Cloud Service Brokers: An Emerging Trend in Cloud Adoption and Migration

With the advent of cloud, a large number of cloud providers have surfaced in the market. Cloud Consumers are rapidly using cloud services(IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) to meet their business needs while cloud providers are rapidly developing much needed tools and environments. This rapid growth however is creating a significant need to develop fast and controlled mechanisms for managing costs, capacity and resources at agreed service levels in order to have a smooth adoption, management and maintenance of cloud for both consumers and providers. Cloud Services Brokerages (CSBs), an intermediary between the consumer and providers, emerges as a solution to address above need. In this paper we focus on reviewing the significance, role and services of a CSB, followed by a categorization of CSBs on the basis of the services they provide, and a method to select a CSB from a pool of CSBs.