Storage allocation scheme for virtual instances of cloud computing

Cloud computing delivers resources and services through virtual machines on a pay-as-you-go basis. The allocation of storage space to users is usually determined by means of open allocation mechanisms that cannot guarantee an efficient allocation. Current allocation mechanisms do not consider user requests when making provisioning decisions. In other words, they assume that the storage spaces are fixed. In this study, we propose an algorithm for allocating storage spaces based on the requests of users. We present a unified storage allocation scheme (USAS) for cloud computing. USAS is a dynamic storage allocation framework for unlimited, limited, and free users. Our proposed approach is based on a storage partitioning policy, and we have compared our proposed scheme with open storage scheme and fixed storage scheme with common partition. We show through simulation study that USAS dynamically allocates space for different user requirements for all traffic loads.