Novel Accounting, Pricing and charging models in a cloud-based service provisioning environment

Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2013Cloud Computing, the long-held vision of Computing as a utility, has recently emerged as a new model for hosting, commoditizing and delivering services in a manner similar to traditional utilities such as water, electricity, gas and telephony. In this new model, users are able to access services according to their specific preferences without regards to where the services are hosted or how they are delivered. In a Cloud Computing environment, the traditional role of service provider is divided into two; the infrastructure providers who manage cloud platforms and lease resource according to usage-based pricing model and the service providers who rent resources from one or many infrastructure providers to serve the end users. This research report is on the development and implementation of novel accounting, pricing and charging model in a cloud-based service provisioning environment. The model implementation scheme is on the basis of pay-as-you go for the utilisation of the cloud service, as against the traditional transfer pricing method which is based on user observed value for the service. The experimental tool used was cloud analyst because of its ability to support visual simulation and modelling of large scale applications that are set out on cloud infrastructures. The significant contribution of this novel model is on its ability to reduce fraudulent charges on cloud services.Master