Cloud computing technology has opened an avenue to meet the critical need to securely share distributed resources and web services, and especially those that belong to clients who have sensitive data and applications. However, implementing crosscutting concerns for cloud-based applications is a challenge. This challenge stems from the nature of distributed Web-based technology architecture and infrastructure. One of the key concerns is security logic, which is scattered and tangled across all the cloud service layers. In addition, maintenance and modification of the security aspect is a difficult task. Therefore, cloud services need to be extended by enriching them with features to support adaptation so that these services can become better structured and less complex. Aspect-oriented programming is the right technical solution for this problem as it enables the required separation when implementing security features without the need to change the core code of the server or client in the cloud. Therefore, this article proposes a Runtime Reusable Weaving Model for weaving security-related crosscutting concerns through layers of cloud computing architecture. The proposed model does not require access to the source code of a cloud service and this can make it easier for the client to reuse the needed security-related crosscutting concerns. The proposed model is implemented using aspect orientation techniques to integrate cloud security solutions at the software-as-a-service layer.
Unified Modeling Language is the most popular and widely used Object-Oriented modelling language in the IT industry. This study focuses on investigating the ability to expand UML to some extent to model crosscutting concerns (Aspects) to support AspectJ. Through a comprehensive literature review, we identify and extensively examine all the available Aspect-Oriented UML modelling approaches and find that the existing Aspect-Oriented Design Modelling approaches using UML cannot be considered to provide a framework for a comprehensive Aspectual UML modelling approach and also that there is a lack of adequate Aspect-Oriented tool support. This study also proposes a set of Aspectual UML semantic rules and attempts to generate AspectJ pseudocode from UML diagrams. The proposed Aspectual UML modelling approach is formally evaluated using a focus group to test six hypotheses regarding performance; a “good design” criteria-based evaluation to assess the quality of the design; and an AspectJ-based evaluation as a reference measurement-based evaluation. The results of the focus group evaluation confirm all the hypotheses put forward regarding the proposed approach. The proposed approach provides a comprehensive set of Aspectual UML structural and behavioral diagrams, which are designed and implemented based on a comprehensive and detailed set of AspectJ programming constructs.
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