintain rigid long-term relationships. [7]. According to the position paper “Vision: Future Internet based Enterprise Systems 2025” [8] the Future Internet will enable enterprises to interact with other entities within (intra) and outside (inter) the enterprises (e.g. suppliers, business partners, employees, workers, customers) in a seamless way. Interoperability that is basic factor of data exchange must be extended from techniques and tools to all enterprise ICT systems. Cloud Computing Interoperability is a must for effective cooperation of different Internet resources. It can be stated that according to the trends in future enterprises collaboration, agility, security, privacy and interoperability aspects will play a key role.

3

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc 3 3.1

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING Definitions of Cloud Computing

There are three similar computing architectures that can be applied well in networked enterprises. These are the Clusters, Grids, and Clouds. Various definitions and interpretations of “clouds” and / or “cloud computing” exist; two of them are introduced in the followings. According to [9] "A Cloud is a type of parallel and distributed system consisting of a collection of inter-connected and virtualized computers that are dynamically provisioned and presented as one or more unified computing resource(s) based on service-level agreements established through negotiation between the service provider and consumers.” At a first glance, Clouds appear to be a combination of clusters and Grids, but it is not true. Clouds are next-generation data centres with nodes “virtualized” through hypervisor technologies such as Virtual Machines (VM). The Virtual Machine is a file (typically called an image) that, when executed, looks to the user like an actual, physical machine. Infrastructure as a Service is often provided as a VM image that can be started or stopped as needed. Changes made to the VM while it is running can be stored to disk to make them persistent. Mell and Grance from NIST (National Institute of Standardization and Technologies) gave the following definition [10]: “Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction”. The essential characteristics of cloud computing are: On-demand, self-service. A consumer can automatically access computing resources, (server time, storage and network) according its need. Broad network access. Resources can be available over the network through standard mechanisms by different client platforms (e.g., PDAs, mobile phones, and laptops.). Resource pooling. The computing resources of the provider are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. Rapid elasticity. Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, in some cases automatically, to quickly scale out and rapidly released to quickly scale in. Measured Service. Cloud systems automatically control, optimize monitor, control, and report resource usage (storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts, etc.) providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.

3.2

Cloud models

Cloud computing, includes many aspects of computing (from hardware to software) so a single solution is not able to provide it all. Clouds can be described by models when their service and deployment characteristics are introduced, they can be classified into three service models, and into five deployment models. By leveraging different types of services provided by Cloud Computing, it is useful to satisfy the needs of different user types. Service Models can be classified into the following groups: 

Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS). This type of clouds is called also as Service or Application Clouds. The user simply uses the cloud infrastructure or platform, does not manage or control any part of the cloud infrastructure.



Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capacity provided to the user is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure. The consumer has control only over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.



Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Called also as Resource Clouds. The cloud provides for the consumer provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources via a service interface. The consumer does not manage or control the cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networking components.

Table 1. gives an overview on the service layers, parallel listing the main activities and some standards belonging to each layer. The Table introduces also the controlling hierarchy of the different service models connected to the service provider and the consumers marking the different layers and sub-layers by different graphical patterns.

4

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc

Table 1. The Service Layers of cloud computing with activities and standards. Clouds may be hosted and employed in different styles, depending on the use case, respectively the business model of the provider. Deployment Models are the followings: 

Private cloud. The cloud infrastructure is used typically only by one organization (internal cloud).



Community cloud. The cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations).



Public cloud. The cloud infrastructure is made available to the general public or a large industry group and is owned by an organization selling cloud services.



Hybrid cloud. The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more clouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability.



Special Purpose Clouds. Special Purpose Clouds are just extensions of “normal” cloud systems to provide additional, dedicated capabilities.

3.3

Advantages of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has important characteristics that will bring it to the most important IC technologies. In the followings the advantages /disadvantages will be mentioned only in a few fields. The main benefits of this approach are that the users of services do not need to own and manage the capital equipment involved. From financial aspect cloud computing represents a pay-per-use business model and this is the biggest advantage for an average user, customer. General advantages of cloud computing are the massive scale, the homogeneity, the virtualization, resilient computing, low cost software, geographical distribution, service orientation and advanced central security technologies. Security advantages are that shifting public data to an external cloud reduces the exposure of the internal sensitive data, cloud homogeneity makes security auditing/testing simpler, clouds enable automated security management and redundancy / disaster recovery are simpler. Advantages in data storage are the automated replication, the data fragmentation and dispersal, provision of data zones (e.g., by country), encryption in storage/in transfer and automated data retention.

3.4

Problems in Cloud Computing

Security and privacy problems The most serious drawbacks of cloud are the security issues of the identity of users and the security of data. By the very nature of cloud computing, the data belonging to the organization using a cloud service will be held in a shared environment. A shared environment is implicitly less secure than a non-shared one. Furthermore delegating the storage and processing of data does not relieve the organization of its legal and regulatory obligations around this data. Critical points are among others trusting vendor‟s security model, customer inability to respond to audit findings, indirect administrator accountability, and proprietary implementations can‟t be examined and loss of physical control. Strongly related to these issues concerning legislation and data distribution is the concern of data protection and other potential security holes arising from the fact that the resources are shared between multiple tenants and the location of the resources being potentially unknown. In particular sensitive data or protected applications are critical for outsourcing issues. Whilst the data should be protected in a form that addresses legislative issues with respect to data location, it should at the same still be manageable by the system. Because of the many applications of cloud systems and the variety of cloud types imply different security models and requirements by the user. As such, classical authentication models may be insufficient. In particular in cases of aggregation and resale of cloud systems, the mix of security mechanisms may not only lead to problems of compatibility, but may also lead to the user distrusting the model due to lack of insight. Data storage problems

5

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc The main problems in the field of data storage are the isolation management/multi-tenancy, the storage controller, single point of failure, exposure of data to third parties. Interoperability and Standardization Interoperability and standardization have huge impact on the cloud adoption and usage. Standardization will increase and accelerate the adoption of cloud computing as users will have a wider range of choices in cloud without vendor lockin, portability and ability to use the cloud services provided by multiple vendors. This will also include the ability to use an organization‟s own existing data centre resources seamlessly. Every new cloud service provider have their own way on how a user or cloud application interacts with their cloud leading to cloud API propagation. There is a need for complex developed business applications on the clouds to be interoperable. Cloud adoption will be hampered if there is not a good way of integrating data and applications across clouds. According to certain experts interoperability is a bigger problem than security. "The greatest challenge facing longer-term adoption of cloud computing services is not security, but rather cloud interoperability and data portability” say cloud computing experts from IEEE [11] “The lack of integration between these networks makes it difficult for organizations to consolidate their IT systems in the cloud and realize productivity gains and cost savings. To overcome this challenge, industry standards must be developed to help cloud service providers design interoperable platforms and enable data portability."

3.5

Trends in cloud computing R+D

Cloud computing will play a major role in tomorrow‟s economy, creating new jobs and growth. It has to be ensured that there will be sufficient supply of cloud computing facilities and services so that companies of all sizes, government institutions and individuals as well can use these to develop innovative services. Cloud systems must be compatible with the region/country legal system (e.g. in the area of data protection) and technically secure. It should also make extensive use of standards and other means to ensure interoperability so that all potential users can take full advantage of cloud computing. Many reports, white papers and other different materials are available on cloud trends, research directions, but the forecasted fields cover each other pretty well. According to [12] as an example the following fields will be in focus. Technical research topics to be addressed are:  Elastic scalability;  Cloud (systems) development and management;  Data management;  Programming models and resource control;  Trust, security and privacy.  Interoperability and standardization Non-technical specific issues are:  Economic aspects;  Legal issues;  Green IT.

