Presente y futuro de los sistemas recomendadores en la web 2.0

En una Web dominada por los medios sociales para la información, la relación y la comunicación, la dinámica que se establece entre contenidos, personas y tecnología cambia radicalmente. Ante la relevancia que cobra el contenido generado por usuarios en este escenario –esencialmente relacional-, la localización de las mejores fuentes de información requiere sistemas recomendadores que incorporen la naturaleza social de una Web que va más allá de la primigenia internet. Se revisan las aproximaciones actuales a los procesos de recomendación, poniéndolas en el contexto de las tendencias asociadas al fenómeno del social computing. Asimismo, se destacan algunas líneas de actuación en la redefinición del problema de la recomendación en un panorama dominado por las redes sociales y la generación de contenidos por los usuarios

Semantic Heterogeneity Issues on the Web

The Semantic Web is an extension of the traditional Web in which meaning of information is well defined, thus allowing a better interaction between people and computers. To accomplish its goals, mechanisms are required to make explicit the semantics of Web resources, to be automatically processed by software agents (this semantics being described by means of online ontologies). Nevertheless, issues arise caused by the semantic heterogeneity that naturally happens on the Web, namely redundancy and ambiguity. For tackling these issues, we present an approach to discover and represent, in a non-redundant way, the intended meaning of words in Web applications, while taking into account the (often unstructured) context in which they appear. To that end, we have developed novel ontology matching, clustering, and disambiguation techniques. Our work is intended to help bridge the gap between syntax and semantics for the Semantic Web construction.

