A framework for studying computer support of organizational infrastructure

This paper introduces a framework for studying organizational computing. Its pivotal construct relates technological infrastructure to the purposes for which organizational infrastructure exists and the activities that it enables. Drawing on a diverse body of organization science literature, the framework identifies five purposes. It also involves a progression of five types of activities. From this, we derive a taxonomy for computer-based support of organizations. We also derive research models for guiding empirical research concerned with studying the fit between organizational and technological infrastructure.     

A hierarchical multi-UAV cooperative framework for infrastructure inspection and reconstruction

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as a powerful tool for inspections and repair works in large-scale and unstructured 3D infrastructures, but current approaches take a long time to cover the entire area. Planning using UAVs for inspections and repair works puts forward a requirement of improving time efficiency in large-scale and cluster environments. This paper presents a hierarchical multi-UAV cooperative framework for infrastructure inspection and reconstruction to balance the workload and reduce the overall task completion time. The proposed framework consists of two stages, the exploration stage and the exploitation stage, resolving the task in a sequential manner. At the exploration stage, the density map is developed to update global and local information for dynamic load-balanced area partition based on reconstructability and relative positions of UAVs, and the Voronoi-based planner is used to enable the UAVs to reach their best region. After obtaining the global map, viewpoints are generated and divided while taking into account the battery capacity of each UAV. Finally, a shortest path planning method is used to minimize the total traveling cost of these viewpoints for obtaining a high-quality reconstruction. Several experiments are conducted in both a simulated and real environment to show the time efficiency, robustness, and effectiveness of the proposed method. Furthermore, the whole system is implemented in real applications.     

A practical framework for 802.11 MIMO rate adaptation

The emergence of MIMO antennas and channel bonding in 802.11n wireless networks has resulted in a huge leap in capacity compared with legacy 802.11 systems. This leap, however, adds complexity to optimizing transmission. Not only does the appropriate data rate need to be selected, but also the MIMO transmission technique (e.g., Spatial Diversity or Spatial Multiplexing), the number of streams, and the channel width. Incorporating these features into a rate adaptation (RA) solution requires a new set of rules to accurately evaluate channel conditions and select the appropriate transmission setting with minimal overhead. To address these challenges, our contributions in this work are two-fold. First, we propose a practical link metric that accurately captures channel conditions in MIMO 802.11n environments, and we call this metric diffSNR. Using diffSNR captured from real testbed environments, we build performance models that accuractely predict link quality in 95.5% of test cases. Practicality and deployability are guaranteed with diffSNR as it can be measured on all off-the-shelf MIMO WiFi chipsets. Second, we propose ARAMIS (Agile Rate Adaptation for MIMO Systems), a standard-compliant, closed-loop RA solution that jointly adapts rate and bandwidth, and we utilize the diffSNR-based 802.11n performance models within ARAMIS’s framework. ARAMIS adapts transmission rates on a per-packet basis; we believe it is the first closed-loop, 802.11 RA algorithm that simultaneously adapts rate and channel width. We have implemented ARAMIS with diffSNR on Atheros-based devices and deployed it on our 15-node testbed. Our experiments show that ARAMIS accurately adapts to a wide variety of channel conditions with negligible overhead. Furthermore, ARAMIS outperforms existing RA algorithms in 802.11n environments with up to a 10-fold increase in throughput.     

A practical approach to enterprise IT security

As the Internet has matured, so have the threats to its safe use, and so must the security measures that enable its business use. Traditional piecemeal, single-layer, single-dimensional security approaches are no longer adequate. These approaches can create a false sense of security and create as many problems as they attempt to address. We propose a multifaceted framework to prevent, detect, and respond to ever more sophisticated threats to enterprise IT information and assets. We outline a practical implementation approach to building enterprise IT security mechanisms in an incremental and continuous fashion. We believe that enterprises should adopt a similar multifaceted framework, following a practical but disciplined implementation approach. Enterprises must treat IT security as a required business enabler rather than just a costly item with low priority     

