by Jana Koehler and Gustavo Alonso

Service-oriented computing is an emerging cross-disciplinary paradigm for distributed computing, which is changing the way software applications are designed, delivered and consumed. At the heart of service-oriented computing are services that provide autonomous, platform-independent, computational elements that can be described, published, discovered, orchestrated and programmed using standard protocols to build networks of collaborating applications distributed within and across organizational boundaries.

by Katie Weeks

The National Grid Service (NGS) is the UK’s Grid for academics from all fields. Our users range from chemists to bioinformaticians to social scientists. The ultimate aim of the National Grid Service is to provide a wide range of computing and data resources and services for all users without requiring them to know anything about Grid computing.

by Tom Kirkham, Fredrik Solsvik and Robert Piotter

Akogrimo is an EU Framework 6 project developing an infrastructure to support the use of mobile services within Grid computing applications. This investigation focuses on the presentation of mobile services as valid resources for Grid applications to use. The project is nearing completion and has developed an architecture supporting eHealth, eLearning and Disaster and Crisis management testbeds.

by Hasan, Peter Racz, Cristian Morariu, David Hausheer and Burkhard Stiller

The development of Grid technology has reached a point at which it is suitable for commercial deployment in a multi-provider environment. The EU Project Akogrimo is driving this development toward the support of mobile participants of a Virtual Organization employing Next-Generation Grid infrastructure. With the support of A4C functions developed within Akogrimo, such mobile Grids can now be commercially exploited. These A4C functions are the focus of this overview, and comprise user authentication, resource access authorization, multi-domain accounting of resource usage, auditing of compliance with SLA, and charging of resource consumption.

by Magnus Boman, Kristofer Franzén and Fredrik Espinoza

Researchers at SICS are developing new middleware for integrating competence and knowledge management tools to make knowledge work more efficiently while leveraging individual interests and social networks.

by Carmen Bratosin and Wil van der Aalst

The Architecture for Information Systems group of the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) in the Netherlands has built up extensive knowledge in the field of Workflow Management Systems and Process Mining. Since 2006, the group has begun to apply this knowledge in a new and dynamic research area: Grid computing. Four research perspectives are currently under investigation.

by Christophe Ponsard, Gautier Dallons, Stéphane Mouton and Philippe Massonet

Many companies are currently moving or considering the move to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) model. This model holds the promise of flexibility and cost reduction by enabling business-level integration across organization boundaries. While this supports large companies by allowing them to better structure both internally and externally, it is also of benefit to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as their highly value-added expertise can be made available more easily and with fewer overheads. However, achieving this vision still requires a number of challenges to be solved: management of quality of service, accounting, security and trust, interoperability and so on. CETIC, a Belgian research and technology transfer centre, is taking an active part in this work though a number of projects at both European and regional levels. Here we describe how the above challenges are presently being addressed, both at research level and within real-world deployments occurring in connection with that research.

Reliable and Inexpensive QoS Monitoring in Service Markets

by Radu Jurca, Walter Binder, Boi Faltings

We propose a novel infrastructure for Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring that promises a significant reduction in monitoring costs. Our approach uses an incentive-compatible reputation mechanism to accurately estimate QoS by aggregating quality ratings from the clients.

by Luca Console and Mariagrazia Fugini

The WS-DIAMOND project aims at developing a framework for Web services that are endowed with self-diagnosis and self-repair capabilities. There are two main goals: the definition of an operational framework for self-healing service execution of conversationally complex Web services, where monitoring, detection and diagnosis of anomalous situations are carried out and repair/ reconfiguration is performed; and the definition of a methodology and tools for service design that guarantee run-time diagnosability and repairability.

by Maurice ter Beek, Stefania Gnesi, Fabio Martinelli, Franco Mazzanti and Marinella Petrocchi