Contribution to multiuser videoconferencing systems based on cloud computing

Multi-user videoconferencing systems offer communication between more than two users, who are able to interact through their webcams, microphones and other components. The use of these systems has been increased recently due to, on the one hand, improvements in Internet access, networks of companies, universities and houses, whose available bandwidth has been increased whilst the delay in sending and receiving packets has decreased. On the other hand, the advent of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) means that a large part of web application logic and control has started to be implemented on the web browsers. This has allowed developers to create web applications with a level of complexity comparable to traditional desktop applications, running on top of the Operating Systems. More recently the use of Cloud Computing systems has improved application scalability and involves a reduction in the price of backend systems. This offers the possibility of implementing web services on the Internet with no need to spend a lot of money when deploying infrastructures and resources, both hardware and software. Nevertheless there are not many initiatives that aim to implement videoconferencing systems taking advantage of Cloud systems. This dissertation proposes a set of techniques, interfaces and algorithms for the implementation of videoconferencing systems in public and private Cloud Computing infrastructures. The mechanisms proposed here are based on the implementation of a basic videoconferencing system that runs on the web browser without any previous installation requirements. To this end, the development of this thesis starts from a RIA application with current technologies that allow users to access their webcams and microphones from the browser, and to send captured data through their Internet connections. Furthermore interfaces have been implemented to allow end users to participate in videoconferencing rooms that are managed in different Cloud provider servers. To do so this dissertation starts from the results obtained from the previous techniques and backend resources were implemented in the Cloud. A traditional videoconferencing service which was implemented in the department was modified to meet typical Cloud Computing infrastructure requirements. This allowed us to validate whether Cloud Computing public infrastructures are suitable for the traffic generated by this kind of system. This analysis focused on the network level and processing capacity and stability of the Cloud Computing systems. In order to improve this validation several other general considerations were taken in order to cover more cases, such as multimedia data processing in the Cloud, as research activity has increased in this area in recent years. The last stage of this dissertation is the design of a new methodology to implement these kinds of applications in hybrid clouds reducing the cost of videoconferencing systems. Finally, this dissertation opens up a discussion about the conclusions obtained throughout this study, resulting in useful information from the different stages of the implementation of videoconferencing systems in Cloud Computing systems. RESUMEN Los sistemas de videoconferencia multiusuario permiten la comunicación entre más de dos usuarios que pueden interactuar a través de cámaras de video, micrófonos y otros elementos. En los últimos años el uso de estos sistemas se ha visto incrementado gracias, por un lado, a la mejora de las redes de acceso en las conexiones a Internet en empresas, universidades y viviendas, que han visto un aumento del ancho de banda disponible en dichas conexiones y una disminución en el retardo experimentado por los datos enviados y recibidos. Por otro lado también ayudó la aparación de las Aplicaciones Ricas de Internet (RIA) con las que gran parte de la lógica y del control de las aplicaciones web comenzó a ejecutarse en los mismos navegadores. Esto permitió a los desarrolladores la creación de aplicaciones web cuya complejidad podía compararse con la de las tradicionales aplicaciones de escritorio, ejecutadas directamente por los sistemas operativos. Más recientemente el uso de sistemas de Cloud Computing ha mejorado la escalabilidad y el abaratamiento de los costes para sistemas de backend, ofreciendo la posibilidad de implementar servicios Web en Internet sin la necesidad de grandes desembolsos iniciales en las áreas de infraestructuras y recursos tanto hardware como software. Sin embargo no existen aún muchas iniciativas con el objetivo de realizar sistemas de videoconferencia que aprovechen las ventajas del Cloud. Esta tesis doctoral propone un conjunto de técnicas, interfaces y algoritmos para la implentación de sistemas de videoconferencia en infraestructuras tanto públicas como privadas de Cloud Computing. Las técnicas propuestas en la tesis se basan en la realización de un servicio básico de videoconferencia que se ejecuta directamente en el navegador sin la necesidad de instalar ningún tipo de aplicación de escritorio. Para ello el desarrollo de esta tesis parte de una aplicación RIA con tecnologías que hoy en día permiten acceder a la cámara y al micrófono directamente desde el navegador, y enviar los datos que capturan a través de la conexión de Internet. Además se han implementado interfaces que permiten a usuarios finales la participación en salas de videoconferencia que se ejecutan en servidores de proveedores de Cloud. Para ello se partió de los resultados obtenidos en las técnicas anteriores de ejecución de aplicaciones en el navegador y se implementaron los recursos de backend en la nube. Además se modificó un servicio ya existente implementado en el departamento para adaptarlo a los requisitos típicos de las infraestructuras de Cloud Computing. Alcanzado este punto se procedió a analizar si las infraestructuras propias de los proveedores públicos de Cloud Computing podrían soportar el tráfico generado por los sistemas que se habían adaptado. Este análisis se centró tanto a nivel de red como a nivel de capacidad de procesamiento y estabilidad de los sistemas. Para los pasos de análisis y validación de los sistemas Cloud se tomaron consideraciones más generales para abarcar casos como el procesamiento de datos multimedia en la nube, campo en el que comienza a haber bastante investigación en los últimos años. Como último paso se ideó una metodología de implementación de este tipo de aplicaciones para que fuera posible abaratar los costes de los sistemas de videoconferencia haciendo uso de clouds híbridos. Finalmente en la tesis se abre una discusión sobre las conclusiones obtenidas a lo largo de este amplio estudio, obteniendo resultados útiles en las distintas etapas de implementación de los sistemas de videoconferencia en la nube.

Social and content hybrid image recommender system for mobile social networks

One of the advantages of social networks is the possibility to socialize and personalize the content created or shared by the users. In mobile social networks, where the devices have limited capabilities in terms of screen size and computing power, Multimedia Recommender Systems help to present the most relevant content to the users, depending on their tastes, relationships and profile. Previous recommender systems are not able to cope with the uncertainty of automated tagging and are knowledge domain dependant. In addition, the instantiation of a recommender in this domain should cope with problems arising from the collaborative filtering inherent nature (cold start, banana problem, large number of users to run, etc.). The solution presented in this paper addresses the abovementioned problems by proposing a hybrid image recommender system, which combines collaborative filtering (social techniques) with content-based techniques, leaving the user the liberty to give these processes a personal weight. It takes into account aesthetics and the formal characteristics of the images to overcome the problems of current techniques, improving the performance of existing systems to create a mobile social networks recommender with a high degree of adaptation to any kind of user.

A Web Implementation of A Generalized NEP

The Networks of Evolutionary Processors (NEPs) are computing mechanisms directly inspired from the behavior of cell populations more specifically the point mutations in DNA strands. These mechanisms are been used for solving NP-complete problems by means of a parallel computation postulation. This paper describes an implementation of the basic model of NEP using Web technologies and includes the possibility of designing some of the most common variants of it by means the use of the web page design which eases the configuration of a given problem. It is a system intended to be used in a multicore processor in order to benefit from the multi thread use.

