Enabling Open Cloud Markets Through WS-Agreement Extensions

Research into computing resource markets has mainly considered the question of which market mechanisms provide a fair resource allocation. However, while developing such markets, the definition of the unit of trade (i.e. the definition of resource) has not been given much attention. In this paper, we analyze the requirements for tradable resource goods. Based on the results, we suggest a detailed goods definition, which is easy to understand, can be used with many market mechanisms, and addresses the needs of a Cloud resource market. The goods definition captures the complete system resource, including hardware specifications, software specifications, the terms of use, and a pricing function. To demonstrate the usefulness of such a standardized goods definition, we demonstrate its application in the form of a WSAgreement template for a number of market mechanisms for commodity system resources.