4

4.1

INTEROPERABILITY AND STANDARDIZATION IN CLOUD SYSTEMS

Interoperability in networked enterprises

Interoperability is the ability of two or more systems or applications to exchange information and to mutually use the information that has been exchanged without special effort on the part of the customer. Interoperability is realized by the implementation of standards (ETSI SR 002 761). In the context of networked enterprises, interoperability refers to the ability of interactions (exchange of information and services) between enterprise systems. Interoperations can take place on different levels in the enterprise. In the ATHENA EU project four layers of interoperability concerns have been defined that can be applied also for networked enterprises, virtual organizations [13]. In Table 2. these layers are extended with the activities and the applicable standards on each level.

6

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc Table 2. Layers of virtual enterprise for interoperability with activities and standards.

There are different approaches how to solve the interoperability problem in enterprises  Integrated approach: There is a common format for all models. This format must be agreed by all parties to elaborate models and build systems.  Unified approach: The common format exists at meta-level and provides a means for semantic equivalence to allow mapping between models.  Federated approach: No common format exists. Partners have to solve interoperability prompt, real-time that means they have to share an ontology to map their concepts at the semantic level. The detailed description of the methods can be found in [14]. The trend and the issues for enterprise integration and interoperability in manufacturing systems are presented in details in [15] and in [16].

4.2

Interoperability and portability in cloud systems

Potential customers (users) identified the huge advantages of cloud computing, so they have a strong interest in moving to the cloud. Adoption of cloud computing depends greatly on how the cloud can match concerns of the users on interoperability, portability and security. Security is one of the most important aspects but it is out of the focus of this paper. In cloud systems there are different demands that can be connected to interoperability. Portability and data migration have also emphasized importance in cloud environments.  Interoperability is concerned with the ability of systems to communicate. It requires that the communicated information is understood by the receiving system. In the world of cloud computing, this means the ability to write code that works with more than one cloud provider simultaneously, regardless of the differences between the providers, so users are concerned about the capability to communicate between or among multiple clouds.  Portability is the ability to run components or systems written for one environment in another environment. In cloud computing, this includes software and hardware environments (both physical and virtual). In this case customers are interested to know whether they can move their data or applications across multiple cloud environments at low cost and minimal disruption.  Data Migration means the periodic transfer of data from one hardware or software configuration to another or from one generation of computer technology to a subsequent generation. Migration is a necessary action for retaining the integrity of the data and for allowing users to search, retrieve, and make use of data in the face of constantly changing technology. Cloud providers have to develop mechanisms to support  Data portability - the ability of cloud consumers to copy data objects into or out of a cloud or to use a disk for bulk data transfer.  System portability - allows the migration of a fully-stopped virtual machine instance or a machine image from one provider to another provider, or migrate applications and services and their contents from one service provider to another.  Service interoperability - the ability of cloud consumers to use their data and services across multiple cloud providers with a unified management interface It is important to mention that various cloud service models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) may have different requirements in relation to portability and interoperability. Interoperability can be divided into two main groups in cloud-based systems/applications  The interoperability of the cloud systems itself (cloud layer)  The interoperability of the applications (Application layer – industry specific, HW/SW specific)

4.3

Standardization in Cloud environments

Standards are the implementation of the technical requirements of a given ICT field/topic. The fields of

7

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc standardization can be- e.g. security, portability and interoperability but in this paper only the latter two are in the focus in spite of the importance of security. There are two main aspects mentioned here that have to be taken into consideration when develop standards for cloud computing  There are a many standards from the fields of e.g. networking, shared IT systems that can be applied also in cloud computing.  All users intends to use the data information stored in their “old” systems These two aspects define the technology of standardization activities for cloud-based systems. Today it is a problem to determine exactly where cloud-interoperability standards are needed. Taking into consideration the great number of the existing standards that could be applied in clouds, the diverse requirements of the different system/firms and the very strong demands of the companies for immediate launching new cloud standards. It is obvious that the members of the IT community has to join with each other and forming groups, task forces dealing with the different standardization tasks [17]. Different groups, committees have established a Wiki site for Cloud Standards Coordination [18]. The goal of this wiki is to document the activities of the various SDOs (leading technology Standards Development Organizations (SDOs)) working on Cloud standards. Over 10 different (government, professional, university) organizations collaborate to coordinate and communicate standards for Cloud computing and storage. The working methodology is the following e.g. in case of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Three complementary activities all performed in collaboration with other agencies and standards development organizations: 1. NIST inserts existing standards and de-facto interfaces as specifications. - NIST identifies and validates specifications using use cases. 2. Organizations contribute open specifications. - NIST receives and coordinates the prioritization of specifications, and validates using use cases. 3. NIST identifies gaps in cloud standards (and specifications) and publishes the gaps on the portal: produces opportunity for outside organizations to fill them. Based on the collected materials and documents a Reference Architecture has been developed that helps to define the holes in the cloud standardization space. Other groups of professionals e.g. Cloud Computing Use Case Discussion Group (CCUCDG), Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) also have developed Reference Architectures in cooperation focusing other field of cloud standardization. In the following subchapters a short overview of the NIST, CCUCD and DMTF architectures are given. In the frame of most reference architectures, taxonomies for cloud components have been developed as based on the structured contexts a better overview can be given on complex system structures and their operation. (Taxonomy is the science of categorization, or classification, of things based on a predefined system.) As a next step taxonomy can be the base of an ontology that can provide very flexible, intelligent services e.g. for a cloud management systems.

4.3.1

NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture

The NIST cloud computing reference architecture (NCCRA) (Figure 1.) is a tool for describing, discussing, and developing a system-specific architecture using a common framework of reference [19]. The objectives of the NIST cloud computing reference architecture are the followings: to illustrate and understand the various cloud services in the context of an overall cloud computing conceptual model; to provide a technical reference to users and other consumers to understand, discuss, categorize and compare cloud services; and to facilitate the analysis of candidate standards for security, interoperability, and portability and reference implementations.

Figure 1: The NIST Conceptual Reference Model [19].

8

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc

In the following subchapters those components of the reference model will be introduced shortly that can be connected to interoperability and portability standardization issues.

4.3.1.1 Actors in the cloud Dataflow communication goes on among the actors through the cloud carrier Cloud Consumer - A person or organization that has a business connection with, and uses services from the Cloud Providers. Cloud Provider - A person, organization, or entity responsible for providing a service available for interested parties. Cloud Auditor - A party that can conduct independent assessment of cloud services, information system operations, performance and security of the cloud implementation. Cloud Broker - An entity that manages the use, performance and delivery of cloud services, and negotiates relationships between Cloud Providers and Cloud Consumers. Cloud Carrier - An intermediary that provides connectivity and transport of cloud services from Cloud Providers to Cloud Consumers. In the followings the roles, activities of cloud consumer, cloud provider and the cloud carrier will be in the focus.

4.3.1.2 Service Orchestration Layers These layers are the base of the communication between the Cloud Provider and the Cloud Customer, how the services are working in the cloud. Service Orchestration refers to the composition of system components to support the Cloud Providers activities in arrangement, coordination and management of computing resources in order to provide cloud services to Cloud Consumers. 

Service layer - Cloud Providers define interfaces for Cloud Consumers to access the computing services in this layer. Access interfaces of each of the three service models are provided in this layer. The optional dependency relationships among SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS components are graphically given as components stacking on each other.



Resource abstraction and control layer - This layer contains the system components that Cloud Providers use to provide and manage access to the physical computing resources through software abstraction. Examples of resource abstraction components include software elements such as hypervisors, virtual machines, virtual data storage, and other computing resource abstractions. Besides virtual machine technology, other means for providing the necessary software abstractions are also possible. The control aspect of this layer refers to the software components that are responsible for resource allocation, access control, and usage monitoring.



Physical resource layer - This layer includes all the physical computing resource elements (e.g. computers (CPU and memory), all networks HW elements, storage components) and other physical computing infrastructure elements.

