ISBN 9783843930956

978-3-8439-3095-6, Reihe Informatik

Olga Wenge
Optimization in Inter-Cloud Markets

146 Seiten, Dissertation Technische Universität Darmstadt (2017), Hardcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

Current cloud computing research and industrial communities stress the importance of developing inter-cloud strategies.

While inter-clouds may support the improvement of scalability, availability, and cost efficiency of cloud services by utilizing multiple clouds, they have to face a number of risks regarding Quality of Service requirements and information security and regulatory obligations, which pose obstacles in their adoption. To eliminate these risks, these aspects need to be considered in the development of inter-cloud approaches.

In this thesis, we focus on solution strategies, which assist in the formation of profitable inter-cloud collaborations that ensure compliance with information security and regulatory requirements, and Quality of Service agreements. We propose the following contributions.

As the first major contribution, we introduce the Information Security- and Regulatory-aware Collaboration Framework – SecRegCF. This conceptual framework is based on the results of the conducted risk analysis and reflects corresponding information security and regulatory requirements, necessary for the formation of secure and reliable cloud collaborations. The SecRegCF framework involves a cloud broker and an auditor to establish the governance processes and workflows. Aimed at optimizing the matching process of quantitative and qualitative properties, we enhance the framework with supportive elements, which enable the selection of the optimally suitable allocation of a collaborating partner within collaborations in a timely efficient manner. Moreover, the proposed SecRegCF conceptual framework is theoretically evaluated and discussed.

As the second key contribution, we explore the Cloud Collaboration Composition Problem – CCCP. This problem addresses the composition of cloud collaborations among multiple cloud providers and cloud users in relation to Quality of Service and information security requirements. In this context, we take the perspective of a cloud broker, who aims at profit maximization through the composition of cloud collaborations from a set of cloud providers and the assignment of cloud users to these collaborations. The problem is formalized as a mathematical optimization model, which allows us to define the exact optimization approach CCCP-EXA.KOM to the solution of the CCCP. Under assumption of its high time complexity, we introduce heuristic optimization approaches CCCP-COMP.KOM and CCCP-ICC.KOM, and a meta-heuristic approach CCCP-BoB.KOM, which aim at improving time complexity without impacting the solution quality. All proposed approaches are qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated, indicating the level of their applicability in the context of real cloud market scenarios.