Second ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Software Upgrades (HotSWUp 2009)

The goal of HotSWUp is to identify cutting-edge research ideas for implementing software upgrades. In the presence of modified user requirements, deployment environments, and bug fixes, actively-used software must be upgraded continuously to ensure its utility and safety. The upgrades incorporate changes to the structure, behavior, configuration, data, or topology of a computer system. Whether applied offline or directly to a live system, such upgrades may have a significant impact on the performance and reliability of the software. Indeed, recent studies and a large body of anecdotal evidence suggest that, in practice, upgrades are failure-prone and can lead to outages, data corruption or latent errors. These problems not only inconvenience end users - they create a significant burden for organizations due to the associated downtime and high administrative costs.