4.3.1.3 Cloud service Management Cloud Service Management includes all of the service-related functions that are necessary for the management and operation of those services required by or proposed to cloud consumers. Cloud service management can be described from the perspective of business support, provisioning and configuration, and from the perspective of portability and interoperability requirements

9

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc

4.3.1.4 Taxonomy based on NCCRA A four-level taxonomy has been developed to describe the key concepts about cloud computing based on the NIST cloud computing reference architecture. A short summary of the levels is as follows: 

Level 1: Role, which indicates a set of obligations and behaviours as conceptualized by the associated actors in the context of cloud computing.



Level 2: Activity, which entails the general behaviours or tasks associated to a specific role.



Level 3: Component, which refer to the specific processes, actions, or tasks that must be performed to meet the objective of a specific activity.



Level 4: Sub-component, which present a modular part of a component.

A vocabulary with cloud taxonomy terms and definitions can also be found in the publication.

4.3.2

DMTF Cloud Reference Architecture and Life Cycle Model

The DMTF architecture together with the associated service life cycle and interoperability concepts forms a whole [20]. The work of the DMTF is of special interest because it has a clear focus on the life cycle of Cloud Services and provides a comprehensive set of related use cases together with detailed formal specifications of provider interfaces. The life cycle definition of cloud services is the essence of the DMTF White Papers. The proper definition of the lifecycle of cloud services allows the identification of exemplary functional interfaces that cloud consumers need to establish with the cloud service provider. The cloud service reference architecture describes key entities such as actors, interfaces, data artifacts, and profiles with an indication of interrelationships among them. The following stages are defined within the lifecycle: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Template: A developer defines the service in a template that describes the content of and interfaces to a service. Offering: A provider applies constraints, costs, and policies to a template to create an offering available for request by a consumer. Contract: A consumer and provider enter into a contract for services, including agreements on costs, SLAs, SLOs, and specific configuration options. Provision Service: A provider deploys (or modifies) a service instance per the contract with the consumer. Runtime Maintenance: A provider manages a deployed service and all its resources, including monitoring resources and notifying the consumer of key situations. End of Service: A provider halts a service instance, including reclaiming resources for redeployment to support other service

4.3.3

Taxonomy for Cloud Computing - CCUCDG

Comparable to the DMTF reference architecture the CCUCDG introduces a so-called Cloud Taxonomy as shown in Figure 2. [21]. In this figure, service consumers use the services provided through the cloud, service providers manage the cloud infrastructure, and service developers create the services themselves. From this Cloud Taxonomy the paper derives a Standards Taxonomy that can be used to categorize Cloud related standards and to identify different types of reference points

Figure 2. The CCUCDG taxonomy for cloud computing [21].

The different types of standards indicate several interoperability issues:  Across Cloud Service Types As cloud applications can use different types of cloud services (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) standards to define how these different services can work together.

10

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc



Within Cloud Service Types Within each type of cloud service (IaaS, PaaS or SaaS), open standards make it possible to avoid vendor lock-in. o In case of IaaS Common APIs for other cloud infrastructure services such as storage, message queues could provide similar benefits, as common formats for data and data interchange. In the case of virtual machines, a common virtual machine format is crucial. o For Platform as a Service, most of the platforms in the cloud are application frameworks. Those frameworks typically provide common services such as user interfaces, storage and databases, but they are accessible only through the APIs of the framework. o For Software as a Service, open standards are applied at the application level. Most of the standards work here are non-cloud-specific. E.g. a word processing application running on the cloud should support standards for document portability; not taking into consideration whether the application is running in the cloud.



Between the Cloud and the Enterprise The standards that can define how an enterprise application can communicate with cloud resources such (e.g. a database) would make possible that application to use cloud services directly, without modifications. Standards that can integrate cloud computing with existing architectures and applications belong to the “most wanted” category of developers. Within an Enterprise The standards within an enterprise are determined by the interoperability demands of the used applications and the standards that are applied between the enterprises and the cloud also have to take into consideration.



4.3.4

Existing standards for cloud computing

The interfaces that are offered for cloud users can be grouped into two major categories, with interoperability determined separately for each service category. The interface that is presented to (or by) the contents of the cloud encompasses the primary function of the cloud service. This is distinct from the interface that is used to manage the use of the cloud service. The cloud user control the use of the cloud services through the Management Interface (starting, stopping, and manipulating virtual machine images and associated resources) [22].

4.3.4.1 Standards for Interoperability The interoperability of cloud services can be categorized by the management and functional interfaces of the cloud services. Many existing IT standards contribute to the interoperability between cloud consumer applications and cloud service, and between cloud services themselves. There are standardization efforts that are specifically initiated to address the interoperability issues in the cloud.  

Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI); Open Grid Forum, Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI); Storage Networking Industry Association, SNIA,



IEEE P2301 - Draft Guide for Cloud Portability and Interoperability Profiles (CPIP) - for application in portability, management, interoperability interfaces, file formats and operating conventions (final version for 2014). - The standard is planned to be applied by vendors, service providers, and consumers in developing, building, and using cloud computing. (http://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/2301.html).



IEEE P2302 - Draft Standard for Intercloud Interoperability and Federation (SIIF). For access of documents, photos (storage), and different (computing) applications from anywhere by any equipment (e.g. laptops, tablets, smart-phones). (http://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/2302.html)

4.3.4.2 Standards for Portability Portability issues in the cloud include workload and data portability. While some of the cloud workload portability issues are new, a lot of existing data and metadata standards have been developed before the cloud

11

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc era. In the followings only the few cloud-specific portability standards are listed. o

Data Portability -

o

4.3.5

Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI); SNIA. Approved Standard

System Portability -

Open Virtualization Format (OVF); DMTF

-

IEEE P2301, Draft Guide for Cloud Portability and Interoperability Profiles (CPIP), IEEE

Demands for standards in cloud computing

Based on the collected existing standards and the demands of the customers the gap analysis can be done. The extent of this study does not allow presenting the results they can be reach in [22] or at the Wiki site [18]. Mentioning only a few standardization priorities in the followings: 

Standards supporting migration in all levels



Interoperability between existing in-house IT systems and cloud based systems

5

A TAXONOMY OF CLOUD ARCHITECTURES IN NETWORKED ENTERPRISES

5.1

Virtual enterprises and Cloud Computing

Collaborative network organizations have a very flexible operation philosophy based on the continuous change in their structure, in the integration of information - and material flows and in their high level collaboration. From the different types of networked enterprises the virtual enterprise (VE) has been selected for the analysis as the members of a VE are changing frequently, its organization structure is highly flexible. Originating from the frequent organizational changes their IT systems has to be able to follow the demand of the new VE members. This means that new IT systems are involved frequently into the VE, so the interoperability is a continuous challenge for the IT system of a VE. As cloud computing offers the same flexibility on the field of IT as VE do in the field of organizations it is obvious to analyze the integration possibilities of the systems based on the two paradigms. In case of connecting VE and cloud architectures an enhanced focus has to be taken on interoperability issues as the fast changes in the different fields of VEs generates frequent need for smooth migration, data-, system- and service portability in cloud environments. As an addition the virtual enterprise can be handled as an approach for achieving high efficiency in intra- and inter-organizational value/supply chains. Integration of information - and material flow generates transparency in the entire value chain that raises the operation efficiency in the VE. So, in today‟s service orientated approaches in information technology based systems the connection of VE and cloud computing paradigms has a commanding importance.

