Cloud Computing Service Metrics Description

The Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) promotes the U.S. economy and public welfare by providing technical leadership for the Nation's measurement and standards infrastructure. ITL develops tests, test methods, reference data, proof of concept implementations, and technical analyses to advance the development and productive use of information technology. ITL's responsibilities include the development of management, administrative, technical, and physical standards and guidelines for the cost-effective security and privacy of other than national security-related information in Federal information systems. This Special Publication 500-series reports on ITL's research, guidance, and outreach efforts in Information Technology and its collaborative activities with industry, government, and academic organizations. DISCLAIMER This document has been prepared by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and describes technical research in support of the NIST Cloud Computing Program. Certain commercial entities, equipment, or material may be identified in this document in order to describe a concept adequately. Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that these entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose. With cloud computing in the mainstream, there is a preponderance of cloud based services in the market and the choices for consumers increase daily. However, comparing the service offerings between cloud service providers is not a straightforward exercise. To be successful in procuring cloud services, one must have requirements that are clear, create service level agreements (SLA) which reflect these requirements and be measureable in order to validate the delivery of these services along with their performance and remedies. As part of the decision making framework for moving to the cloud, having data on measurable capabilities, for example-quality of service, availability and reliability, give the cloud service customer the tools and opportunity to make informed choices and to gain an understanding of the service being delivered. NIST's definition of cloud computing describes a " Measured Service " as being one of the five essential characteristics of the cloud computing model. To describe a " measured service " , one needs to identify the cloud service properties that have to be measured and what their standards of measurement or metrics are. A metric provides knowledge about characteristics of a cloud property through both its definition (e.g. expression, unit, rules) and the values resulting from the observation …