Identifying adaptation needs to avoid the vendor lock-in effect in the deployment of cloud SBAs

Cloud computing has emerged as a new paradigm where IT resources are offered by cloud providers in a flexible and elastic way. However, the use and development of cloud services has not been standardized, thereby deriving in migratability and interoperability difficulties. Different standardization initiatives exist seeking to normalize this situation, however none has predominated and a generalized consensus has not been reached. Consequently, several alternatives have been proposed based on the use of intermediate layers or middlewares seeking to isolate developers from the variability of specific cloud vendor services. These approaches provide a valid solution at the risk of shifting the lock-in effect from vendors to middlewares. In this paper, we explore an alternative solution based on the use of software adaptation (SA) techniques. Different guidelines are presented as the basis of an approach that will favor cloud application interoperability and migratability thereby avoiding vendor lock-in.