Troubleshooting in software as a service (SaaS) environments using multi-agent technology

Abstract

Troubleshooting in Software as a Service (SaaS) environment is inherently complex due'to involvement of multiple subsystems, which operate under lots of uncertainty. A research has been conducted to develop a Multi Agent System (MAS) for troubleshooting in SaaS environments by implementing an agent for each subsystem. Each agent has its personal ontology with the subsystem specific knowledge, whereas the domain ontology comprises of commonly accessible knowledge. In presence of an event requiring troubleshooting, the agents start communicating with each other and arrive at a globally acceptable solution. The communications among agents ensure the proper coordination and negotiation so that resource utilization can be optimized within the environment. The MAS solution has been evaluated with real world SaaS operation in a medium scale software development company. The experimental results show that Multi Agent solution for troubleshooting in SaaS can generate more accurate solutions in a lesser time.