Software & Service Architectures and Infrastructures

Internet of Services

Research funded under Objective 1.2 "Service and Software Architectures, Infrastructures and Engineering" can be summarised by the theme "Internet of Services". The collective aim is to provide software engineering technologies, service architectures and virtualisation technologies that will support the Future Internet.

For an overview of the target outcomes and expected impact of Objective 1.2 click here.

The following figure shows the projects selected in FP7-Call 1 and their research areas. Information about all the projects can be found here.

Service Front Ends

The web is already an important tool for social interaction, and users expect the web to support their life. They want to be in control of the applications they use and they want to mix services and data to compose services which are truly useful for them, matching their needs for that moment and in that context. An example of this composition of services and data is provided by so-called mashup technology. Empowering the user to develop their own services implies that the user should be, much more than before, at the centre of attention of developers of software tools. The "Service Front Ends" section describes this trend in more detail, and will also provide a short description of the relevant projects.

Service Architectures

The projects classified in the "Service Architectures" area are working on the topics of service oriented architectures and service oriented computing. These approaches allow pieces of software to be made available as "services" that can be easily reused and composed into applications. The vision is that, given specific user requirements, applications can be composed from loosely coupled services. If changes occur in the environment, the application can dynamically (on the fly) recompose itself to address the new needs. Before this vision is reached a lot of research still needs to be done. Section " Service Architectures" describes in more detail this research.

Virtualised Infrastructures

The goal of the research done by the projects classified under the topic of Virtualised Infrastructures is to efficiently manage and synchronise IT resources to match fluctuating business requirements and to enable businesses to provide optimal infrastructure service at a justifiable cost. It addresses the whole range of challenges in providing computing, storage, communication, data, and information as services. In the last 10 years, with the advent of key technologies such as grid, virtualization and web services, the idea of managing an infrastructure with the ability to share resources has moved closer to reality. However, important research questions are still open. This is further described in the Section " Virtualised Infrastructures".

Reference Service Architecture

Within the project portfolio of objective 1.2 NEXOF-RA is a project with a special nature. By means of intensive collaboration, it aims at delivering a reference service architecture in which the results of many of the individual projects will fit. Through NEXOF-RA it should be possible to integrate the results of projects working in the three areas mentioned before into a so-called service platform.

Especially the results of the NESSI Strategic Projects SOA4All , http://cordis.europa.eu/cms/projects_en.html#sla-soi and Reservoir will be integrated, but through open calls also the results of other projects will be considered.

NEXOF-RA will be one of the important outcomes of the NESSI, the European Technology Platform on software and services. NESSI groups more than 250 organisations from industry and academia that share a common long term strategy on software and services to contribute to Europe's competitiveness.

Service/Software Engineering

The challenges of developing good quality and reliable software and services for the Future Internet are getting bigger and bigger. Just think for instance about the fact that users will do matching and mixing of services or develop their own services, which will run on the internet and be accessible by millions of people. Of course this software should not have any negative side effects, so that requires new research into validation and verification. Another question is how to ensure an overall quality of experience to users when an application is composed of services that are developed by somebody else and of which you only know the interface? How can you depend on these base-services? The Section " Service/ Software Engineering" describes these and other related issues in more detail.

Network of Excellence S-CUBE

As shown in the diagram above, the research carried out by the projects of Objective 1.2 can be divided in two pillars: research and development on service architectures and platforms and research and development on novel service/software engineering technology. The Network of Excellence S-Cube the European Network of Excellence in Software Services and Systems, supports both types of research.As shown in the diagram above, the research carried out by the projects of Objective 1.2 can be divided in two pillars: research and development on service architectures and platforms and research and development on novel service/software engineering technology. The Network of Excellence S-Cube the European Network of Excellence in Software Services and Systems, supports both types of research.

S-CUBE will:

• Re-align, re-shape and integrate research agendas of key European players from diverse research areas.
• Inaugurate a Europe-wide common programme of education and training for researchers and industry.
• Establish a proactive mobility plan to enable cross-fertilisation, which will foster the integration of research communities and the establishment of a common software services research culture.
• Establish trust relationships with industry, specifically through the NESSI European Technology Platform.
• Define a broader research vision and perspective.

Support actions

NESSI 2010Service Web 3.0, and Flossinclude, are Support Action projects. They support the community and the European Funded Projects in reaching the goals of Objective 1.2.