An Arbitrary Model to Explore Data Center Performance in IaaS Cloud Computing Systems

Abstract

In this paper, we present an analytical model, based on stochastic reward nets (SRNs), that is both scalable to model systems composed of thousands of resources and flexible to represent different policies and cloud-specific strategies. Several performance metrics are defined and evaluated to analyze the behavior of a cloud data center: utilization, availability, waiting time, and responsiveness. A resiliency analysis is also provided to take into account load bursts. Finally, a general approach is presented that, starting from the concept of system capacity, can help system managers to opportunely set the data center parameters under different working conditions.
Keywords — Cloud computing; stochastic reward nets; cloud-oriented performance metrics; resiliency; responsiveness