Customers in cloud spot market choose from a set of computing resources (spot instances) some of which are same along one or more of the dimensions of hardware configuration, hardware capacity, software, and location (or zones within the same region). While prior research in IS has shown that cloud market consumers do not substitute identical spot instances across distant locations or regions due to costs associated with latency, there is a paucity of research examining spot price dynamics of similar instances which are same along only some of the dimensions (or characteristics) within a region. Using the economic theory of substitution in production and consumption as our theoretical lens, our empirical analysis finds evidence that consumers substitute similar computing resources in the spot market. Further, we find that while hardware configuration similarity between two instances is positively related to spot instance substitution, this substitution effect along hardware configuration is moderated by similarity along hardware capacity and location (zone). Our work contributes to the literature on cloud spot market by providing empirical evidence of the substitution effect among similar spot resources within a region, and thus help in understanding the choices of consumers in this market. We conclude by discussing how practitioners can leverage these findings in the procurement of computing resources from cloud spot market.

云现货市场的客户从一组计算资源（现货实例）中进行选择，其中一些在硬件配置、硬件容量、软件和位置（或同一区域内的区域）的一个或多个维度上是相同的。虽然 IS 先前的研究表明，由于与延迟相关的成本，云市场消费者不会在遥远的位置或区域替换相同的现货实例，但很少有研究检查类似实例的现货价格动态，这些实例仅在一些区域内的维度（或特征）。以生产和消费替代经济理论作为我们的理论视角，我们的实证分析发现了消费者在现货市场替代类似计算资源的证据。更远，我们发现，虽然两个实例之间的硬件配置相似性与现货实例替换呈正相关，但这种沿硬件配置的替代效应受到沿硬件容量和位置（区域）的相似性的影响。我们的工作通过提供区域内类似现货资源之间替代效应的经验证据，为云现货市场的文献做出贡献，从而有助于了解该市场中消费者的选择。最后，我们讨论了从业者如何利用这些发现从云现货市场采购计算资源。我们的工作通过提供区域内类似现货资源之间替代效应的经验证据，为云现货市场的文献做出贡献，从而有助于了解该市场中消费者的选择。最后，我们讨论了从业者如何利用这些发现从云现货市场采购计算资源。我们的工作通过提供区域内类似现货资源之间替代效应的经验证据，为云现货市场的文献做出贡献，从而有助于了解该市场中消费者的选择。最后，我们讨论了从业者如何利用这些发现从云现货市场采购计算资源。