中小企业IT基础设施

典型中小企业IT基础设施包括：网络连接、网络服务、目录服务、互联网连接、发表内部资源、文件和存储服务、备份和还原、打印服务、终端服务、证书服务、软件升级服务、抗病毒和防攻击等。配置中小企业IT基础设施可以使用网络操作系统提供的服务组件。一个企业的IT基础设施不为企业提供直接的服务,而是支持企业开展业务。中小企业IT基础设施服务器包括主要基础设施服务器和次要基础设施服务器．次要基础设施服务器为企业提供了冗余。此篇以Windows Server 2000或Windows Server 2003网络操作系统和服务组件为例．配置主要基础设施服务器和次要基础设施服务器。     

中小企业IT基础设施

典型中小企业IT基础设施包括:网络连接、网络服务、目录服务、互联网连接、发表内部资源、文件和存储服务、备份和还原、打印服务、终端服务、证书服务、软件升级服务、抗病毒和防攻击等。配置中小企业IT基础设施可以使用网络操作系统提供的服务组件。一个企业的IT基础设施不为企业提供直接的服务,而是支持企业开展业务。中小企业IT基础设施服务器包括主要基础设施服务器和次要基础设施服务器,次要基础设施服务器为企业提供了冗余。此篇以Windows Server2000或Windows Server2003网络操作系统和服务组件为例,配置主要基础设施服务器和次要基础设施服务器。     

How to future-proof your IT infrastructure

Today's tight budgets and the increasing complexity of IT infrastructures place incredible stress on the IT environment. IT managers are working hard to keep up with new technologies while supporting existing infrastructure. As the demands on a business infrastructure grow and expand to new areas, an IT infrastructure must support these new and varied needs. Taking a hard look at ones systems can uncover hidden opportunities for savings and provide funds to help one prepares for future demands.     

A framework for protecting a SIP-based infrastructure against malformed message attacks

This paper presents a framework that can be utilized for the protection of session initiation protocol (SIP)-based infrastructures from malformed message attacks. Its main characteristic is that it is lightweight and that it can be easily adapted to heterogeneous SIP implementations. The paper analyzes several real-life attacks on VoIP services and proposes a novel detection and protection mechanism that is validated through an experimental test-bed under different test scenarios. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the employment of such a mechanism for the detection of malformed messages imposes negligible overheads in terms of the overall SIP system performance.     

A practical framework for theabstract interpretation of logic programs

There are numerous papers concerned with the compile-time derivation of certain run-time properties of logic programs, e.g. mode inferencing, type checking, type synthesis, and properties relevant for and-parallel execution. Most approaches have little in common, they are developed in an ad hoc way, and their correctness is not always obvious. We develop a general framework which is suited to develop complex applications and to prove their correctness. All states which are possible at run time can be represented by an infinite set of proof trees (and trees, SLD derivations). The core idea of our approach is to represent this infinite set of and trees by a finite abstract and-or graph. We present a generic abstract interpretation procedure for the construction of such an abstract and-or graph and formulate conditions which allow us to construct a correct one in finite time.     

IT infrastructure services as a requirement for e-learning system success

Evaluation of e-learning systems success is an essential process in managing and developing these types of systems. There are still arguments about the factors can be used to evaluate the success of e-learning systems. Inadequate attention has been paid to investigate the role of IT infrastructure services as a foundation to create the success of e-learning systems. The focus of this study is the role of IT infrastructure services in terms of the success of e-learning systems. A model is proposed which includes five constructs: IT infrastructure services; perceived usefulness; user satisfaction; customer value; and organizational value. A quantitative study was conducted at an Australian University, with survey responses from 110 Academic staff members and 720 students who use the e-learning system. The empirical study confirmed that an IT infrastructure services is a valid and reliable construct to measure e-learning systems success. In addition, this study provides evidence of the critical role of IT infrastructure services in the success of e-learning systems via its significant effect on perceived usefulness, user satisfaction, customer value, and organizational value.     

