A Model‐Centric Approach to the Design of Resource‐Aware Cloud Applications
Reiner Hähnle, Einar Broch Johnsen · 2018
Cloud-based data processing, or cloud computing, is more than just a convenient solution for individuals on the move. The modeling language abstract behavioral specification (ABS) is a concurrent, executable modeling language with a formal semantics. This chapter explains why it is particularly well-suited as a basis for model-centric design of resource-aware cloud applications. ABS supports the modeling of deployment decisions and resource awareness. The chapter illustrates the modeling of resource-aware systems in ABS by considering a virtualized service in which user requests trigger computational tasks whose resource cost varies with the size of input data. Making deployment decisions at design-time moves control from the provisioning layer to the client layer. The client service becomes resource-aware. This provides a number of attractive opportunities: fine-grained provisioning, tighter provisioning and application-controlled elasticity. Resource aware services give the client better control of resource usage, to meet service-level agreements at lower cost.