Failures of Management Information Systems

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd.

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced the development of technology that will enable the company to implement the Trusted-Service Platform it has been advocating for cloud computing services, in view of the shift toward the era of cloud computing. As an industry first, Fujitsu has developed technologies that can detect system failures before they happen, by improving the ability to analyze cloud system data and gather information, narrowing down the causes of failures, and automatically resolving them. Cloud systems play an important role in supporting various societal infrastructure systems and must be able to continuously deliver services without interruption. Even in the event that a failure does occur, services must not be interrupted. Through Fujitsu's new technology, it is possible to address cloud system failures before they occur. Furthermore, because failures can be automatically resolved, the technology reduces the workload of administrators and delivers cloud services that users can utilize with confidence.

Background

Cloud computing is a delivery model whereby remotely located IT resources, such as servers, storage, networks, middleware and business applications, are provided as services over the Internet. Users have the ability to use the functions they need, in whatever amounts they need, and only when they need them.

In addition to its use as a platform for further enhancing work efficiency and productivity, cloud computing is also employed as a system for supporting various societal infrastructure systems, like those used in entertainment or lifestyle-related applications. In order to support the creation of a human-centric networked society, whereby IT is employed with an emphasis on people (information and communication technologies, "ICTs"), there is a need for cloud systems to continue delivering secure and stable services non-stop.

Traditionally, many companies have addressed system failures immediately after their occurrence. However, because companies cannot afford downtime for cloud systems that play an important role in supporting infrastructure systems, a different approach is required. In addition, large-scale systems thus far have ensured the continuous operation of services through expensive, redundant configurations. In order to deliver high reliability and stability to cloud systems - which aim to operate economically - what is needed is technology that can predict and resolve failures before they emerge.

Technological Challenges

Cloud computing systems have the following characteristics:

1. Large-scale:
   When companies take existing systems that operate independently and consolidate them into data centers and enterprise IT systems, the scale of the systems increases.
2. Complexity:
   When companies employ virtualization technologies and operate numerous services on the same physical server, system configurations and system dependency relationships become complex.