Cloud vendors’ commercial models poorly serve scientists, forcing them to struggle for value amid tightening budgets, according to research.

Modern science - from bioinformatics to astrophysics - depends heavily on sophisticated computer modeling, yet cloud providers' business-focused models clash with how scientific projects consume computing resources, argue Vanessa Sochat and Daniel Milroy, both post-doctoral researchers in computing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

"Standard business models based on commercial traffic call for persistent services and long-term discounts for purchasing resources. In contrast, scientific runs are typically short and infrequent. A scientist might need a cluster with specialized, high-precision hardware a few times a month to run a large simula

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