5.2 5.2.1

A taxonomy of Cloud-based VE Architectures Background of the taxonomy

Taxonomies are structured descriptions of a given set of objects or terms taking into consideration all components. Mathematically, taxonomy is a tree structure of classifications for a given set of objects, terms. Based on the taxonomy the structure and operation of a complex system can be better understood, the transparency of the processes will be on higher level. The goal of developing the taxonomy was to classify, describe the objects, actors and different components interrelated with interoperability when connecting virtual enterprises with cloud environment (CE). In the taxonomy not all aspects of connecting VEs and clouds have been taken into consideration, only some basic combinations of VE architectures and different CEs (Figure 3.). The classification has a simplified, practice -

12

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc oriented structure focusing on IT or closely IT related issues. A “perfect” taxonomy is always too complex, not easy to manage, so simplifications make the taxonomy more transparent. The VE-CE taxonomy is based on and can be considered as an extension of the approach presented in [21] into the direction of connecting virtual enterprises and cloud environments. The figures in the Use Case introductions do not contain structural details but the basic characteristics of the combined environments can be seen. In the literature it is not always clear what is the difference between enterprise integration (EI) and connection. In the present taxonomy the approach detailed in [23] has been applied. The integration of (inter- or intra-) enterprise activities is different from enterprise information systems integration. While EI has strong organizational, control, technological and management dimensions, from IT view EI mostly means connecting computer systems and IT applications to support business process operations like distributed business processes, business to business integration. The taxonomy is not focusing directly on interoperability but on connection, operation of connected VE and cloud information systems. Interoperability possibilities are embedded into this environment on different levels, in different ways as a vital element of the joint operation. In the previous chapters the main characteristics both of virtual enterprises and cloud computing have been introduced so in the description of classes no duplicated detailed introductions have been given, only short summaries are written.

Figure 3. Taxonomy of VE and cloud connection types and their interoperability

5.2.2

Classes of the taxonomy

This section describes the classes and subclasses on the first and second levels of the taxonomy. The root (Level 0) of the taxonomy refers on the connection of VE and cloud –based systems. Classes on the first level Class1 - Actors in the Architecture – The humans, IT systems and organizations that participates in the activities of the connected cloud and VE. Subclasses 

The cloud system



The virtual enterprise



The customers, consumers, users – organization/person who uses the output of a system.



The service providers – offers services for consumers.



The broker – integrator of an e.g. production network who manages the network.

Class2 - Cloud Service types – define the services that are available on the different levels. The levels are organized into four sub-classes. Subclasses 

Software as a Service (SaaS) - Collaboration, content and document management, business (sales, billing, etc.), ERP, e-mail, social networks, web services, different other services provided by software applications.



Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Integration; business intelligence; general services; develop, test, deploy manage applications hosted in the cloud environment over the Internet (e.g. virtualized servers and operating systems).



Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - access to virtual computers, service management, platform hosting, network accessible storage, hardware, network infrastructure components, fundamental computing

13

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc resources 

Anything as a Service (XaaS) – the acronym refers to the increasing number of services that are delivered over the Internet e.g. Network as a Service (NaaS), Manufacturing as a Service (MaaS).

Class3 - Cloud Deployment types – As the term cloud computing refers in general to the delivery of services according to demand of consumers over a computer network, this class describes the possible basic deployment types based on [19]. Subclasses 

Private – cloud infrastructure is operated only for a single organization that has exclusive access to infrastructure and resources (on-site or outsourced).



Public – cloud infrastructure and computing resources are available for the general public through a public network.



Hybrid – is a composition of two or more clouds they keep their unique entities but are connected through proprietary or standardized interfaces/protocols. Data and application portability is possible.



Community – serves a group of organizations that have common security and privacy considerations.



Special purpose – this type of cloud has special attributes or combination of them with the conventional ones.

Class4 - Cloud interoperability types and levels – Information, data, etc. exchange within or, between different cloud services, or moving data, services, virtual machine instances from a provider to another one – all interoperability, portability and migration activities belongs to this class. Subclasses 

Cloud internal interoperability – interoperability within cloud service types.



Application interoperability - applications can be moved between different cloud deployment models e.g. back and forth between private clouds and public clouds. SW tools and standards are needed that makes possible communication between different cloud vendors and services.



Service interoperability – applications can use different types of cloud services (XaaS). Working together these services needs proper standards.



System portability – moving applications or service content or virtual machine instances between providers.



Data portability – the ability to copy data objects into or out of cloud.



Data migration –periodic data transfer from one HW, SW configuration to another one.

Class5 - Duration of VE connection – Fast reaction (speed) and flexibility are necessary to meet short-term emerging market opportunities. VE capacities and capabilities can rapidly transform to adapt to these emerging conditions. The duration of VE operation depends on the frequency of market changes. Subclasses 

Single- project - project-based organization exists only until the project is concluded and then break up.



Temporary - in unstable conditions the VE may constantly change its partnership structure to match dominant conditions.



Permanent - under stable conditions the networked VE may keep the same partners for a considerable time and maintain closer collaborative relationship with them.

14

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc

Class6 - VE interoperability levels – Interoperations can take place on various levels of a VE. This classification is given from a point of view of IT based applications. (See on Table 2.) Subclasses 

Business – semantic interoperability



Process – business processes



Service, applications – application functions



Data – information interoperability

In the following subchapter some selected scenarios of connecting VE and cloud architectures will be introduced in the form of use cases. The aspects of selection were 

typical combinations from the practice



representing the manufacturing example in the next chapter 6.

5.3

Use Case Scenarios of connecting Virtual Enterprises and Cloud Environments

The following Use Cases are based on the taxonomy introduced in the previous subchapter and outline the interoperability possibilities/tools/standards in the given scenario. The Use Cases intend to illustrate the most typical cloud scenarios in operating virtual enterprises within a cloud environment. There are many combinations of connecting different types of VEs to different types of clouds, so in the present descriptions only a very little part of them will be introduced. Figures 4 and 5 are small-sized qualitative figures embedded into the cloud and VE symbols of Use Cases showing which layers are involved into interoperability operations in the given case. The set of symbols in Figure 4 represent the main cloud layers (service, resource, and physical resource) in a qualitative way giving the control range of the different service models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) at the same time. One or more of these qualitative figures are inserted into the cloud symbols according to their role in the given Use Case. Figure 5 shows the four interoperability levels of VE (business, process, service, and data) in a qualitative way. By inserting this figure into the VE symbol of the Use Case it makes these figures more informative as it can give the acting layers in the actual Use Case.

Figure 4. Provided services in the service layers - figures applied in use case scenarios. Figure 5. Layers of interoperability in VE - figure applied in use case scenarios.

5.3.1

Use Case I. - VE interacts with customer through a community cloud

In this scenario a virtual enterprise uses an internal community cloud to provide services and data for the customer (Figure 6.). When the customer interacts with the VE the proper member enterprise of the VE provides data, service or results for the customer who has no information which member of the VE has provided the service/data. The member enterprises are connected to the community cloud inside the VE. This scenario looks a good solution both for individual enterprises and the VE. In this case the member enterprises do not need to communicate directly to each other, all internal data exchange can be done through the community cloud. The outgoing communication from the VE to/from customers also uses the community cloud. Enterprises and customers need to register to join to the VE and using the cloud services. The inserted small-size qualitative figures show that the community cloud can apply in this case SaaS or PaaS service models. The member-enterprises of the VE apply all four VE layers as there are data, service, process flows

15

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc and collaboration among them as their connection is a permanent (marked with P in the figure), works for a longer period. Based on the figure it can be defined in preliminary system configuration/selection phase the standards (interoperability) that will be needed for smooth operation of the system introduced in Use Case I. Figure 6. Use Case I. - A permanent virtual enterprise interacts with the end user (cunsumer) using a community cloud. Main characteristics of Use Case I. when applying the classes/subclasses of the proposed taxonomy are the following:     

Class1; Actors in the Architecture – customer/user, cloud, virtual enterprises (with members). Class2; Cloud Service types – Service models can be SaaS or PaaS. Class3; Cloud Deployment type –community cloud Class4; Cloud interoperability types and levels – Application standards are sector specific in this case. Class5; Duration of VE connection– The VE is a permanent one as the community cloud collects a group of enterprises belonging to the same sector.  Class6; VE interoperability levels – Process, service, application, data. The VE-CC configuration that will be introduced in chapter 6 (ManuCloud) belongs to this type of connected VE - cloud environment.

