Towards a dynamic cloud-enabled service eco-system

Cloud computing re-defined what, in ICT, can be delivered “as a service”. The new types of services increase the potential of some Service-Oriented Architecture concepts, e.g. dynamic discovery and composition of services. We envision a dynamic cloud-enabled service ecosystem in which different business actors cooperate in delivering scalable high-value services to the end user. The different providers should be able to discover, request, use and discard services during runtime based on some internal management logic. We define and use a reference model to explain this dynamicity, characterized by the introduction of the concept of Virtual Distributed Execution Environment (VDEE) between the virtual resources and the applications. Based on a study of the state of the art on cloud and SOA technologies, we identify functions of existing platforms that could be integrated to implement the proposed reference model. We also identify some challenges that still need to be addressed. Finally we anticipate the business-related evolution towards the dynamic cloud.