What is Cloud Customer

The rapid development of cloud computing requires improvement of pricing and allocation mechanisms of cloud resources. Dynamic pricing and allocation mechanisms are considered convenient, due to characteristics of cloud resources and the fact that demand for cloud resources is not uniform. The aims of such a mechanism are to optimize the utilization of cloud resources, to maximize cloud providers' revenues, and to minimize prices for cloud customers. Auction-based pricing and allocation mechanisms are often used since resources are allocated to the customers that value them the most, and prices are determined depending on the supply and demand conditions. Selection of an appropriate bidding strategy is a very important issue and requires the comprehensive approach. This chapter analyses the benefits of auction-based pricing and allocation mechanism in the cloud environment. In addition, the effects of different bidding strategies application are addressed.