International Workshop on Business Modeling and Economic Performance Assessment in Cloud Computing (BMEPA)

http://www.thecloudcomputing.org/2009/2/workshops-BMEPA.html

The main goal of this Workshop is to bring together researchers and industry representatives, providing them the opportunity to present recent research and development results and discuss novel ideas on topics related to business modeling and economic performance assessment in cloud computing.

Cloud computing has become a services delivery platform in the area of Services Computing. Its technical foundations include Service-Oriented Architecture and Virtualization (e.g., of hardware, software). In clouds, resources (e.g., virtualized hardware/ software) can be exploited by a pay-per-use model. While extensive research is being pursued on technical aspects related to cloud computing, economic fundamentals of clouds and their analytic modeling receive little attention. So far, relatively scarce research has been pursued on clouds’ analytic modeling and performance measurements, and no study has published an economic model for clouds. Business/ economic aspects are of interest for both providers and users. Although several benefits of cloud computing are claimed (e.g., scalability, no up-front cost), an actual quantification of its economic benefits is not yet available. Several questions are still unanswered, e.g.: How can economic benefits (e.g., for both providers and users) of cloud computing (e.g., for commercial clouds, government clouds) be quantified? How performance can be predicted for clouds? Which are the business models for cloud computing? Which are the main decision criteria for service selection in clouds? Which are the most relevant economic theories to support the formal definition and economic performance in clouds?

This workshop on cloud computing aims at gathering researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas, present and discuss their most recent achievements and lessons learned addressing challenges related to business/ economic aspects in cloud computing.

We encourage the submission of papers describing research and development work on business/ economic related aspects on clouds, e.g., new concepts and approaches related to business modeling and performance assessment, tools and systems providing practical implementations supporting such models/ approaches. In addition, we are also interested in application papers discussing the power and applicability of these methods and techniques to real-world problems. Submissions of original and unpublished works are invited, including research, theory, and applications.

Topics of interested include but are not limited to:

• Business modeling for clouds (e.g., design, specification, operational processes and policies, value configuration, technical cost modeling, formal modeling for core aspects on business in cloud computing)
• Economics of clouds (e.g., costs, payoffs, costs vs. payoffs)
• Strategies and strategic decisions in cloud computing (e.g., concerning optimal resource utilization; selection criteria)
• Analytics of clouds
• Methods, frameworks and methodologies synthesized for clouds’ performance assessment (e.g., performance indicators, benchmarking methods, frameworks)
• Life-cycle management aspects of cloud computing
• Self-management aspects in clouds (e.g., instant management of assigned resources)
• Theories and approaches synthesized for clouds’ representation and formal modeling and their economics (e.g., cost transaction economics)
• Performance predictability for clouds.

Online Paper Submission/Review and Registration System:

URL: http://confhub.com/conf.php?id=137

Workshop Format Organization:

The Workshop will be organized with oral paper presentations, followed by two rounds of ‘Workshop Knowledge Tea/ Café’ on two subjects related to the papers (e.g., in order to assure less formal discussions among Workshop participants). A plenary panel and report will close this Workshop.

Workshop Co-Chairs:

• Claudia-Melania Chituc (cmchituc@fe.up.pt), Department of Informatics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal (FEUP/DEI) and Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Laboratory (LIACC).
• Francisco Restivo (fjr@fe.up.pt), Department of Informatics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal (FEUP/DEI) and Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Laboratory (LIACC).