Task Scheduling in a Cloud Environment Based on Meta-Heuristic Approaches: A Survey

     Cloud computing is one of the emerging technologies that expands the boundaries of the internet by using centralized servers to maintain data and resources. It allows users and consumers to use various applications provided by the cloud provider, but one of the major issues is task scheduling. Task scheduling is employed for the purpose of mapping the requests of users to the appropriate resources available. This paper provides a detailed survey of the available scheduling techniques for cloud environments based on six common metaheuristic  algorithms. Those algorithms are the Cuckoo Search Algorithm (CSA), Chicken Swarm Optimization (CSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA), Bat Algorithm (BA), Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), and Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO). The literature is analyzed from three perspectives: task type, objectives to be optimized, simulation environment, and quality of service performance metrics. In addition, the research gaps and future directions for future investigation are presented.