Developing front-end Web 2.0 technologies to access services, content and things in the future Internet

The future Internet is expected to be composed of a mesh of interoperable web services accessible from all over the web. This approach has not yet caught on since global user?service interaction is still an open issue. This paper states one vision with regard to next-generation front-end Web 2.0 technology that will enable integrated access to services, contents and things in the future Internet. In this paper, we illustrate how front-ends that wrap traditional services and resources can be tailored to the needs of end users, converting end users into prosumers (creators and consumers of service-based applications). To do this, we propose an architecture that end users without programming skills can use to create front-ends, consult catalogues of resources tailored to their needs, easily integrate and coordinate front-ends and create composite applications to orchestrate services in their back-end. The paper includes a case study illustrating that current user-centred web development tools are at a very early stage of evolution. We provide statistical data on how the proposed architecture improves these tools. This paper is based on research conducted by the Service Front End (SFE) Open Alliance initiative.

User-independent accelerometer-based gesture recognition for mobile devices

Many mobile devices embed nowadays inertial sensors. This enables new forms of human-computer interaction through the use of gestures (movements performed with the mobile device) as a way of communication. This paper presents an accelerometer-based gesture recognition system for mobile devices which is able to recognize a collection of 10 different hand gestures. The system was conceived to be light and to operate in a user -independent manner in real time. The recognition system was implemented in a smart phone and evaluated through a collection of user tests, which showed a recognition accuracy similar to other state-of-the art techniques and a lower computational complexity. The system was also used to build a human -robot interface that enables controlling a wheeled robot with the gestures made with the mobile phone.

Virtual Excursions: a new way to explore science in class

The educational platform Virtual Science Hub (ViSH) has been developed as part of the GLOBAL excursion European project. ViSH (http://vishub.org/) is a portal where teachers and scientist interact to create virtual excursions to science infrastructures. The main motivation behind the project was to connect teachers - and in consequence their students - to scientific institutions and their wide amount of infrastructures and resources they are working with. Thus the idea of a hub was born that would allow the two worlds of scientists and teachers to connect and to innovate science teaching. The core of the ViSH?s concept design is based on virtual excursions, which allow for a number of pedagogical models to be applied. According to our internal definition a virtual excursion is a tour through some digital context by teachers and pupils on a given topic that is attractive and has an educational purpose. Inquiry-based learning, project-based and problem-based learning are the most prominent approaches that a virtual excursion may serve. The domain specific resources and scientific infrastructures currently available on the ViSH are focusing on life sciences, nano-technology, biotechnology, grid and volunteer computing. The virtual excursion approach allows an easy combination of these resources into interdisciplinary teaching scenarios. In addition, social networking features support the users in collaborating and communicating in relation to these excursions and thus create a community of interest for innovative science teaching. The design and development phases were performed following a participatory design approach. An important aspect in this process was to create design partnerships amongst all actors involved, researchers, developers, infrastructure providers, teachers, social scientists, and pedagogical experts early in the project. A joint sense of ownership was created and important changes during the conceptual phase were implemented in the ViSH due to early user feedback. Technology-wise the ViSH is based on the latest web technologies in order to make it cross-platform compatible so that it works on several operative systems such as Windows, Mac or Linux and multi-device accessible, such as desktop, tablet and mobile devices. The platform has been developed in HTML5, the latest standard for web development, assuring that it can run on any modern browser. In addition to social networking features a core element on the ViSH is the virtual excursions editor. It is a web tool that allows teachers and scientists to create rich mash-ups of learning resources provided by the e-Infrastructures (i.e. remote laboratories and live webcams). These rich mash-ups can be presented in either slides or flashcards format. Taking advantage of the web architecture supported, additional powerful components have been integrated like a recommendation engine to provide personalized suggestions about educational content or interesting users and a videoconference tool to enhance real-time collaboration like MashMeTV (http://www.mashme.tv/).

Analysis of QoS Parameter in AODV a DSR in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Providing QoS in the context of Ad Hoc networks includes a very wide field of application from the perspective of every level of the architecture in the network. Saying It in another way, It is possible to speak about QoS when a network is capable of guaranteeing a trustworthy communication in both extremes, between any couple of the network nodes by means of an efficient Management and administration of the resources that allows a suitable differentiation of services in agreement with the characteristics and demands of every single application.The principal objective of this article is the analysis of the quality parameters of service that protocols of routering reagents such as AODV and DSR give in the Ad Hoc mobile Networks; all of this is supported by the simulator ns-2. Here were going to analyze the behavior of some other parameters like effective channel, loss of packages and latency in the protocols of routering. Were going to show you which protocol presents better characteristics of Quality of Service (QoS) in the MANET networks.

