A novel random biased-genetic algorithm (NRB-GA) load-balancing algorithm that exhibits the characteristics of both genetic algorithms and biased random algorithms is designed and developed to improve the processing time and response time metrics of the cloud computing environment. The NRB-GA is designed to discover a virtual machine with fewer loads by applying a genetic algorithm with a fitness function that is inversely proportional to the average load over a period of time for each virtual machine and with biased parent selection to maximize the fitness values of offspring. The developed NRB-GA load-balancing algorithm is evaluated by analysing its performance for various simulated scenarios in a cloud computing environment with different user bases and data center configurations. The analysis of the experimental results of NRB-GA indicates that the average response time is reduced by 27.22%, 21.15%, and 22.34%, and the processing time is reduced by 25.73%, 16.14%, and 18.82% for one, two, and three data centers, respectively. It is evident that the proposed NRB-GA algorithm for load balancing outperforms other existing algorithms significantly.

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