A Scouting-Based Multi-Agent System Model to Deal with Service Collaboration in Cloud Computing

Abstract

Cloud computing addresses the use of scalable and often virtualized resources. It is based on service-level agreements that provide external users with requested services. Cloud computing is still evolving. New specific collaboration models among service providers are needed for enabling effective service collaboration, allowing the process of serving consumers to be more efficient. On the other hand, Scout Movement or Scouting has been a very successful youth movement in which the collaboration of its members can be observed. This motivated a previous work aiming to design MAS-Scout, a framework that defines Multi-Agent Systems based on the principles of Scouting. In this chapter, MAS-Scout is used to design a system to deal with service collaboration in a cloud computing environment focusing on the premise that Scouting has been a very successful social movement in the world and that collaboration is part of its principles. The results presented in this chapter show that MAS-Scout, which is based on the Scouting principles, can be satisfactorily used to automate cloud computing needs.