46 Int. J. Computational Science and Engineering, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2015 Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Performance prediction of cloud applications through benchmarking and simulation Antonio Cuomo* Department of Engineering, University of Sannio, Benevento 82100, Italy Email: antonio.cuomo@unisannio.it *Corresponding author Massimiliano Rak Department of Engineering, Second University of Naples, Aversa 81031, Italy Email: massimiliano.rak@unina2.it Umberto Villano Department of Engineering, University of Sannio, Benevento 82100, Italy Email: villano@unisannio.it Abstract: As the cloud paradigm gains widespread adoption, the performance evaluation and prediction of cloud applications remain daunting tasks, not yet fully accomplished. Nevertheless, reliable performance figures are the key to take the cloud to the next step, in which it will be possible to predict the maintenance cost of the applications and to introduce richer service level agreements between service providers and consumer. In this paper, we propose a methodology based on benchmarking and simulation that aims at predicting the performance of cloud applications developed through the mOSAIC framework. We prove the efficacy of the methodology on a real case study, showing how it is possible to predict performance indexes (throughput, message queue length, ...) under a generic workload, using pre-acquired benchmark results and simple simulation models. Keywords: discrete-event simulation; cloud computing; concurrency; platform-as-a-service; process-oriented simulation; performance prediction; benchmarking. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Cuomo, A., Rak, M. and Villano, U. (2015) ‘Performance prediction of cloud applications through benchmarking and simulation’, Int. J. Computational Science and Engineering, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp.46–55. Biographical notes: Antonio Cuomo is a PhD student at the University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy. His research activities focus on performance evaluation and prediction of parallel and distributed computer systems, including cloud computing, grid computing and their integration, with special attention to simulation-based prediction techniques. He received his Laurea Specialistica degree Cum Laude in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Sannio in 2009. Massimiliano Rak is an Assistant Professor at Second University of Naples. He received his degree in Computer Science Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II in 1999. In 2002, he received his PhD in Electronic Engineering at Second University of Naples. His scientific activity is mainly focused on the analysis and design of high performance system architectures and on methodologies and techniques for distributed software development. Umberto Villano is a Full Professor at the University of Sannio at Benevento, Italy, where he is the Head of the Department of Engineering. His major research interests concern performance prediction and analysis of parallel and distributed computer architectures, tools and environments for parallel programming and distributed algorithms. He received his Laurea degree in Electronic Engineering Cum Laude from the University of Naples in 1983.