A Method for the Quality-Aware Automated Selection of Deployment Technologies

Domain: The deployment of distributed multi-component cloud applications typically requires a combination of multiple heterogeneous deployment technologies. A different combination of deployment technologies should be chosen due to varying deployment qualities, such as the functional suitability and reliability of the deployment technologies for the deployment of the components. A suboptimal selection of deployment technologies makes the deployment error-prone. Problem: Selecting and maintaining the combination of deployment technologies requires modeling effort and expertise. Contributions: We present a method that automatically selects deployment technologies based on a knowledge base of deployment scenarios and corresponding deployment qualities of deployment technologies. Evaluation: We show the practical applicability and the usefulness of our method. For the practical applicability, we conduct two case studies based on an open-source reference architecture application and a real-world industry application using a prototypical implementation of our method. For the usefulness, we conduct a user study in which participants assign deployment technologies with and without our method. Conclusions: Our method is a useful contribution that reduces the modeling effort and the required expertise when maintaining the combination of deployment technologies. Further, our method enhances the deployment quality.