Optimization as a Service: On the Use of Cloud Computing for Metaheuristic Optimization

Cloud computing has emerged as a new technology that provides on-demand access to a large amount of computing resources. This makes it an ideal environment for executing metaheuristic optimization experiments. In this paper, we investigate the use of cloud computing for metaheuristic optimization. This is done by analyzing job characteristics from our production system and conducting a performance comparison between different execution environments. Additionally, a cost analysis is done to incorporate expenses of using virtual resources.