Improving software and data management in contemporary IT systems

IT systems allow us to execute tasks more effectively and efficiently, provide a richer user experience and allow us to do things we could not imagine before. In addition to using IT systems, we also need to manage them. Managing IT systems is the theme of this thesis. More in particular, we focus on managing the software of IT systems and managing the data of IT systems. Software and data management is relevant in both a home context and a business context. IT systems in a home context are characterized by a limited number of devices and users who do not want to spend time managing their devices. IT systems in a business context are characterized by large numbers of devices and a team of experienced system administrators responsible for managing these devices. In a home context, operating systems provide point and click interfaces for installing, removing and configuring software and give the user the option to automatically install security updates. For data management, GUI programs exist to backup and synchronize data. However, the fact that many users do not even take a backup and use a USB stick if they want to synchronize data between their devices proves that data management remains cumbersome for many users. Making data management more user friendly is the first goal of this thesis. In a business context, many organizations use a centralized shared storage solution for their data management needs. That centralized shared storage is managed by the IT department. Efficiently managing the software on large numbers of machines is done by using tools that automate repetitive tasks. However, these tools are often too low-level for the complexity of contemporary IT systems. Developing a higher-level tool for software management in a business context is the second goal of this thesis. To achieve these two goals, we designed, developed and evaluated two systems: CIMPLE and PoDIM. CIMPLE is a data management middleware suitable for the home context. CIMPLE provides a rich API that applications can use for their data storage needs. CIMPLE automates synchronization and backup of a user’s data and its API provides primitives for sharing data with friends and rich search queries. PoDIM is a high-level software management tool for the