On a meaningful integration of web services in data-intensive biomedical environments: The DICODE approach

This paper reports on an innovative approach that aims to reduce information management costs in data-intensive and cognitively-complex biomedical environments. Recognizing the importance of prominent high-performance computing paradigms and large data processing technologies as well as collaboration support systems to remedy data-intensive issues, it adopts a hybrid approach by building on the synergy of these technologies. The proposed approach provides innovative Web-based workbenches that integrate and orchestrate a set of interoperable services that reduce the data-intensiveness and complexity overload at critical decision points to a manageable level, thus permitting stakeholders to be more productive and concentrate on creative activities.

Towards a lightweight mobile semantic-based approach for enhancing interaction with smart objects

This work describes a semantic extension for a user-smart object interaction model based on the ECA paradigm (Event-Condition-Action). In this approach, smart objects publish their sensing (event) and action capabilities in the cloud and mobile devices are prepared to retrieve them and act as mediators to configure personalized behaviours for the objects. In this paper, the information handled by this interaction system has been shaped according several semantic models that, together with the integration of an embedded ontological and rule-based reasoner, are exploited in order to (i) automatically detect incompatible ECA rules configurations and to (ii) support complex ECA rules definitions and execution. This semantic extension may significantly improve the management of smart spaces populated with numerous smart objects from mobile personal devices, as it facilitates the configuration of coherent ECA rules.

A Development Methodology to Facilitate the Integration of Smart Spaces into the Web of Things

How to create or integrate large Smart Spaces (considered as mash-ups of sensors and actuators) into the paradigm of ?Web of Things? has been the motivation of many recent works. A cutting-edge approach deals with developing and deploying web-enabled embedded devices with two major objectives: 1) to integrate sensor and actuator technologies into everyday objects, and 2) to allow a diversity of devices to plug to Internet. Currently, developers who want to use this Internet-oriented approach need have solid understanding about sensorial platforms and semantic technologies. In this paper we propose a Resource-Oriented and Ontology-Driven Development (ROOD) methodology, based on Model Driven Architecture (MDA), to facilitate to any developer the development and deployment of Smart Spaces. Early evaluations of the ROOD methodology have been successfully accomplished through a partial deployment of a Smart Hotel.

Servicio Web para gestión de juego cooperativo sobre desarrollo humano

Este Proyecto Fin de Carrera (PFC) tiene como objetivos el análisis, diseño e implementación de un sistema web que permita a los usuarios familiarizarse con el Índice de Desarrollo Humano (IDH), publicado anualmente por Naciones Unidas, ofreciendo un servicio de gestión y descarga de una aplicación móvil relacionada con dicho índice. La aplicación móvil es un juego educativo basado en preguntas sobre el IDH de los países, desarrollada en paralelo con este proyecto. El servicio web implementado en este proyecto facilita tanto la descarga, administración y actualización de contenidos como la interacción entre los usuarios. El sistema está formado por un servidor web, una base de datos de usuarios y contenidos y un portal web desde el cual puede descargarse la aplicación móvil, realizar consultas sobre estadísticas de juego y conocer el IDH sin necesidad de jugar. El buscador avanzado que ha sido desarrollado para conocer el IDH permite al usuario adquirir destrezas y entrenarse por sí solo para mejorar sus resultados de juego. Los administradores del sistema tienen la capacidad de gestionar el contenido del portal, los usuarios que solicitan darse de alta y la funcionalidad ofrecida, es decir, actualización del juego, foros y noticias. La instalación del sistema implementado en un servidor web ha permitido su verificación exitosa así como la provisión del servicio de información y sensibilización sobre el IDH, actualizado mediante la información de Naciones Unidas, motivación original del proyecto. ABSTRACT This Final Year Project takes as targets the analysis, design and implementation of a web system that allows to the users to familiarize with the Human Development Index (HDI), published annually by United Nations, offering a service of management and download a mobile application associated with that index. The mobile application is an educational game based on questions on the IDH of the countries, developed in parallel with this project. The web service implemented by means of this Project facilitates download, administration and update of contents and the interaction between the users across the cooperative game. The system consists of a web server, a database of users and content and a web portal from which you can download the mobile application, perform queries on game statistics, or discover the HDI without need for play. The advanced search engine that has been developed for the HDI allows the user to purchase and train for skills to improve their game results. System administrators have the ability to manage the content of the portal, users requesting register and the functionality offered, i.e., update to the game, forums and news. The installation of the system that was implemented has allowed successful verification and the provision of an information and awareness on the HDI, updated with the information from the United Nations, original motivation of the project.

