Resource allocation in a network-based cloud computing environment: design challenges

Cloud computing is a utility computing paradigm that has become a solid base for a wide array of enterprise and end-user applications. Providers offer varying service portfolios that differ in resource configurations and provided services. A comprehensive solution for resource allocation is fundamental to any cloud computing service provider. Any resource allocation model has to consider computational resources as well as network resources to accurately reflect practical demands. Another aspect that should be considered while provisioning resources is energy consumption. This aspect is getting more attention from industrial and government parties. Calls for the support of green clouds are gaining momentum. With that in mind, resource allocation algorithms aim to accomplish the task of scheduling virtual machines on the servers residing in data centers and consequently scheduling network resources while complying with the problem constraints. Several external and internal factors that affect the performance of resource allocation models are introduced in this article. These factors are discussed in detail, and research gaps are pointed out. Design challenges are discussed with the aim of providing a reference to be used when designing a comprehensive energy-aware resource allocation model for cloud computing data centers.