A cooperative approach to support software deployment using the software dock

Software deployment is an evolving collection of interrelated processes such as release, install, adapt, reconfigure, update, activate, deactivate, remove, and retire. The connectivity of large networks, such as the Internet, is affecting how software deployment is being performed. To take full advantage of this connectivity, new software deployment technologies must be introduced in order to support these processes. The Software Dock research project is creating a distributed, agent-based deployment framework to support the ongoing cooperation and negotiation among software producers themselves and among software producers and software consumers. This deployment framework is enabled by the use of a standardized semantic schema for describing software systems, called the Deployable Software Description (DSD) format. The Software Dock employs agents to traverse between software producers and consumers and to perform software deployment activities by interpreting the semantic descriptions of the software systems. The Software Dock infrastructure enables software producers to offer high-level deployment services that were previously not possible to their customers.