CloudMTD: Using real options to manage technical debt in cloud-based service selection

In cloud marketplace, cloud-based system architectures can be composed of web services, which are leased or bought off the cloud. These architectures can add value to its composition by switching and substituting its constituent services. The value-added can relate to improved Quality of Service (QoS), new revenue streams by enabling new business models, reduced operational cost and so forth. The selection and substitution decisions may introduce a technical debt, however. We specifically look at the debt of substitution decisions in support for scaling up scenarios. This debt may need to be managed, cleared and transformed to value-added. We take an option-based approach to inform the selection of candidate web services with varying debt. For every selection, we quantify the extent to which it can clear the debt and provide future options.