Cloud broker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cloud Broker is an entity that manages the use, performance and delivery of cloud services, and negotiates relationships between cloud providers and cloud consumers. As cloud computing evolves, the integration of cloud services may be too complex for cloud consumers to manage alone.
In such cases, a cloud consumer may request cloud services from a cloud broker, instead of contacting a cloud provider directly," according to NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture.[1]
Cloud Brokers provides a single point of entry to manage multiple cloud services for business or technical purposes. The two important unique features of a cloud broker are the ability to provide a single consistent interface to multiple differing cloud providers and the clear visibility that the broker allows into which company is providing the services in the background.
In general, cloud brokers provide services in three categories:[1][2]
- Aggregation: A cloud broker combines and integrates multiple services into one or more new services. The broker provides data integration and ensures the security of data in transition between the cloud consumer and multiple cloud providers.
- Arbitrage: Service arbitrage is similar to service aggregation, except that the services being aggregated are not fixed. Service arbitrage means a broker has the flexibility to choose services from multiple Providers, depending upon the characteristics of the data or the context of the service.
- Intermediation: A cloud broker enhances a given service by improving some specific capability and providing value-added services to cloud consumers. The improvement can be managing access to cloud services, identity management, performance reporting, enhanced security, etc.The service intermediation can happen at three points: At cloud provider's location, at cloud consumers location or as a service.