Comprehensive Analysis of Load Balancing and Resource Provisioning Methods in Cloud Computing Environments
Cloud Computing (CC) is the cornerstone of modern information technology that provides scalable, flexible, and cost-efficient services across diverse applications. Dynamic workloads and heterogeneous infrastructure face some difficulties in effective load balancing and resource provisioning which results in resource underutilization, overload and response time increases. This paper presents a comprehensive and comparative analysis of current methods addressing these issues. It also presents active resource provisioning frameworks, namely: probabilistic load balancing models, Machine Learning (ML)-based, Deep Learning (DL)-based, workload prediction techniques, genetic algorithms, Reinforcement Learning (RL) strategies, and hybrid meta-heuristic methods. Each method is analyzed in terms of methodology, advantages, limitations, and performance metrics, therefore providing an insight of their applicability in dynamic and large-scale cloud environments. A taxonomy architecture is presented to categorize the systematic comparison and research gaps. The comparative evaluation segment demonstrates enhancement in throughput, resource utilization, and cost efficiency, while also identifying limitations such as computational overhead and scalability constraints. The survey concludes by highlighting the necessity for intelligent, adaptive, and energy-aware solutions to confirm resilient and efficient cloud infrastructures.