Developing a Cloud Provider Selection Model

Recently, a growing development and use of Cloud computing services has been observed. Especially modeling cross-organizational cooperation and the respective provider comparison are gaining importance. Despite initial positive results, it is challenging in theory and practice to find an appropriate provider matching the individual requirements. Moreover, the comparison process is complicated by a number of new entrants as well as offers of non-transparent services, which sometimes differ significantly. Due to the lack of adequate possibilities to compare and classify Cloud providers we are presenting in this paper a provider independent classification model for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). For this purpose, the target dimensions for Cloud Computing from a customer perspective were defined, based on expert interviews, an international literature review and a Cloud provider market (IaaS and hosting) analysis.