Cloud computing

The fast evolution of hardware capabilities in conjunction with fast wide area communication and availability of virtualization solutions is allowing new operational models for information technology. The advent of Cloud computing has resulted in access to a wide range of services. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) allows access to large-scale resources like computational power or storage. These large scale platforms, based on huge datacentres (e.g., European Grid Infrastructure), are available to industrial users as well as to scientific communities.

Programming and accessing Cloud platforms in a seamless and efficient way is one of the most important challenges for the next decade. These new and highly distributed applications will raise new research problems such as quality of service and latency management.

(See Ubiquitous computing and microelectronics: embedded systems)