Contribution to flexible service coordination in mobile prosumer environments

Este trabajo de Tesis se desarrolla en el marco de los escenarios de ejecución distribuida de servicios móviles y contribuye a la definición y desarrollo del concepto de usuario prosumer. El usuario prosumer se caracteriza por utilizar su teléfono móvil para crear, proveer y ejecutar servicios. Este nuevo modelo de usuario contribuye al avance de la sociedad de la información, ya que el usuario prosumer se transforma de creador de contenidos a creador de servicios (estos últimos formados por contenidos y la lógica para acceder a ellos, procesarlos y representarlos). El objetivo general de este trabajo de Tesis es la provisión de un modelo de creación, distribución y ejecución de servicios para entorno móvil que permita a los usuarios no programadores (usuarios prosumer), pero expertos en un determinado dominio, crear y ejecutar sus propias aplicaciones y servicios. Para ello se definen, desarrollan e implementan metodologías, procesos, algoritmos y mecanismos adaptables a dominios específicos, para construir entornos de ejecución distribuida de servicios móviles para usuarios prosumer. La provisión de herramientas de creación adaptadas a usuarios no expertos es una tendencia actual que está siendo desarrollada en distintos trabajos de investigación. Sin embargo, no se ha propuesto una metodología de desarrollo de servicios que involucre al usuario prosumer en el proceso de diseño, desarrollo, implementación y validación de servicios. Este trabajo de Tesis realiza un estudio de las metodologías y tecnologías más innovadoras relacionadas con la co‐creación y utiliza este análisis para definir y validar una metodología que habilita al usuario para ser el responsable de la creación de servicios finales. Siendo los entornos móviles prosumer (mobile prosumer environments) una particularización de los entornos de ejecución distribuida de servicios móviles, en este trabajo se tesis se investiga en técnicas de adaptación, distribución, coordinación de servicios y acceso a recursos identificando como requisitos las problemáticas de este tipo de entornos y las características de los usuarios que participan en los mismos. Se contribuye a la adaptación de servicios definiendo un modelo de variabilidad que soporte la interdependencia entre las decisiones de personalización de los usuarios, incorporando mecanismos de guiado y detección de errores. La distribución de servicios se implementa utilizando técnicas de descomposición en árbol SPQR, cuantificando el impacto de separar cualquier servicio en distintos dominios. Considerando el plano de comunicaciones para la coordinación en la ejecución de servicios distribuidos hemos identificado varias problemáticas, como las pérdidas de enlace, conexiones, desconexiones y descubrimiento de participantes, que resolvemos utilizando técnicas de diseminación basadas en publicación subscripción y algoritmos Gossip. Para lograr una ejecución flexible de servicios distribuidos en entorno móvil, soportamos la adaptación a cambios en la disponibilidad de los recursos, proporcionando una infraestructura de comunicaciones para el acceso uniforme y eficiente a recursos. Se han realizado validaciones experimentales para evaluar la viabilidad de las soluciones propuestas, definiendo escenarios de aplicación relevantes (el nuevo universo inteligente, prosumerización de servicios en entornos hospitalarios y emergencias en la web de la cosas). Abstract This Thesis work is developed in the framework of distributed execution of mobile services and contributes to the definition and development of the concept of prosumer user. The prosumer user is characterized by using his mobile phone to create, provide and execute services. This new user model contributes to the advancement of the information society, as the prosumer is transformed from producer of content, to producer of services (consisting of content and logic to access them, process them and represent them). The overall goal of this Thesis work is to provide a model for creation, distribution and execution of services for the mobile environment that enables non‐programmers (prosumer users), but experts in a given domain, to create and execute their own applications and services. For this purpose I define, develop and implement methodologies, processes, algorithms and mechanisms, adapted to specific domains, to build distributed environments for the execution of mobile services for prosumer users. The provision of creation tools adapted to non‐expert users is a current trend that is being developed in different research works. However, it has not been proposed a service development methodology involving the prosumer user in the process of design, development, implementation and validation of services. This thesis work studies innovative methodologies and technologies related to the co‐creation and relies on this analysis to define and validate a methodological approach that enables the user to be responsible for creating final services. Being mobile prosumer environments a specific case of environments for distributed execution of mobile services, this Thesis work researches in service adaptation, distribution, coordination and resource access techniques, and identifies as requirements the challenges of such environments and characteristics of the participating users. I contribute to service adaptation by defining a variability model that supports the dependency of user personalization decisions, incorporating guiding and error detection mechanisms. Service distribution is implemented by using decomposition techniques based on SPQR trees, quantifying the impact of separating any service in different domains. Considering the communication level for the coordination of distributed service executions I have identified several problems, such as link losses, connections, disconnections and discovery of participants, which I solve using dissemination techniques based on publish‐subscribe communication models and Gossip algorithms. To achieve a flexible distributed service execution in mobile environments, I support adaptation to changes in the availability of resources, while providing a communication infrastructure for the uniform and efficient access to resources. Experimental validations have been conducted to assess the feasibility of the proposed solutions, defining relevant application scenarios (the new intelligent universe, service prosumerization in hospitals and emergency situations in the web of things).

