Extensible and scalable usage accounting in service-oriented infrastructures based on a generic usage record format

Service orientation is a successful architecture paradigm used within different application scenarios. Some of these scenarios are high performance computing (grid computing), the Internet of services, and cloud computing. Usage accounting is a topic currently covered prevalent for computing services and networking resources, but a generic approach comprising arbitrary services does not exist. Such an approach to usage accounting can provide a benefit for the platform provider by taking into account all kinds of services and applications. It is not only possible to create a financially-independent service platform, but also to take advantage of applications like cost allocation and trend analysis of service utilization. The main contributions of the solution for usage accounting proposed here are: a generic usage record format able to support accounting information of any kind of service in a future-proof manner as well as a scalable accounting infrastructure easily adaptable to the specific requirements of the application domain.