Formal methods and tools are a popular means of analysing the correctness properties of computer network protocols, such as safety, liveness and security. First the protocol under scrutiny is described in a formal language, which often results in a more precise definition of its function. Subsequently, the properties to be analysed are specified in a suitable logic. Finally, to decide whether or not the protocol fulfils certain properties, automatic tools are used to analyse it. The outcome either proves the protocol to be correct with respect to the relevant properties or shows there to be a problem.

by Wolfgang Reisig, Karsten Wolf, Jan Bretschneider, Kathrin Kaschner, Niels Lohmann, Peter Massuthe, and Christian Stahl

Interacting services raise a number of new software engineering challenges. To meet these challenges, the behaviour of the involved services must be considered. We present results regarding the behaviour of services in isolation, the interaction of services in choreographies, the exchangeability of a service, and the synthesis of desired partner services.

by Ottmar Krämer-Fuhrmann

The "Reconfigurable Computing Environment" (RCE) , is a service-oriented software infrastructure for managing collaborative engineering processes. It hides the complexity of heterogeneous and distributed IT systems behind common user interfaces and thus enforces security in the access of data and services. RCE is easily adapted to different application domains: recent work has seen two German ship-building companies build the Ship Design and Simulation System (SESIS) on top of RCE. RCE was jointly developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing (SCAI) in Sankt Augustin and the German Aerospace Center DLR in Cologne.

by Andrea Chiodi, Fabrizio Silva and Andrea Ballarino

The experimental shoe factory in Vigevano allows customers to order their shoes online, with their feet being measured via a 3D digital scan. A Web-based service processes the customer request, accompanied by the foot measurements. The measurements are then matched against existing collections of shoes and a made-to-measure production order is launched.

by Paul Klint

The paradigm of service orientation creates new opportunities for language-processing tools and Interactive Development Environments. At CWI we have developed the ToolBus, a service-oriented architecture with application areas like software renovation and implementation of domain-specific languages.

by Manolis Tsiknakis

ACGT (Advancing Clinico-Genomic Trials on cancer) is an FP6 integrated project focusing on the development of a semantic Grid infrastructure to support multicentric, post-genomic clinical trials. This will enable discoveries in the laboratory to be quickly transferred to clinical management and the treatment of patients.

by Adrian Grenham

The ultimate vision for the Sensor Web is to use service-oriented architecture (SOA) techniques and the ubiquitous power and utility of the Web to integrate billions of static and mobile sensors that are already present in the environment. The resulting capability will release an unprecedented wealth of environmental monitoring information at all levels: global, national, regional and local. In order to investigate and demonstrate one aspect of this vision, SciSys research is working on the automatic triggering of satellite-based observations by in situ alerts.

by Pascal Bauler and Nicolas Biri

Recent and planned activities of the Centre de Recherche Public: Gabriel Lippmann include the design of open-source service-oriented architectures (SOA) and the implementation of these new concepts in small and medium organisations.

by Spiros Alexakis and Alexa Schumacher

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cooperating with international partners in the enlarged Europe need holistic Enterprise Applications Integration (EAI) solutions in order to operate effectively. At the same time, they face intercultural barriers, since current interoperability and integration efforts are focused on data rather than on processes.

by Jarmo Kalaoja, Julia Kantorovitch, Toni Piirainen and Ilkka Niskanen

Service-oriented architectures, Web services, Semantic Web, ontologies, OWL, RFD, OWL-S… any chance for the service developer and original user (eg researcher) to survive in understanding of the complex world of today's service-related semantic technology? Researchers in the VTT Software Architectures and Platforms department are developing a VantagePoint tool, which will help designers and developers to better understand semantic service-oriented architectures (SOAs). An understanding of semantics will enable application designers to choose appropriate ontologies for their applications, and to determine which semantic-based approaches are beneficial and what can be easily integrated with semantic reference architectures.

by Frédéric Pourraz and Hervé Verjus

The aim of Diapason is to allow designers of service-oriented architectures (SOAs) to precisely orchestrate services using an orchestration language based on pi calculus. Once defined, an orchestration can be verified against properties and constraints, can be deployed as a new service and can evolve dynamically and on the fly.

