Abstract: Mashups are characterized as complex and fragile systems as they integrate heterogeneous, distributed and evolving services into a single value-adding service. While in most cases development gains main focus, operation and maintenance of mashups become second class citizens. The increasing significance of mashup solutions, even in the enterprise context, raises questions regarding high-quality operations of these strongly interdependent - and in most cases separately operated - systems. In this paper, we describe general operational challenges from a provider’s perspective and present dedicated models and processes focusing on describing and evaluating a mashup solution’s underlying structure to enforce service level agreements.

1. Operational Challenges and Solutions for Mashups –
An Experience Report
Frederic Majer, Martin Nussbaumer, Patrick Freudenstein
Steinbuch Centre for Computing (SCC)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Germany
www.kit.edu
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH und Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

2. Mashups
The developer’s view
complex and fragile as they integrate services
Services are heterogeneous, distributed and evolving
Several development frameworks
Unconsidered operational perspective
Poor service delivery for end-users
Unclear / missing service level agreements
Missing responsibilities and failover procedures
With the rise of mashups operational challenges gain
significance
2 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

3. Agenda
Example Scenario
Operational Challenges
Integrated Information Map (i2map)
Summary
3 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

4. KIT Campus Plan – An Example
Different modes
Different views
Predefined
categories
http://research.tm.uni-karlsruhe.de/CampusMap/
4 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

5. KIT Campus Plan – An Example
Tour-
Navigator
http://research.tm.uni-karlsruhe.de/CampusMap/
5 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

6. Simplified Dependency Graph of the Mashup
Internal External
Facility
Mgmt.
Service
6 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

7. Operational Challenges
Organizational
Operator is service enabler
Awareness about contribution / commitment
Operational concept for internal and external organizational units
Technical
Obtaining a technical overview of the mashup
Definition of operational and service level agreements
Monitoring the service quality
Problem resolution
7 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

8. Supporting Operations – Overview
8 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

9. Concern – Configuration
Description of the mashup (structure, expected
behavior etc.)
Top-down approach:
Mashup’s primary owner
Customer-oriented description
Iterative assignment of existing and newly-created assets
Advocate for external services
Use of established configuration management database (CMDB)
and change management processes
Description follows the Common Information Model (CIM)
9 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

10. Concern – Monitoring
Observation of service-enabling elements
(configuration items)
Dedicated monitoring environments
Element-constricted, (non)-functional
quality parameters
Status and performance reporting
Use of incident and problem management processes and
systems
10 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

11. Integrated Information Map (i2map)
Mediation and management between configuration
and monitoring
Decomposition of SLAs based on structural
information about mashup
Instrumentation of monitoring environments
Aggregation of status and performance information
Efficient problem analysis
Definition of consistent SLA
11 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

12. Summary
Operations responsible for service delivery
Basis for high-quality services
Structural information about mashup
Definition of SLAs and enforcement
Operational concept & commitment
Presented approach addresses mashup operations
Future work
Semantic analysis of SLAs
Processing of structural information
12 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)

13. Thank You for Your Attention
Questions / Comments?
Contact
IT-Management and Web Engineering Research Group
Steinbuch Centre for Computing (SCC)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
76128 Karlsruhe, Germany
http://mwrg.tm.uni-karlsruhe.de/
frederic.majer@kit.edu
13 | Frederic Majer | MEM 2009 | April 20, 2009
KIT – The cooperation of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH and Universität Karlsruhe (TH)