Availability Evaluation and Sensitivity Analysis of a Mobile Backend-as-a-service Platform

Performance evaluation of mobile applications has received considerable attention as a prominent activity for improving services quality. Because many data stored on mobile device are synchronized with distributed data centers, the system availability is a critical attribute that requires investigation. Mobile backend‐as‐a‐service (MBaaS) allows developers to link the backend of their applications to cloud storage, as well as providing device management and integration with social networking services. The OpenMobster platform offers a complete synchronization service for mobile applications, but its availability is an inherent critical issue, because one failure can result in losses for companies that use this environment. Analytical models can be used to assess availability of this type of environment and perhaps mitigate downtimes. This paper proposes a hierarchical model to assess the availability of the MBaaS OpenMobster platform focusing on two scenarios: the basic architecture and the automatic recovery process. The designed models were validated through testbed measurements by automatically injecting and repairing the infrastructure. Taking into account the three layers: hardware, operating system, and the MBaaS OpenMobster, we observed OpenMobster being the most critical service component. We have applied failover strategy on the Java virtual machine, and we obtained 10% of reduction in annual downtime. This work may guide systems' administrators in planning their maintenance policies.