Fostering efficiency of computational resource allocation - Integrating information services into markets

The application of market mechanisms for the allocation of computing services is a demanding task, which requires bridging economic and associated technical challenges. Even if the market-based approach promises an efficient allocation of computing services, the wide heterogeneity of consumer requirements and the diversity of computational services on provider side are challenging the processes of finding, allocating, and using an appropriate service in an autonomous way. The focus of the most papers is mainly devoted to the optimization embedded in the allocation process itself. However, we think that the optimization process starts much earlier and contains the information gathering until the final market-based resource allocations. In this paper we introduce an integrated framework for market-based allocation of computing services, integrating information retrieval of market information, prediction models, bidding strategies and marked mechanisms. As proof-of-concept, we implemented a first prototype of the framework. Furthermore, we propose a methodology for evaluating strategic behavior in market mechanisms with bidding strategies using market information and statistical prediction techniques. First simulation results show strategic behavior in selected market mechanisms by applying the proposed techniques.