Cloud Auto-scaling Auditing Approach using Blockchain

Abstract

Auto-scaling mechanisms are frequently activated when deploying applications in the cloud environment. They are vital to ensure the application is capable of maintaining the requisite Quality of Service. The auto-scaling tools used depend heavily on the performance indicators provided via monitoring tools. Currently, the majority of the monitoring solutions available are constructed by cloud service providers. Potential therefore exists for cloud providers’ non-compliance with the defined autoscaling configurations and dishonest behaviour. Current practice therefore requires a level of trust that the cloud provider will behave in a trustworthy manner. This paper proposes an autoscaling verification mechanism based on blockchain technology to verify resource scaling decisions made by an obligated service provider. We employed a permissioned blockchain network, Hyperledger Fabric, to evaluate the performance of the proposed system as regards transaction throughput, transaction average latency, transaction success and/or failure and transaction send rate.