5.3.2

Use Case II. – VE using a private cloud for internal resource sharing

The members (E1; E2) of VE1 are connected to the private cloud through intranet (Figure 7.). The enterprises interact with each other directly using proprietary interfaces, industry-specific standards and common APIs. The member enterprises use the resources of the cloud (service, data) according to their actual needs. There is no high – level collaboration among the members, so only the data and service layers of the VE interoperability model are in use (the little embedded figure shows this). The private cloud can apply in this case SaaS or PaaS service models as data and services are provided for the cloud users. The VE is a permanent one (e.g. VE1-P). The big advantage of this scenario is that security, privacy and management aspects do not need to be severe as the environment is a closed one.

Figure 7. Use Case II. - VE uses a private cloud for internal resource sharing

Use Case II. can be described with the classes/subclasses of the proposed taxonomy as follows:      

5.3.3

Class1; Actors in the Architecture – Virtual enterprises (with members), cloud Class2; Cloud Service types – SaaS, PaaS Class3; Cloud Deployment type – private cloud Class4; Cloud interoperability types and levels – not cloud specific standards, data portability Class5; Duration of VE connection– permanent Class6; VE interoperability levels – depending on applications

Use Case III. –VEs use the resources of a public cloud

In Figure 8. a simple architecture is represented. Two VEs are connected to a public cloud. Resources are hosted in the public cloud and member organizations of the VEs have access to them. All the three service models can be selected as option in the public cloud in this type of scenario. The VE can be a temporary organization in this case (e.g. VE1-T). In the VE there is only data and application flow (shown by the embedded figures too) The interoperability problem is more serious in case of VEs; they are more sensitive for the lack of standards. Supply chain control is a typical application example in this case for networked production environments. The

16

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc standards for interoperability can be selected based on the final configuration decision.

Figure 8. Use Case III. - VE member enterprises use the resources of the public cloud according to their actual needs

When applying the classes/subclasses of the proposed taxonomy the description of Use Case III. looks like the following:      

5.3.4

Class1; Actors in the Architecture – VEs (with members), cloud Class2; Cloud Service types – SaaS, PaaS, IaaS Class3; Cloud Deployment type – public cloud Class4; Cloud interoperability types and levels – depending on application and cloud service type Class5; Duration of VE connection– it can be single-project or temporary Class6; VE interoperability levels – depending on application and cloud service type

Use Case IV. Coordinated use of multiple clouds by a VE

In this use case (Figure 9.) member enterprises operate their private cloud and these private clouds work together with the community cloud inside the VE. This scenario is a complex one, at present it is a theoretical possibility. The private clouds serve the internal needs of the enterprise (E1, E2) and the private clouds are connected to a community cloud coordinating the operation of the virtual enterprise (similar to Use Case I). Interoperability problems can occur when connecting the different private clouds to the community cloud, and also can be critical handling the many different services in the community cloud. As a next step the virtual enterprise is connected to a public cloud. The layered structure provides a very effective access to services and resources. In the first step the resources of the private cloud is used by the enterprises then the community cloud comes to operation. In this configuration security and privacy problems have more emphases besides the big question marks of interoperability. Figure 9. Use Case IV. - Coordinated use of multiple clouds by a VE and its member - enterprises

The description of Use Case IV. using the classes/subclasses of the proposed taxonomy looks like the following:      

Class1; Actors in the Architecture – Virtual enterprises (with members), clouds Class2; Cloud Service types – can be SaaS, PaaS or IaaS Class3; Cloud Deployment types – Private-, Community – and Public Class4; Cloud interoperability types and levels – depending on application and cloud service type Class5; Duration of VE connection– permanent (private and community), temporary (public). Class6; VE interoperability levels – depending on application and cloud service type

It can be seen that the combination of virtual enterprises with cloud computing can result very effective production system architectures in case the proper standards are available. So, the interoperability problem is more serious in these cases then in case of a conventional (simple) enterprise. Based on the descriptions of the introduced Use Cases it can be stated that with the proposed taxonomy for connected configurations of virtual enterprises and cloud environments the use cases (the connected virtual enterprises and cloud environments) can be described correctly.

6 6.1

APPLICATION OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN PRODUCTION Industrial applications of Cloud Computing

17

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc Manufacturing enterprises both SMEs and larger enterprises are trying to find the way how to apply cloud technology. The advantages (agility, easy configuration/reconfiguration of IT system, “pay-as-you-go” model) seem to be really attractive but the drawbacks are stronger at present. According to industrial IT experts e.g. [24] there are two main areas where CC will become popular for manufacturing companies; 

Inter-factory collaboration (supply chain visibility, transportation management, supplier/contract negotiation),



High performance computing that use digital models to (1) virtually test the products or manufacturing system, (2) understand the business environment better through business intelligence and (3) make decisions.

In order to be able to use effectively cloud technology in the above applications standardization and interoperability solutions have of vital importance. Cloud solutions are/will be used most frequently for supply chain visibility, transportation management and supplier/contract negotiation. Partners can create cloud computing modules to address other manufacturing issues, e.g. supply chain execution, shop floor planning, demand planning and production scheduling. Companies increase the use of digital models to virtually test their products or manufacturing system, to understand their business environment better through business intelligence and decision making that needs additional, flexibly usable, computing power. The models are typically highly parallelizable and fit well for a cloud environment. The main risks of cloud computing for the industry are network- (reliability, privacy and security) and SLA (Service Level Agreement) related. In SLAs services, responsibilities, warranties, guaranties and priorities are fixed that provide the safe and reliable operation (from legal aspects) for the consumer by the service provider. In the followings an on-going project will be introduced briefly to illustrate the industrial application of cloud computing technology.

6.2

Cloud Architecture for Manufacturing

This section describes how the ideas of this paper match current industrial needs and research efforts, especially the challenges dealt with in the ManuCloud project which is funded within FP7 of the European Commission [25], [26].

6.2.1

Main goals of the project

During the past years, manufacturing has experienced an increasing need for customer-specific production as well as for fast reaction to rapidly changing market needs. These trends could be found throughout many high-tech industry branches, like automotive, photovoltaic, semiconductor, and consumer electronics. However, it has to be noticed, that especially in these industries products are usually not manufactured within one production site or one company. This means that product changes or product customization not only affects the organization selling the end-product but also influences at least parts of the related supply chain. Due to this interference, it is necessary that manufacturers closely cooperate with their suppliers in order to exchange information about product specifications and to align with each other in terms of delivery dates and other logistic details. In some cases, it may even be necessary to choose alternative suppliers whose manufacturing capabilities cover the newly requested features. Of course, this causes much effort on both sides and also delays feedback to end-customers when every supply chain member has to gather feedback from its suppliers before. Obviously, networked enterprise and cloud computing approaches as described above could be a measure to improve the work- and information flow throughout such production networks as they support the (semi-) automated integration of production network integration on IT level. Up to now, there are already solutions available for the exchange of business documents like orders and invoices [27]. However, the related work flows and data transfer is restricted to business-related information. What is missing in order to enable flexible production network setup based on product and production needs is the integration of product specifications and manufacturing IT systems to the overall multi-site manufacturing management infrastructure. There are various emerging concepts of cloud manufacturing which are promising to transfer the principles and benefits of cloud computing to the manufacturing and supply chain management domain [28], [29], and [30]. What

18

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc all of these approaches have in common is the idea of distributed manufacturing throughout a network which is managed based on services. Especially the adaption of this XaaS (Anything-as-a-Service) concept to the production domain which means implementation of MaaS (Manufacturing-as-a-Service) could help to overcome the issues explained above. However, it has to be considered that this is still an object to research work due to the complexity which results from the various aspects which range from exchange of product specifications and business documents to the alignment of schedules, to the tracking of products throughout the supply chain, etc. The primary disadvantages of CC for the industry are the risks associated with internet reliability, security and access of data (third party), intellectual property rights and the financial stability of the service provider.

