Web applications with rich AJAX-driven user interfaces make asynchronous server-side calls to switch application state. To provide the best user experience, the response time of these calls must be as low as possible. Since response time is bounded by network delay, it can be minimised by placing application components closest to the network location of the majority of anticipated users. However, with a limited budget for hosting applications, developers need to select data centre locations strategically. In practice, the best choice is difficult to achieve manually due to dynamic client workloads and effects such as flash crowds.

In this paper, we propose a cloud management middleware that automatically adjusts the placement of web application components across multiple cloud data centres. Based on observations and predictions of client request rates, it migrates application components between data centres. Our evaluation with two data centres and globally distributed clients on PlanetLab shows that our approach can decrease median client response times by 21% for a realistic multi-tier web application.