VieSLAF Framework: Facilitating Negotiations in Clouds by applying service mediation and negotiation bootstrapping

Cloud computing represents a novel and promising computing paradigm where computing resources have to be allocated to software for their execution. Self-manageable Cloud infrastructures are required in order to achieve that level of flexibility on one hand, and to comply to users’ requirements specified by means of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) on the other. However, many assumptions in Cloud markets are old fashioned assuming same market conditions as for example in computational Grids. One such assumptions is that service provider and consumer have matching SLA templates and common understanding of the negotiated terms or that they provide public templates, which can be downloaded and utilized by the end users. Moreover, current Cloud negotiation systems have based themselves on common protocols and languages that are known to the participants beforehand. Matching SLA templates and a-priori knowledge about the negotiation terms and protocols between partners are unrealistic assumption in Cloud markets where participants meet on demand and on a case by case basis. In this paper we present VieSLAF, a novel framework for the specification and management of SLA mappings and meta-negotiations facilitating service mediation and negotiation bootstrapping in Clouds. Using VieSLAF users may specify, manage, and apply SLA mappings bridging the gap between non-matching SLA templates without a-priori knowledge about negotiation protocols, required security standards or negotiated terms. We exemplify two case studies where VieSLAF represents an important contribution towards the development of open and liquid Cloud markets.