6.2.2

The cloud Architecture

The trend of changing traditional business models to service business models can be noticed for various industry branches. One of the most important reasons for the success of these models is the flexibility which they provide to their users or customers. This is also why MaaS (Manufacturing-as-a-Service) is regarded as one of the most promising approaches in order to increase qualitative and quantitative production network flexibility. For this reason, the ManuCloud project focuses on the development of appropriate service descriptions and a MaaS infrastructure to manage the provided manufacturing services throughout the network. According to computing cloud actors, the following roles have been identified for manufacturing clouds matching with the first class “Actors in the Architecture” of the taxonomy introduced in chapter 5.2.2 (Table3.),: Table 3. Roles identified in the manufacturing cloud

In order to illustrate how such an infrastructure works, the following work-flow is described (Figure 10.): Manufacturers (manufacturing service providers) extract manufacturing service descriptions from their internal IT systems like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and MES (Manufacturing Execution System), and publish them to a MaaS infrastructure via a so-called Cloud Connector. There, the services can be searched, aggregated, and configured by supply chain integrators or end-customers. The configured service instances are sent back to the service providers in order to check their availability by means of up-to-date data from internal IT systems, e.g. in terms of costs and due dates. When there are no constraints hurt, an order is to be created and forwarded to each organization that contributes (sub-) services to its fulfilment. In this way the interaction between manufacturing enterprises and end-customers is bi-directional.

Figure 10. The MaaS Infrastructure and Workflow in the ManuCloud

6.2.3

Interoperability challenge

In order to be able to execute those workflows in a consistent and integrated way, the following features of the Cloud Connector have been identified to be relevant: 

Extraction of manufacturing service descriptions from factory-level IT systems and their publication to the MaaS environment



Providing feedback about the manufacturability of certain service requests (e.g. in terms of technology or time)



Receiving orders and forward them to factory-level IT systems (e.g. after manual confirmation)



Providing information about the current status of production and further tracking and tracing data (e.g. measurement data to be used for a later production step at another manufacturing site)

In order to achieve these goals, it is not only necessary to transfer messages in a harmonized format that is able to be adapted to all kinds of factories which are to be integrated to the overall infrastructure. For the extraction of

19

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc manufacturing service descriptions and for receiving concrete orders etc. a standardized framework and workflow for the integration of the cloud connector infrastructure to factory-level IT systems is required. These integration levels of the IT system answer to the description given in the taxonomy “VE interoperability levels” class. On the cloud side of the Cloud Connector the subclasses “Application Interoperability” and “Service Interoperability” of “Cloud Interoperability Types and levels” class are matching the descriptions. It is also essential to ensure that security and privacy are ensured by the MaaS and communication infrastructure. This includes not only the exchange of messages but also a detailed management of access rights which goes beyond role based concepts on data level. Furthermore, there is a need for standardized contracts as long-lasting negotiations would eliminate at least partially the benefits from flexible and fast IT-integration.

6.2.4

Applied standards

As the exchange of information among participants in the MaaS infrastructure requires harmonization and standardization, a review on the state-of-the-art and existing standard was conducted which had the following results: From the IT infrastructure point of view, there could existing standards be reused which support the management of IT infrastructures and standardized message transfer, such as XML, web services, and IaaS / PaaS concepts. (See table 1. introducing cloud standards). For the structuring and standardization of information to be exchanged, there are various approaches. On business level, there are mainly EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)-related standards like Odette, ebXML, RosettaNet, etc. which are widely applied in industry for the exchange of business documents like purchase orders and invoices. However, they do not cover the product and production aspect which is needed to enable communication in cloud manufacturing. Further approaches like USDL (Unified Service Description Language) are only focusing on the description of services, their providers, cost models, etc. but here again, the aspect of product and production technology is missing. Most approaches to describe manufacturing technologies provided by manufacturing services are based on ontologies [31], [32], [33]. The manufacturing service descriptions defined in that way, however are in most cases restricted to a certain industry branch or application such as machining and do not include product-related information which is needed to provide customizable manufacturing services. On the other hand, product specification standards like STEP do in most cases not support the involvement of manufacturing information. For this reason, the ManuCloud project develops an overall manufacturing service description that combines product and production aspects with information about the providing organization, costs, and logistic-related boundary conditions by also involving, extending, and combining existing standards.

6.2.5

Applied Security Services

Security is the most important characteristics of cloud systems parallel with interoperability. Security aspects influence in the biggest rate the decision makers to invest or not to invest into a cloud environment. There are three main statements on which further security considerations are based: 1. It has to be ensured that no (external) third parties would be able to access the system and execute attacks on it. 2. Data has to be protected against access from unauthorized users. 3. Users have to be uniquely identified, authenticated and authorised when accessing the system. In order to deal with these challenges and to develop a secure ManuCloud IT infrastructure, the following subset of the functional classes of cloud computing have been considered: Identification and authentication, privacy and data protection, confidentiality and integrity, communication (encrypt messages), encryption (database) and interfaces. As communication between components (and users) appears at various points in the ManuCloud inter-factory

20

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc infrastructure (and also appears periodically), several communication security scenarios should take place in a standardized way: • User Registration - During the registration process it is necessary to uniquely identify a user (organisation) and to make sure that he really belongs to the organisation as stated, that the given (personal) information are correct. • Certificates - A unique software certificate is distributed to each user. • Authentication - Authentication of users and organisations will take place. • Encryption of messages - Encryption of messages is based on certificates. • Exchange of messages - between the ManuCloud infrastructure components which takes place via the internet will apply standards. There are many standards between ERP-systems or in case of ManuCloud project for Intra-Factory communication. Another group of standards could be considered between the Intra-Factory MES and the Automation System layer communication and for interaction in cloud computing environment. While developing ManuCloud systems the security possibilities of several standards (e.g. OCCI, EDIFACT, ebXML, MyOpenFactory, RosettaNet, SEMI Interface-A.) have been studied.

6.2.6

Cloud manufacturing platform levels

The cloud manufacturing platform is split into four functional layers which are shown in the following table and which can be mapped with the four ATHENA layers shown in table 4. The layers introduced in the table are identical to the ones listed in the taxonomy (refer to figure 3)

Table 4. The functional layers of the cloud manufacturing platform.

Within the factory-specific IT systems like ERP and MES, specific data formats are used. Those are mapped to a unique description format for factory capabilities by means of manufacturing service descriptions (refer to previous section). The extraction of those descriptions from intra-factory IT systems has to include harmonization mechanisms which adapt the factory-internal syntax and semantic to the one provided by the manufacturing service description schema. This mapping enables to integrate manufacturing capabilities on platform level and to handle them in a consistent way. The service descriptions are published to the platform Manufacturing Service Management which archives the descriptions, but also supports their composition to higher-level manufacturing services. The execution of those manufacturing services is managed by the ERP and MES functionalities on cloud level. This means that process chains which are configured e.g. by service aggregation are controlled there. The functionalities of this layer include order management, planning and scheduling of processes and process steps (i.e. service execution), tracking of manufacturing services and related products, quality management, etc. On business level, the platform provides generic functionalities for the management of member organizations which also includes their integration by means of individual cloud connector implementation. Besides this, virtual enterprises are established and managed within this layer based on the specified services and processes.

6.2.7

Performance and reliability

The reliability (availability) and performance in cloud – based systems are very important for the customers. The calculation of these indexes happens by using different indicators. These indicators can be technical related (response time, service time, power consumption (reducing migration, data handling, volume of requests that could be fulfilled, etc.)) or financial ones. In case of cloud platforms on the market the performance analysis can focus on

21

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc Return of Investment (ROI) as well. Cloud service reliability can be defined how probable the cloud can successfully provide the requested service by the users. Cloud service performance is concerned how fast cloud can provide the requested service. As the ManuCloud is a prototype system the focus of performance analysis was on functional characteristics, on efficiency, on usability and other characteristics that apply new methods and technologies in order to demonstrate the positive results of the work.  

