A Vision of Next-Generation Software-Based Service Provisioning

The software industry is at a crossroads. Monolithic solutions rested on proprietary protocols and captive markets are untenable in a climate of profound change, unworkable in real businesses, and strategically undesirable for promoting innovation and growth. There is a rising crescendo of needs from all quarters of the demand market for an open system of software services which is more efficient, more productive, more competitive, as well as more user-friendly, user-centric and user-driven. This paper introduces the vision and related concepts of an End-to-End Service Utility (E2ESU): an open, flexible and easy-to-use framework that enables transparent and cost-effective multi-provider service provision with guaranteed properties and predictability. E2ESU is envisaged to be a promising candidate for a new generation of service architectures, infrastructures and engineering techniques that are needed to establish the services environments for the Future Internet