Resilience in Cloud Computing for Critical Systems. Resilience, Dependability, Reliability in the use of Cloud Computing in Critical Systems in Public Organizations.

La informática se está convirtiendo en la quinta utilidad (gas, agua, luz, teléfono) en parte debido al impacto de Cloud Computing en las mayorías de las organizaciones. Este uso de informática es usada por cada vez más tipos de sistemas, incluidos Sistemas Críticos. Esto tiene un impacto en la complejidad internad y la fiabilidad de los sistemas de la organización y los que se ofrecen a los clientes. Este trabajo investiga el uso de Cloud Computing por sistemas críticos, centrándose en las dependencias y especialmente en la fiabilidad de estos sistemas. Se han presentado algunos ejemplos de su uso, y aunque su utilización en sistemas críticos no está extendido, se presenta cual puede llegar a ser su impacto. El objetivo de este trabajo es primero definir un modelo que pueda representar de una forma cuantitativa las interdependencias en fiabilidad y interdependencia para las organizaciones que utilicen estos sistemas, y aplicar este modelo en un sistema crítico del campo de sanidad y mostrar sus resultados. Los conceptos de “macro-dependability” y “micro-dependability” son introducidos en el modelo para la definición de interdependencia y para analizar la fiabilidad de sistemas que dependen de otros sistemas. ABSTRACT With the increasing utilization of Internet services and cloud computing by most organizations (both private and public), it is clear that computing is becoming the 5th utility (along with water, electricity, telephony and gas). These technologies are used for almost all types of systems, and the number is increasing, including Critical Infrastructure systems. Even if Critical Infrastructure systems appear not to rely directly on cloud services, there may be hidden inter-dependencies. This is true even for private cloud computing, which seems more secure and reliable. The critical systems can began in some cases with a clear and simple design, but evolved as described by Egan to "rafted" networks. Because they are usually controlled by one or few organizations, even when they are complex systems, their dependencies can be understood. The organization oversees and manages changes. These CI systems have been affected by the introduction of new ICT models like global communications, PCs and the Internet. Even virtualization took more time to be adopted by Critical systems, due to their strategic nature, but once that these technologies have been proven in other areas, at the end they are adopted as well, for different reasons such as costs. A new technology model is happening now based on some previous technologies (virtualization, distributing and utility computing, web and software services) that are offered in new ways and is called cloud computing. The organizations are migrating more services to the cloud; this will have impact in their internal complexity and in the reliability of the systems they are offering to the organization itself and their clients. Not always this added complexity and associated risks to their reliability are seen. As well, when two or more CI systems are interacting, the risks of one can affect the rest, sharing the risks. This work investigates the use of cloud computing by critical systems, and is focused in the dependencies and reliability of these systems. Some examples are presented together with the associated risks. A framework is introduced for analysing the dependability and resilience of a system that relies on cloud services and how to improve them. As part of the framework, the concepts of micro and macro dependability are introduced to explain the internal and external dependability on services supplied by an external cloud. A pharmacovigilance model system has been used for framework validation.