A Service Model for Development and Test Clouds

A Development & Test Cloud (DTC) enables IT service enterprises to host standardized configurations of just about any tool-set on cloud – the hosted software need not be designed for multi-tenancy and they may come from a multitude of vendors. However, since most enterprise software are available only under perpetual licenses, DTCs cannot become truly pay-per-use – customers of a DTC have to upfront purchase software licenses. This paper proposes a service model for a DTC vendor wherein the vendor purchases software licenses and recovers the cost from its clients based on their period of usage. Our model allows the vendor to maximize returns from a purchased license by using it in multiple projects separated in time. We set up an optimization problem to decide how best a DTC operator can invest in buying software licenses such that it gets maximum opportunity to resale purchased licenses. We conduct empirical studies to validate the feasibility and usefulness of our approach. Also, we enlist characteristics of tool-sets that make them profitable for the DTC vendor.