On the Cost-Benefit Tradeoffs of Cloud Storage Services for End Users and Service Providers

Abstract

Cloud Storage is a very popular Internet service. It allows users to backup data to the cloud as well as to perform collaborative work while sharing content. Despite the increasing interest in cloud storage, a thorough investigation on the costs and benefits of this service for providers and end users has not been conducted yet. This dissertation aims at investigating such cost-benefit tradeoffs for both providers and end users jointly. Using data collected from a real service (Dropbox), we developed new models, methodologies and tools to support providers and users in improving jointly their benefits in cloud storage.