IT infrastructure capabilities and IT project success: a development team perspective

In this research we investigate how IT infrastructure capabilities are related to IT project success from a development team perspective. We first conduct an extensive literature review and summarize the insights to suggest an IT infrastructure base model. Drawing upon several other bodies of literature, particularly the psychology literature, we then build upon the base model to propose an integrative research model for IT project success that considers both actual and perceived effects of IT infrastructure capabilities. This research model argues that (1) teamwork quality mediates the effect of technical and human IT infrastructure capabilities on IT project success, and (2) team perceptions of both IT infrastructure and team capabilities shape team perceived likelihood of project success, which subsequently affects team commitment that is crucial to IT project success. We also propose a direct-effect model that directly links all constructs to IT project success so that we can test the efficacy of our proposed research model by comparing all three models. We then collect empirical data (n = 91) through an online survey of CIO/CTOs and team leaders. All three models are evaluated and compared using the partial least squares method. The results show strong support for the proposed research model except for two IT infrastructure components. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of the findings, and suggest several ways this research can be extended.     

SDN/NFV security framework for fog-to-things computing infrastructure

Currently, core networking architectures are facing disruptive developments, due to emergence of paradigms such as Software-Defined-Networking (SDN) for control, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) for services, and so on. These are the key enabling technologies for future applications in 5G and locality-based Internet of things (IoT)/wireless sensor network services. The proliferation of IoT devices at the Edge networks is driving the growth of all-connected world of Internet traffic. In the Cloud-to-Things continuum, processing of information and data at the Edge mandates development of security best practices to arise within a fog computing environment. Service providers are transforming their business using NFV-based services and SDN-enabled networks. The SDN paradigm offers an easily programmable model, global view, and control for modern networks, which demand faster response to security incidents and dynamically enforce countermeasures to intrusions and cyberattacks. This article proposes an autonomic multilayer security framework called Distributed Threat Analytics and Response System (DTARS) for a converged architecture of Fog/Edge computing and SDN infrastructures, for emerging applications in IoT and 5G networks. The major detection scheme is deployed within the data plane, consisting of a coarse-grained behavioral, anti-spoofing, flow monitoring and fine-grained traffic multi-feature entropy-based algorithms. We developed exemplary defense applications under DTARS framework, on a malware testbed imitating the real-life DDoS/botnets such as Mirai. The experiments and analysis show that DTARS is capable of detecting attacks in real-time with accuracy more than 95% under attack intensities up to 50 000 packets/s. The benign traffic forwarding rate remains unaffected with DTARS, while it drops down to 65% with traditional NIDS for advanced DDoS attacks. Further, DTARS achieves this performance without incurring additional latency due to data plane overhead.     

A selection framework for infrastructure condition monitoring technologies in water and wastewater networks

The global water sector faces significant challenges to maintain secure and reliable service provision in the context of ageing infrastructure, urban growth, and with investment capacity constrained by user affordability. As part of an on-going effort to meet these challenges, research has been undertaken to facilitate the diffusion of technological innovations within the concept of “Intelligent Networks”. This diffusion has been facilitated by the formation of a consortium of water utilities in Victoria, Australia. The consortium has engaged with Intelligent Network concepts due to a need to prolong network asset life where possible; defer or remove the need for asset augmentation, reduce the operational expenditure (by reducing asset failures and incident response times), and minimise the impact of asset failures on communities and the environment. The literature on innovation diffusion indicates that the uptake of new technologies is influenced by subjective perceptions. As such, key research challenges were to understand where technologies could be used to improve asset management, identify potential condition monitoring techniques, elicit best available knowledge with respect these technologies and provide advice on where their application was likely to reflect a rational economic decision. To ensure a targeted review, “failure pathway” diagrams were first constructed to identify and relate influences controlling asset deterioration and failure. Elements of failure pathways were used to identify parameters that, by effective monitoring, could provide an early indication of asset distress and the opportunity to intervene and avoid reactive maintenance costs. Alternatively, parameters were also identified that could inform the deferral of capital expenditure on asset replacement and augmentation. The failure pathway provided the basis for the identification of 19 candidate monitoring technologies which were subsequently reviewed. Each technology identified was assessed against capital and on-going maintenance costs and the perceived benefit of implementation. Benefits were expressed in terms of how the new information acquired would enhance the asset owner’s ability to defer asset augmentation/renewals and avoid reactive maintenance costs/externalities. The project provided a prioritised set of monitoring technologies that are currently progressing towards pilot trials in the field.     