Evaluation of functional requirements (based on demonstration scenarios developed from use cases) Evaluation of systems – the security system has been selected as an important element of the whole information system (e.g. in terms of data level access control)  Evaluation of human computer interaction, interfaces (GUI) - usability evaluation Non-functional requirements were not analysed (like performance of the system, response times, etc.) as in case of a prototype system this type of evaluation would produce non-relevant results. Based on the evaluation results some modifications have been done in different modules of the ManuCloud system.

6.2.8

Comparing ManuCloud architecture and Use Case I.

Based on the above description, ManuCloud fits Use Case I. where a permanent virtual enterprise interacts with the end user (consumer) through a community cloud (Figure 6.). The community cloud operates based on a PaaS service model. The descriptions in the taxonomy classes „Cloud Service Types” and „Cloud Deployment Types” meet the main characteristics of the ManuCloud architecture and operation. The characteristics of the ManuCloud environment can be inserted into the classes/subclasses of the proposed taxonomy in the following way: 

Class1; Actors in the Architecture – consumer, broker, service provider, cloud, virtual enterprise (member enterprises).



Class2; Cloud Service type – Service type is “Platform as a Service” as the Cloud Connector has been developed inside the cloud.



Class3; Cloud Deployment type– manufacturing community cloud



Class4; Cloud interoperability type and levels – Application- and sector specific standards are used in this case – application, data, runtime and middleware layers participate in the communication.



Class5; Duration of VE connection– The VE is a permanent one as the manufacturing community cloud collects a group of enterprises belonging to the same narrow sector.



Class6; VE interoperability levels – Process, service, application, and data levels are involved. ManuCloud project develops an overall manufacturing service description that combines product and production aspects as well.

The classes and the relevant sub-classes of the presented taxonomy have been identified in the ManuCloud description demonstrating that the taxonomy is appropriate for representing real, industrial VE-CC systems as well.

7

CONCLUSIONS

Cloud computing technology is under development today, but its basic characteristics look very promising for the networked enterprises. Interoperability in cloud computing has a basic role as for networked enterprises, so an overview has been given on the status of cloud interoperability standardization activities. It can be stated that important standards are missing but very concentrated efforts are done on international level to develop the strategically most important standards. Reference architectures, taxonomies have been developed to define systematically the missing standards and parallel build into these systems the existing applicable ones. The situation alters very quickly, so, the most important cloud standards will be available in the not too far future. A taxonomy has been presented for analysing connections between cloud - and VE architectures as this type of information systems will play important role in different service and production sectors in the coming years. The taxonomy focuses on the connection of cloud and VE IT architectures taking into consideration interoperability aspects as

22

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc well. First level classes are e.g. the actors, cloud service types, cloud hosting types, cloud and VE interoperability levels. Based on the taxonomy four use cases have been introduced that are/will be typical in VE-CC connected systems. The intermediate results of the ManuCloud project also have been described. In the frame of this project a new promising approach, the MaaS (Manufacturing-as-a-Service) has been developed in order to increase qualitative and quantitative production network flexibility and to manage the provided manufacturing services throughout the network via a so-called Cloud Connector. Services can be searched, aggregated, and configured by end-customers then the configured service instances are sent back to the manufacturers in order to check their availability by means of up-to-date data from their internal IT systems. The implementation of the Cloud Connector was successful but a proprietary SW module had to be developed as there was no available standard for some functions yet. The classes and the relevant sub-classes of the presented taxonomy have been identified in the ManuCloud description demonstrating that the taxonomy is appropriate for representing real, industrial VE-CC systems. Based on the market researches and on theoretical and practical works introduced in this paper it can be predicted with good chances that connecting VE and cloud computing will result very efficient manufacturing enterprises but parallel very complex (hybrid) clouds can be generated. In these cases interoperability and portability will have even more important role then in case conventional enterprises apply cloud technology.

8

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Part of the research work described in the article has been done in the frame of the FP7 EU project "Distributed Cloud product specification and supply chain manufacturing execution infrastructure" (ManuCloud), No: 260142.

9

REFERENCES

[1] D. Cearley Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2014, Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, October 6-10, Orlando, (2013), retrieved December 27, 2013, from http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2603623 [2] K. Flinders, Cloud not meeting CIO expectations and SaaS still dominates take-up, 05 November, 2013, retrieved December 22, 2013, from http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240208482/Cloud-not-meeting-CIO-expectationsand-SaaS-still-dominates-take-up [3] A. T. Himmelman, Devolution as an experiment in citizen governancy: Multi-organizational partnerships and democratic revolutions, Working Paper for the Fourth International Conference on Multi-Organizational Partnerships and Cooperative Strategy, Oxford University, 8-10 July (1997). [4] L. M. Camarinha-Matos, H. Afsarmanesh, Collaborative networks: a new scientific discipline, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 16, (2005) 439–452. [5] L. M. Camarinha-Matos, H. Afsarmanesh, N. Galeano, A. Molina, Collaborative networked organizations – Concepts and practice in manufacturing enterprises, Computers & Industrial Engineering, 57, (2009) 46–60. [6] Industrial Advisory Group. Factories of the Future PPP - Strategic Multi-annual Roadmap, Report, 20 January (2010) p25. [7] Strategic Research Agenda. Assuring the future of manufacturing in Europe, Report of the High-Level Group, September (2006) p46. [8] FInES Cluster. Future Internet Enterprise Systems, Position Paper, Final Version, (Version 3.0), 1 September (2009). [9] R. C.S. Buyya, S. Yeo, J. Venugopal, Broberg, I. Brandic, Cloud Computing and emerging IT platforms:vision, hype, and reality for delivering IT services as the 5th utility, Future Generation of Computer Systems, 25 . (2009) 599–616. [10] P. Mell and T. Grance, The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing, Version 15, 10-7-09 (2009), retrieved January 7, 2014, from http://www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/upload/cloud-def-v15.pdf [11] A. Weissberger, IEEE CIO Says Cloud Interoperability a Bigger Problem than Security! (2011), retrieved December 20, 2013, from http://community.comsoc.org/blogs/alanweissberger/ieee-cio-says-cloud-interoperability-biggerproblem-security [12] EC Expert Group Report, The Future of Cloud Computing Opportunities For European Cloud Computing Beyond 2010, Public Version 1.0 (2010), retrieved January 7, 2014, from http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/ssai/docs/cloud-reportfinal.pdf [13] ATHENA European project, Specification of Interoperability Framework and Profiles, Guidelines and Best Practices, ATHENA Integrated Project, Deliverable D.A4.2, (March 2007) pp215. [14] D. Chen, G. Doumeingts, F. Vernadat, Architectures for enterprise integration and interoperability: Past, present and future, Computers in Industry 59, (2008) 647–659. [15] H. Panetto, A. Molina Enterprise integration and interoperability in manufacturing systems: Trends and issues, Computers in Industry 59, (2008) 641–646.

