H2RUN: An efficient vendor lock‐in solution for multi‐cloud environment using horse herd Runge Kutta based data placement optimization

Abstract

AbstractVendor lock‐in is a scenario where the cost of switching to another vendor is mainly high and for this reason, the consumer is mainly struck with a single cloud vendor. The vendor lock‐in mainly implies the situation of an organization where it is locked into a service or product of a single Cloud Service Providers (CSP) to prevent the disruption of the business operation or due to an insufficient workforce. Due to its high availability, portability, and other benefits, various researchers frequently adopt the multi‐cloud strategy to prevent vendor lock‐in. However, the multi‐cloud architecture also comes with major drawbacks such as cost, multiple CSP management, and the tradeoff between cost and availability. The organizations are mainly considerate about achieving the tradeoff between the cost and availability. To overcome this problem, we have proposed an H2RUN (Horse Herd Runge Kutta) optimization algorithm to achieve a tradeoff between the cost and availability using erasure coding. The proposed H2RUN optimization algorithm selects the optimal CSP and erasure coding parameters that enhance the availability of the CSP with minimal cost. The efficiency of the proposed methodology can be evaluated using the experiments conducted on different real‐time CSPs using various metrics. Based on the results achieved, the H2RUN optimizer minimizes the cost up to 48% and availability up to 58%.