Strategic context and patterns of IT infrastructure capability

The importance of a firm's information technology (IT) infrastructure capability is increasingly recognised as critical to firm competitiveness. Infrastructure is particularly important for firms in industries going through dynamic change, for firms reengineering their business processes and for those with multiple business units or extensive international or geographically dispersed operations. However, the notion of IT infrastructure is still evolving and there has been little empirically based research on the patterns of IT infrastructure capability across firms.We develop the concept of IT infrastructure capability through identification of IT infrastructure services and measurement of reach and range in large, multi-business unit firms. Using empirical case research, we examine the patterns of IT infrastructure capability in 26 firms with diverse strategic contexts, including different industry bases, level of marketplace volatility, extent of business unit synergies and the nature of firm strategy formation processes. Data collection was based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods with multiple participants.More extensive IT infrastructure capability is defined as a combination of more IT infrastructure services and more reach and range. More extensive IT infrastructure capability was found in firms where: (i) products changed quickly; (ii) attempts were made to identify and capture synergies across business units; (iii) there was greater integration of information and IT needs as part of planning processes; and (iv) there was greater emphasis on tracking the implementation of long term strategy. These findings have implications for both business and technology managers particularly in regard to how firms link strategy and IT infrastructure formation processes.     

数据预处理在IT基础设施监控系统中的应用

数据质量的优劣对数据挖掘的成败有着举足轻重的影响,而作为数据挖掘过程第一步的数据预处理就是为了确保数据质量而设,其研究方兴未艾.从数据质量的概念出发,介绍了数据预处理的体系结构和常用方法,根据IT基础设置监控系统中的数据特点,探讨了数据预处理技术在该类数据上的典型应用.     

Designing an evaluation framework for IT service management

Applying IT Service Management (ITSM) is a key issue in the management of an organisation's IT function. The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is the most popular and influential framework for applying ITSM. With adoption growing globally it is important to understand the benefits that ITIL processes can bring to an organisation. To date the benefits of implementing and using ITIL processes have been predicted or assumed with very little research and minimal anecdotal evidence. We present a design of a holistic evaluation framework for ITSM improvement efforts with particular focus on ITIL.     

IT infrastructure in emerging markets: arguing for an end-to-end perspective

To help sustain large-scale pervasive computing in emerging markets, researchers must address unique challenges in the delivery fabric and enterprise backbone. Such challenges present opportunities for high impact innovation. Although most research organizations have focused on developing consumer-facing solutions, we posit that future research must take an end-to-end perspective. That is, researchers must not only consider the front end (such as consumer devices) but also the medium to reach the consumer (for example, the delivery fabric) and the back end (for example, the enterprise backbone) to create an economically sustainable, scalable solution. Although our end-to-end perspective generalizes to all emerging markets, in this article, we mainly discuss the Indian market from which we based our observations.     

Business-driven short-term management of a hybrid IT infrastructure

We consider the problem of managing a hybrid computing infrastructure whose processing elements are comprised of in-house dedicated machines, virtual machines acquired on-demand from a cloud computing provider through short-term reservation contracts, and virtual machines made available by the remote peers of a best-effort peer-to-peer (P2P) grid. Each of these resources has different cost basis and associated quality of service guarantees. The applications that run in this hybrid infrastructure are characterized by a utility function: the utility gained with the completion of an application depends on the time taken to execute it. We take a business-driven approach to manage this infrastructure, aiming at maximizing the profit yielded, that is, the utility produced as a result of the applications that are run minus the cost of the computing resources that are used to run them. We propose a heuristic to be used by a contract planner agent that establishes the contracts with the cloud computing provider to balance the cost of running an application and the utility that is obtained with its execution, with the goal of producing a high overall profit. Our analytical results show that the simple heuristic proposed achieves very high relative efficiency in the use of the hybrid infrastructure. We also demonstrate that the ability to estimate the grid behaviour is an important condition for making contracts that allow such relative efficiency values to be achieved. On the other hand, our simulation results with realistic error predictions show only a modest improvement in the profit achieved by the simple heuristic proposed, when compared to a heuristic that does not consider the grid when planning contracts, but uses it, and another that is completely oblivious to the existence of the grid. This calls for the development of more accurate predictors for the availability of P2P grids, and more elaborated heuristics that can better deal with the several sources of non-determinism present in this hybrid infrastructure.