by Matthias Born, Christian Drumm, Ivan Markovic and Ingo Weber

The SUPER project (Semantics Utilized for Process Management within and between Enterprises) is working on improving the modelling and management of business processes. This will be achieved by integrating semantic technology with business process management (BPM), and would provide answers to two of the most prominent issues emerging in this area: shifting control of processes from IT professionals to business experts, and scaling up BPM to support processes of higher complexity.

by László Kovács, András Micsik and Tomás Pariente

In the frame of the INFRAWEBS project, a software toolset for creating, maintaining and executing WSMO (Web Service Modelling Ontology) services was developed. The implemented framework supports open and extensible development platforms for Semantic Web services.

by Mikko Salonen and Jyrki Haajanen

Virtual Organizations (VOs) are collaborative groups that can be formed in several ways, and for several reasons. Typically they are logical entities, have a limited lifetime, are geographically dispersed, and are created to solve a specific problem or to enhance and develop business processes. Information networks play a significant role in the interaction of VOs, and their importance is expected to grow even further. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an architectural approach based on the service-oriented computing (SOC) paradigm. Since SOA encompasses architecture issues in both business and information systems, it has great potential to enable alignment of VO approaches with IT-based business networking approaches, such as enterprise interoperability. So while SOA can contribute to VOs, VOs can also make their own demands on and contributions to the adaptation of the new architecture.

A Pervasive, Service-Oriented Architecture for Supporting Teamwork

by Schahram Dustdar and Hong-Linh Truong

At the heart of the EU "inContext" project, the Pervasive Collaboration Services Architecture (PCSA) aims at providing a pervasive, SOA-based architecture for supporting various kinds of teamwork. This architecture comprises different kinds of Web services, loosely coupled in a dynamic environment that includes diverse underlying operating systems and networks, necessary for collaboration and teamwork. The goal of this platform is to reduce as far as possible human intervention in the support of collaborative work, by means of autonomic capabilities based on context information and interaction patterns.

by Mike P. Papazoglou

Service-oriented computing is not simply about deploying software: it also requires that organizations evaluate their business models and come up with service-oriented design and development techniques and support plans. At INFOLAB/University of Tilburg in the Netherlands we have developed an experimental methodology for service-oriented design and development that applies equally well to Web services and business processes.

by Veronica Gacitua and Claus Pahl

Increasingly, enterprises are using service-oriented architecture (SOA) for software application integration. The technical problem - integration at the service level  is one of architecture. The business model domain that drives the integration can, however, be linked to the service architecture level by adding a service-centric architectural perspective into business process modelling. Service architectures can be reused in the form of architectural patterns and styles, which provides quality improvement and cost reduction.

by Valerie Issarny, Mauro Caporuscio, Pierre-Guillaume Raverdy

Beyond 3rd Generation (B3G) networking provides mobile users with unique features for seamlessly accessing networked services. However, the provision of services over B3G distributed computing platforms faces numerous challenges, and these are being investigated by the INRIA ARLES project team.

by Alberto Fernández and Sascha Ossowski

In open multi-agent systems (MAS), agents are often conceived as software entities capable of advertizing
the services they provide, locating other service providers that offer services potentially of interest to them, and negotiating agreements regarding service enactment. Although organizational models are usually present in agent-oriented design methodologies, they have not yet found their way into service description mechanisms for agents and consequently are not explicitly exploited by today's service discovery and composition mechanisms. We propose an approach that bridges this gap by making use of organizational concepts such as roles and interactions to extend current trends in semantic service description, matchmaking and composition in MAS.

by Victoria Torres, Vicente Pelechano and Pau Giner

Business Processes (BPs) play a very important role in the development process of applications. They allow us to specify organization goals by means of tasks and the participants in charge of these tasks. Moreover, taking into account that the Web is being established as a software development platform, it is necessary to provide methods and tools that allow the systematic construction of these applications. This work presents a method for constructing service-oriented Web applications that provide not just data management, but also support for distributed business process execution.