Many SaaS providers nowadays want to leverage the cloud’s capabilities also for their existing applications, for example, to enable sound scalability and cost-effectiveness. This thesis provides the approach CloudMIG that supports SaaS providers to migrate those applications to IaaS and PaaS-based cloud environments. CloudMIG consists of a step-by-step process and focuses on two core components. (1) Restrictions imposed by specific cloud environments (so-called cloud environment constraints (CECs)), such as a limited file system access or forbidden method calls, can be validated by an automatic conformance checking approach. (2) A cloud deployment option (CDO) determines which cloud environment, cloud resource types, deployment architecture, and runtime reconfiguration rules for exploiting a cloud’s elasticity should be used. The implied performance and costs can differ in orders of magnitude. CDOs can be automatically optimized with the help of our simulation-based genetic algorithm CDOXplorer. Extensive lab experiments and an experiment in an industrial context show CloudMIG’s applicability and the excellent performance of its two core components.

This book introduces readers to the field of conformance checking as a whole and outlines the fundamental relation between modelled and recorded behaviour. Conformance checking interrelates the modelled and recorded behaviour of a given process and provides techniques and methods for comparing and analysing observed instances of a process in the presence of a model, independent of the model’s origin. Its goal is to provide an overview of the essential techniques and methods in this field at an intuitive level, together with precise formalisations of its underlying principles. The book is divided into three parts, that are meant to cover different perspectives of the field of conformance checking. Part I presents a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the essential concepts used to interrelate modelled and recorded behaviour. It also serves as a reference for assessing how conformance checking efforts could be applied in specific domains. Next, Part II provides readers with detailed insights into algorithms for conformance checking, including the most commonly used formal notions and their instantiation for specific analysis questions. Lastly, Part III highlights applications that help to make sense of conformance checking results, thereby providing a necessary next step to increase the value of a given process model. They help to interpret the outcomes of conformance checking and incorporate them by means of enhancement and repair techniques. Providing the core building blocks of conformance checking and describing its main applications, this book mainly addresses students specializing in business process management, researchers entering process mining and conformance checking for the first time, and advanced professionals whose work involves process evaluation, modelling and optimization.

A gentle introduction to genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms revisited: mathematical foundations. Computer implementation of a genetic algorithm. Some applications of genetic algorithms. Advanced operators and techniques in genetic search. Introduction to genetics-based machine learning. Applications of genetics-based machine learning. A look back, a glance ahead. A review of combinatorics and elementary probability. Pascal with random number generation for fortran, basic, and cobol programmers. A simple genetic algorithm (SGA) in pascal. A simple classifier system(SCS) in pascal. Partition coefficient transforms for problem-coding analysis.

This open access book was prepared as a Final Publication of the COST Action IC1304 “Autonomous Control for a Reliable Internet of Services (ACROSS)”. The book contains 14 chapters and constitutes a show-case of the main outcome of the Action in line with its scientific goals. It will serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate and post-graduate students, educators, faculty members, researchers, engineers, and research strategists working in this field. The explosive growth of the Internet has fundamentally changed the global society. The emergence of concepts like SOA, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, NaaS, and Cloud Computing in general has catalyzed the migration from the information-oriented Internet into an Internet of Services (IoS). This has opened up virtually unbounded possibilities for the creation of new and innovative services that facilitate business processes and improve the quality of life. However, this also calls for new approaches to ensuring the quality and reliability of these services. The objective of this book is, by applying a systematic approach, to assess the state-of-the-art and consolidate the main research results achieved in this area.

This book reviews the challenging issues that present barriers to greater implementation of the cloud computing paradigm, together with the latest research into developing potential solutions. Topics and features: presents a focus on the most important issues and limitations of cloud computing, covering cloud security and architecture, QoS and SLAs; discusses a methodology for cloud security management, and proposes a framework for secure data storage and identity management in the cloud; introduces a simulation tool for energy-aware cloud environments, and an efficient congestion control system for data center networks; examines the issues of energy-aware VM consolidation in the IaaS provision, and software-defined networking for cloud related applications; reviews current trends and suggests future developments in virtualization, cloud security, QoS data warehouses, cloud federation approaches, and DBaaS provision; predicts how the next generation of utility computing infrastructures will be designed.