An economic perspective on major cloud computing providers

TL;DR

This paper compares major cloud computing providers from an economic perspective, analyzing costs and service offerings to help users make informed decisions amidst diverse provider terminologies.

Contribution

It offers a cost analysis of cloud providers for various scenarios, providing a novel economic comparison and insights for users and researchers.

Findings

Cost differences among providers are significant across scenarios.

Economic factors influence provider selection more than technical features.

Directions for future research in cloud economics are proposed.

Abstract

Cloud computing can be defined as the outsourcing / renting of resources over the network. It has been regarded as an essential utility similar to electricity, water, telephone and sewerage utilities. Over the years, a number of providers have emerged that provide basic and advanced form of services for cloud computing. However, these providers employ their own nomenclature for marketing their specification and the range of services offered by them. This makes it very difficult for a common user to select a platform based on their requirements. This paper provides a comparison of different cloud service providers from an economic perspective. It performs the cost analysis of services provided by providers for different scenarios. Based on the analysis, conclusions have been drawn and directions for further research have been provided.