C-RCE: an Approach for Constructing and Managing a Cloud Service Broker

Recent years have seen a paradigm shift from PC-centric computing to cloud computing. The advent of cloud computing has led to the emergence of various cloud services and providers. Cloud service brokers (CSBs) were introduced to serve as intermediaries between cloud service providers and cloud users who wish to select an appropriate cloud service. A CSB requires intermediation technologies with service recommendation, contract management, and cloud service usage assistance (such as evaluation) capabilities. These intermediation technologies enable CSBs to increase the quality of cloud service usage. However, currently commercially available CSBs fail to satisfy user requirements. In addition, many open research problems remain in the technologies and approaches underpinning CSB intermediation technologies. This paper proposes Cloud Service-Recommendation, Contract, and Evaluation (C-RCE), which supports CSB processes, including the management and operation of each proposed process. We implement a prototype of the proposed C-RCE process in a CSB to evaluate its performance and confirm that it is superior to existing CSBs. The proposed C-RCE process may be used as a guideline and reference model for constructing, operating, and managing actual CSBs.