Pricing the Cloud: A QoS-based Optimal Design

Abstract

Cloud computing has a major impact on the IT industry. How to price and allocate cloud resources to meet users’ requirements is an important problem. This paper proposes a dynamic mechanism to pricing cloud services, which can work in complex environments such as distributed system and uncertain budget constraints. A direct relationship between QoS and price is established. The approach uses an optimization technique to estimate the potential transaction price in the distributed network. It can allocate cloud resources under uncertainties, where providers can optimize their revenues, and consumers can obtain the resources at a relatively low price.

Keywords: QoS (quality of service), Reliability, Availability, Robust optimization auction, Optimal revenue, Budget constraint