Resource Allocation with Profit and Reputation Maximization in Cloud Computing: P and P Model

Cloud computing has introduced a major shift in the IT delivery model by offering computing resources for hosting applications as a utility. This helps businesses and organizations to access advanced IT facilities offered by cloud providers without the expensive up-front investments necessary to establish their own infrastructure. In this context, significant research efforts have already been made that aim to minimize costs for cloud customers; less attention however, has been given to challenges and opportunities that cloud providers face when striving for profit maximization. This thesis presents a set of novel market and economics-inspired policies, mechanisms, algorithms, and software designed to address the profit maximization problem of cloud providers. Our solutions are proposed for two main types of providers: Those that rely solely on their own resources to serve customers and those that participate in a cloud federation and benefit from resource sharing.