Abstract
Interconnecting the computing services of different tiers by multiple cloud providers is indispensable to overcome the exponentially increasing demands of enterprises. In view of highly dynamic and unpredictable environment, cloud providers have to face numerous challenges related to service provisioning of diversified applications while handling the critical management operations on resource layers. Proper configuration and uniform development of architectural components and protocols to setup interconnected clouds are inevitable, which play effective role in management. Various approaches have been proposed by research community to interconnect the geographically dispersed clouds to extend the capabilities of standalone provider. Fundamentally, this study encompasses the requirement factors and classification of interconnected cloud management from various aspects. Mainstream resource management elements, architectural components, and brokering protocols with respect to functional impact, which proposed in literature, have been discussed. These protocols and components play pivotal role for aggregating computing services from distinct providers and maintaining the quality of service parameters of service provisioning. Finally, the analysis of various projects is also presented to highlight the functionality of collaborated ecosystem with issues and further directions.