A 3D interface for the administration of component-based, distributed systems

Abstract

The success of an enterprise depends on its ability to effectively adapt to changing external requirements. This is particularly true in the rapidly evolving world of e-commerce, which raises the challenge of building software systems that are flexible enough to support such a dynamic business environment. Previously (O. Stiemerling et al., 1999), we presented the EVOLVE runtime- and tailoring environment as a platform for extensively adaptable autonomous and decentralized systems. The platform provides a high degree of flexibility by maintaining the component structure of such systems. One can (during runtime and in a decentralized fashion), add, exchange or rewire an application's components to meet changing external requirements. While the EVOLVE platform provides the mechanisms to perform these changes, there remains the problem of providing an administration interface to these mechanisms. Like many autonomous and decentralized systems, EVOLVE applications can have great complexity and structural detail. The interface has to present these details in an appropriate and scalable form, permitting the administrator to quickly grasp the overall distribution structure, but also the functional details and fine grained components. The authors argue that 3D visualization and manipulation techniques provide a good basis for the design of administration interfaces for complex, decentralized systems. We support our argument by presenting a 3D interface for the EVOLVE platform and discuss the more general design concepts it embodies. These concepts are relevant and applicable to other autonomous and decentralized systems.