The optimal service selection and procurement strategy for cost-sensitive small and medium-sized cloud application providers

With the rapid development of the digital economy and the continuous dynamic changes in demand for cloud services, a single cloud resource service provider is no longer capable of meeting the diverse requirements of the evolving cloud market. This study primarily focuses on cost-sensitive small and medium-sized cloud application providers and explores how they can optimize their service procurement strategies to maximize the profits and cloud resource efficiency. By combining stochastic programming with newsboy model, we delve into the optimal selection strategy when faced with heterogeneous cloud resource providers. According to this analysis result, we design a service provider selection and composition algorithm based on break-even point rate to determine the allocation of resources from each cloud resource provider. The research findings indicate that startup or smaller-scale enterprises with limited costs are more inclined towards selecting only a mature and stable cloud service providers to mitigate operational risks and reduce expenses; whereas businesses experiencing stable growth but higher costs tend to prefer multiple high-quality cloud service providers for composition in order to achieve maximum returns, thereby enhancing competitiveness while improving service levels and customer experience. This study contributes towards promoting scientific and effective procurement decision-making by small and medium-sized cloud application providers in hybrid-cloud environments, supporting steady development and long-term competition.