Cloud Broker: A Systematic Mapping Study

In a cloud environment, a cloud broker plays a vital role as an intermediary between cloud customers and providers, resolving issues and facilitating negotiations to balance customer preferences and provider profits. Over the past few years, numerous research articles have either directly or indirectly examined this area. Conducting a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) on cloud brokerage is highly motivating as it offers a high-level overview of the research landscape, identifying trends, topics, gaps, and patterns within this dynamic and crucial field. This article presents an SMS conducted to categorize existing research, highlight underexplored areas, and map out the evolution and current state of cloud brokerage, providing valuable insights for researchers and practitioners. The SMS identified 91 relevant and reputable search spaces (journals and conferences) and 634 high-quality articles published from 2009 to 2022. Furthermore, we formulated and addressed eight significant research questions to clarify various aspects of the cloud broker field. The extracted information from the selected articles is included in a supplementary file, available online, offering valuable insights for research teams and developers interested in this domain.