Information modelling and semantic linking for a software workbench for interactive, time critical and self-adaptive cloud applications

Cloud environments can provide elastic, controllable on-demand services for supporting complex distributed applications. However the engineering methods and software tools used for developing, deploying and executing classical time-critical applications do not, as yet, account for the programmability and controllability that can be provided by clouds, and so time-critical applications do not yet benefit from the full potential of virtualisation technologies. A software workbench for developing, deploying and controlling time-critical applications in cloud environments can address this, but needs to be able to interoperate with existing cloud standards and services in a fashion that can still adapt to the continuing evolution of the field. Semantic linking can enhance interoperability by creating mappings between different vocabularies and specifications, allowing different technologies to be plugged together, which can then be used to buld such a workbench in a flexible manner. A semantic linking framework is presented that uses a multiple-viewpoint model of a cloud application workbench as a means to relate different cloud and quality of service standards in order to aid the development of time-critical applications. The foundations of such a model, developed as part of the H2020 project SWITCH, are also presented.