C-Cloud: A Cost-Efficient Reliable Cloud of Surplus Computing Resources

Abstract

This paper presents C-CLOUD, a democratic cloud infrastructure for renting computing resources includingnon-cloud resources (i.e. computing equipment not part of any cloud infrastructure, such as, PCs, laptops, enterprise servers and clusters). C-CLOUD enables enormous amount of surplus computing resources, in the range of hundreds of millions, to be rented out to cloud users. Such a sharing of resources allows resource owners to earn from idle resources, and cloud users to have a cost-efficient alternative to large cloud providers. Compared to existing approaches to sharing surplus resources, C-CLOUD has two key challenges: ensuring Service Level Agreement (SLA) and reliability of reservations made over heterogeneous resources, and providing appropriate mechanism to encourage sharing of resources. In this context, C-CLOUD introduces novel incentive mechanism that determines resourcerents parametrically based on their reliability and capability.