owl2proto: Enabling Semantic Processing in Modern Cloud Micro-Services

Abstract

The usefulness of semantic technologies in the context of security has been demonstrated many times, e.g., for processing certification evidence, log files, and creating security policies. Integrating semantic technologies, like ontologies, in an automated workflow, however, is cumbersome since they introduce disruptions between the different technologies and data formats that are used. This is especially true for modern cloud-native applications, which rely heavily on technologies such as protobuf. In this paper we argue that these technology disruptions represent a major hindrance to the adoption of semantic technologies into the cloud and more effort and research is required to overcome them. We created one such approach called $\textit{owl2proto}$, which provides an automatic translation of OWL ontologies into the protobuf data format. We showcase the seamless integration of an ontology and transmission of semantic data in an already existing cloud micro-service.