Essential elements of an SME-specific search of trusted cloud services

Cloud computing holds tremendous potential for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since it offers technologies which can improve their strategic, technical and economic situation. However, along with the benefits there are also risks which concern legal, technical and economic issues associated with cloud computing, which cause concerns to the SMEs. These concerns can be reduced by improving the transparency of cloud services including the understanding of the technology and knowledge about the service providers, already when searching for the appropriate services. To overcome these concerns and increase the transparency cloud service search systems must assist the user during the search process and provide more details about the cloud services, in particular about the attributes which influence the trust of an SME into a service and its provider. The paper introduces a solution for searching appropriate cloud services by focusing on the essential elements. A unique element in this approach is the automated monitoring and evaluation of the provided attributes of the cloud services.