23

CompInd-Cloud-interoperability_text_COMIND-D-13-00148R1-ready-to-publish.doc [16] A. Molina, H. Panetto, D. Chen, L. Whitman, V. Chapurlat, F.B. Vernadat, Enterprise Integration and Networking: Challenges and Trends. Studies in Informatics and Control. 16/4. December (2007), Informatics and Control Publications. ISSN 1220-1766.pp353-368. [17] Future Internet Enterprise Systems (FInES) Standardisation Task Force Report, Working DRAFT, (Second Edition), 16 March, (2012). [18] Cloud Standards (2012).Wiki, retrieved December 20, 2013, from http://cloud-standards.org/wiki/, page was last modified on 13 May 2013. [19] NIST, Special Publication 500-292, NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture, September (2011). [20] DMTF, “Interoperable Clouds White Paper” (2009), retrieved December 20, 2013, from http://www.dmtf.org/about/cloud-incubator/DSP_IS0101_1.0.0.pdf [21] CCUCDG, Cloud Computing Use Cases, A white paper produced by the Cloud Computing Use Case Discussion Group, Version 4.0, 2 July (2010). [22] NIST, Special Publication 500-291, NIST Cloud Computing Standards Roadmap, July (2011). [23] F.B. Vernadat, Interoperable enterprise systems: Principles, concepts, and methods, Annual Reviews in Control 31 (2007) 137–145. [24] S. Holloway, Cloud Computing: What is it really? , Published: 18th March (2010), retrieved January 7, 2014, from http://www.bloorresearch.com/analysis/cloud-computing-what-is-it-really/ [25] ManuCloud project (2012), retrieved January 7, 2014, from http://www.manucloud-project.eu/ [26] M. Meier, J. Seidelmann, and I. Mezgár, ManuCloud: The Next-Generation Manufacturing As a Service Environment, ERCIM News no. 83, Special Theme: "Cloud Computing Platforms, Software, and Applications", October (2010), 31-32. [27] W. Hasselbring, H. Weigand, Languages for electronic business communication: state of the art. Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 101, Iss: 5, (2001), 217-227. [28] X. Xu, From cloud computing to cloud manufacturing. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Vol. 28, Iss: 1, (2012), 75-86. [29] F. Ning, W. Zhou, F. Zhang, Q. Yin, X. Ni, The Architecture of Cloud Manufacturing and its Key Technologies Research. IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing and Intelligence Systems (CCIS), 15-16 September (2011), Beijing, China. [30] L. Zhang, H. Guo, F. Tao, Y. L. Si, N. Luo, Flexible Management of Resource Service Composition in Cloud Manufacturing. IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM), 710 December (2010), Macao, China. [31] S. Lemaignan, A. Siadat, J.-Y. Dantan, A. Semenenko, MASON: A Proposal For An Ontology Of Manufacturing Domain. IEEE Workshop on Distributed Intelligent Systems: collective intelligence and its applications, June (2006), Prague, Czech Republic. [32] Y. Hu, F. Tao, D. Zhao, Z. Zhou, Manufacturing grid resource and resource service digital description. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Vol. 44, Iss: 9-10, (2009), pp. 1024-1035. [33]. F. Ameri, L. Patil, Ditigal manufacturing market: a semantic web-based framework for agile supply chain deployment. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Vol. 23, Issue 5, (2010) pp1817-1832.

24

Table(s)

Client layer acts as the user Special, sector interface, HW can involve dependent proprietary mobile devices standards

Application SW, services

Business process operations, social networks, collaboration sw.

Data

Data portability cloud services

Runtime

Application development, e.g. J2EE, .NET test, manage user services

Middleware

Provides SW building blocks Not cloud for the customer within the standards cloud

O/S

Operating system drivers OCCI hidden from the SaaS/PaaS customers

Storage

Storing Data

Virtual Machines

physical hardware is being OVF transferred into virtual machines

HW

Physical elements of the Not cloud cloud environments standards

specific

Network

Elements of the network

specific

Service Layers

Client

Resource abstraction

Not cloud specific standards – e.g. XML, SOAP, ebXML,.

between JSON, XML

specific

CDMI

Not cloud standards

Layers controlled by the service provider Layers controlled by the consumers Table 1. Layers of cloud architecture with activities and standards

Iaas

Standards

Physical resource Layer

Cloud layers

Description of functions, activities

PaaS

Descriptions

SaaS

Table-1_Cloud-layers-standards_COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

Table(s)

Table-2_VE-layers-standards_COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

VE Layers

Description of Functions, Activities

Standards

Business

Collaborative modeling, semantic KIF, KQML, UEML 1.0 interoperability, company culture

Process

Cross organizational business PSL, UEML 1.0 process, in NEs integrate different internal processes into a common one

Service, application

Flexible execution and service UEML 1.0, APIs, STEP, composition, identifying, EDI, HTML, XML, or ebcomposing and making various XML, J2EE, Java, .NET application functions together

Data

Information interoperability -to UEML 1.0, XML, flat files, make query languages and different DB, data models working together

Table 2. Layers of virtual enterprises for interoperability with activities and standards

Table(s)

Table-3_MC-actors-in-cloud_COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

Actor in Manufacturing

Cloud Actor

Desription of activities

Infrastructure provider

Cloud provider

The party who hosts the IT infrastructure for the MaaS environment

Manufacturing service provider

Service host

Manufacturing Service Provider (Manufacturing Cloud provider): A party which owns manufacturing facilities and would like to deliver products to a manufacturing cloud. Its motivation may be to increase or balance production load or to strengthen the market position by providing additional information and flexibility.

Manufacturing Consumer

Service Cloud Consumer A user who wants to purchase a product or subproduct. He may not be able to manufacture the products by himself due to reasons like costeffectiveness or know-how leakages.

Manufacturing Integrator

Service Cloud Broker

Table 3. Roles identified in manufacturing cloud

The integrator of a supply chain or production network who combines manufacturing services in order to build up an aggregated and interlinked manufacturing service structure which represents the structure of the respective production network. He manages the production network and adapts it, based on the options provided by the services, flexibly to current needs and herewith, provides a more sophisticated manufacturing service to his customers.

Table(s)

Table-4_MC-funtional-layers_COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

ATHENA layer

Cloud Connector Layer

Business

Provision of the overall platform framework including basic functionalities such as virtual organization and product management;

Process

MES and ERP functionalities on cloud level: inter-factory process planning and scheduling, execution, tracking, etc.

Services

Manufacturing Services and their management

Data

Cloud Connector: data extraction & alignment

Table 4. The functional layers of the cloud manufacturing platform.

Figure(s)

List of Figures_COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

Title of the paper

The Challenge of Networked Enterprises for Cloud Computing Interoperability

List of Figure captions

Figure 1: The NIST Conceptual Reference Model [19] Figure 2. The CCUCDG taxonomy for cloud computing [21] Figure 3. Taxonomy of VE and cloud connection types and their interoperability Figure 4. Main cloud layers controlled by different service models- figures applied in use case scenarios. Figure 5. Layers of interoperability in VE - figure applied in use case scenarios. Figure 6. Use Case I. - A permanent virtual enterprise interacts with the end user (customer) using a community cloud Figure 7. Use Case II. - VE uses a private cloud for internal resource sharing Figure 8. Use Case III. - VE member enterprises use the resources of the public cloud according to their actual needs Figure 9. Use Case IV. - Coordinated use of multiple clouds by a VE and its member - enterprises Figure 10. The MaaS Infrastructure and Workflow in the ManuCloud

Figure(s)

Figure-1_The NIST Conceptual-COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

Figure 1.

Figure(s)

Figure-2_The CCUCDG taxonomy -COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

Figure 2.

Figure(s)

Figure-3_Cloud-VE-comm-taxonomy-COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

Connecting VE and Cloud

Actors in the architecture

Cloud Installation Types

Cloud Service types

Cloud interoperability types and levels

Duration of VE connection

VE interoperability levels

Cloud

SaaS

Private

Cloud internal interoperability

Single-project

Business

Virtual Enterprise

PaaS

Public

Application interoperability

Temporary

Process

Customer, user

IaaS

Hybrid

Service interoperability

Permanent

Service, application

Service provider

XaaS

Community

System portability

Special purpose

Data portability

Broker

Data migration

Figure 3.

Data

Figure(s)

Figure-4_Main cloud layers controlled _COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

Figure 4.

Figure(s)

Figure-5_Layers of interoperability in VE _COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

VE

Figure 5.

Figure(s)

Figure-6_Use Case I_COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

VE1 – P

Comm. Cloud

E1

Figure 6.

E2

Figure(s)

Figure-7_Use Case II_COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

VE1-P Private cloud

E1

Figure 7.

E2

Figure(s)

Figure-8_Use Case III_COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

Public cloud

VE2 -T

VE1 - T

E1

Figure 8.

E2

E3

E4

Figure(s)

Figure-9_Use Case IV_COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

Public cloud

Public cloud

VE1 – P Comm. cloud

E1 Private cloud

Figure 9.

E2 Private cloud

Figure(s)

Figure-10_The MaaS Infrastructure -COMIND-D-13-00148R1.doc

Figure 10.