This book addresses the emerging area of cloud computing, providing a comprehensive overview of the research areas, recent work and open research problems. The move to cloud computing is no longer merely a topic of discussion; it has become a core competency that every modern business needs to embrace and excel at. It has changed the way enterprise and internet computing is viewed, and this success story is the result of the long-term efforts of computing research community around the globe. It is predicted that by 2026 more than two-thirds of all enterprises across the globe will be entirely run in cloud. These predictions have led to huge levels of funding for research and development in cloud computing and related technologies.

Accordingly, universities across the globe have incorporated cloud computing and its related technologies in their curriculum, and information technology (IT) organizations are accelerating their skill-set evolution in order to be better prepared tomanage emerging technologies and public expectations of the cloud, such as new services.