Trustworthy Service Provider Selection in Cloud Computing Environment

Cloud computing is an emerging computing paradigm which allows sharing of massive, heterogeneous, elastic resources among users. Despite of all the hype surrounding the cloud, users are still reluctant to adopt cloud computing because public cloud services process users´ data on machines that users do not own hence there is a fear of leakage of users´ commercially sensitive data. Due to these reasons, it is very necessary that cloud users´ be vigilant while selecting the service providers present in the cloud. To address this problem, selection of trustworthy cloud providers is proposed where users or enterprises employ the services of trustworthy service providers in the cloud. The paper proposes a system based on cooperative model of society where users select trustworthy service providers based on the recommendations given by their trustworthy acquaintances. The uncertainty present in the recommendations is handled through Fuzzy Inference System (FIS). Fuzzy inference system is capable of inferring crisp output even when the inputs are imprecise or uncertain, mimicking the reasoning of human mind. Experiments confirm that selection of trustworthy cloud providers is an effective and feasible way of estimating the trustworthiness of the service providers and thus helping users in protecting their data.