LM²K Model for Hosting an Application Based on Microservices in Multi-Cloud

Cloud computing has become a popular delivery model service, offering several advantages. However, there are still challenges that need to be addressed when applying the cloud model to specific scenarios. Two of such challenges involve deploying and executing applications across multiple providers, each comprising several services with similar functionalities and different capabilities. Therefore, dealing with application distributions across various providers can be a complex task for a software architect due to the differing characteristics of the application components. Some works have proposed solutions to address the challenges discussed here, but most of them focus on service providers. To facilitate the decision-making process of software architects, we previously presented PacificClouds, an architecture for managing the deployment and execution of applications based on microservices and distributed in a multi-cloud environment. Therefore, in this work, we focus on the challenges of selecting multiple clouds for PacificClouds and choosing providers that best meet the microservices and software architect requirements. We propose a selection model and three approaches to address various scenarios. We evaluate the performance of the approaches and conduct a comparative analysis of them. The results demonstrate their feasibility regarding performance.