Policy-based Management for E-Service Delivery

If the first chapter of the Internet was about the dissemination of information, chapter two is about services. In the past, the Internet strategy of a company was about using a web site for advertising products. Today, companies shift their focus on electronic services (e-services), and the Internet offers a ubiquitous platform to support e-service deployment and provision. In particular, electronic marketplaces represent the new space for service providers and service consumers to interact and carry out business transactions. Trust becomes a central issue in electronic business relationships, and its enforcement is a fundamental value that electronic marketplaces can offer to their members. The paper focuses on trusted contract enforcement for e-service delivery in the context of a second-generation infrastructure for electronic marketplaces. In particular, it describes the model and the application prototype for mediated e-service delivery developed at the HP labs in Bristol. The presented solution is based on the concept of dynamic enforcement for delivery policies deriving from contractual agreement between service provider and service consumer.