Overview

Cloud Computing covers a broad range of distributed computing principles from infrastructure (e.g distributed storage, reconfigurable networks) to new programming platforms (e.g MS Azure, Google Appe Engine), and internet-based applications. Particularly, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Cloud systems - such as Amazon EC2, Rackspace or Google Compute Engine - allow the dynamic creation, destruction and management of virtual machines (VMs) as part of virtual computing infrastructures. IaaS Clouds provide a high-level of abstraction to the end user, one that allows the creation of on-demand services through a pay as you go infrastructure combined with elasticity. The increasingly large range of choices and availability of IaaS toolkits has also allowed creation of cloud solutions and frameworks even suitable for private deployment and practical IaaS use on smaller scales. This special session on Cloud Computing is intended to be a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences on the use of Cloud Computing technologies and applications with compute and data intensive workloads. The special session also aims at presenting the challenges and opportunities offered by the development of open-source Cloud Computing solutions - such as OpenStack or OpenNebula - themselves, as well as case studies in applications of Cloud Computing. With the rapid evolution and proliferation of Internet of Things systems, this session also aims to provide a forum for case studies on integrated use of clouds, edge and fog systems in support of IoT scenarios. The general venue will be a good occasion to share, learn, and discuss the latest results in this field of research. The special session program will include presentations of peer-reviewed papers.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Virtualization and container technologies and their effects on IaaS solutions
Incorporating beyond-CPU virtualization (e.g., I/O, GPU) aspects to cloud infrastructures
Cloud Computing resource management (e.g., Virtual Machine scheduling and management algorithms)
Operational challenges, federative and interoperability aspects of private, hybrid and public IaaS systems
Novel IaaS architectures, platforms and applications (e.g., incorporating IoT systems)
Virtual machine/container image and virtual appliance storage management (e.g., caching, repositories, marketplaces)
Security and Privacy aspects of data management in clouds and IoT systems
Cloud Computing for scientific, compute and/or data intensive applications
Performance evaluation, modeling, simulation and prediction of IaaS clouds and their relation to IoT (including cost and price models)
Programming models, tools, orchestration techniques and workflows involving Cloud and IoT systems
Cloud, Edge and Fog Computing deployment models
Cloud, Edge and Fog storage and I/O
Cloud, Edge and Fog services for the Internet of Things
Scalability issues of IoT systems
Autonomous control in Internet of Things, multi-clouds and software defined networks