Market-Based Pricing in Grids:On Strategic Manipulation and Computational Cost

Grid technologies and the related concepts of utility computing and cloud computingenable the dynamic sourcing of computer resources and services, thus allowing enterprisesto cut down on hardware and software expenses and to focus on key competencies andprocesses. Resources are shared across administrative boundaries, e.g. between enterprisesand/or business units. In this dynamic and inter-organizational setting, schedulingand pricing become key challenges. Market mechanisms show promise for enhancing resourceallocation and pricing in grids. Current mechanisms, however, are not adequatelyable to handle large-scale settings with strategic users and providers who try to benefitfrom manipulating the mechanism. In this paper, a market-based heuristic for clearinglarge-scale grid settings is developed. The proposed heuristic and pricing schemes find aninteresting match between scalability and strategic behavior