Cloud Computing implements the next generation Internet computing by realizing cost-oriented and on- demand provisioning of resources for arbitrary customers. IT resources, platforms and services are made available at virtually unlimited scale for everybody, everywhere, and anytime. Since Cloud environments help to gain access to specialized software, dedicated computational resources, or new storage facilities, they open new possibilities for any kind of scientific work that relies on computational or data analysis. Such Cloud Computing environments and their scientific workload are an interdisciplinary challenge on their own – the Cloud infrastructure must consider the specific needs of the scientific application, and the scientific application must consider the targeted Cloud runtime environment. On the one hand, this special issue of the JIDPS journal focuses on Cloud Computing architectures and services designed to fulfill the requirements of different fields of science. On the other hand, it considers necessary adoptions in scientific approaches (e.g. in algorithms) in order to prepare them for Cloud execution.
Relevant topics for submitted journal papers include but are not limited to:
* Cloud architectures and Cloud systems for science and examples of scientific Cloud applications
* Specialized Cloud services for transdisciplinary use cases and their business models
* Potential of Cloud services for scalable research (e.g. cost-benefit balancing)
* Cloud standards and Cloud Interfaces for end users (e.g. data formats, user interfaces)
* Cloud security and privacy aspects for scientific data as well as problems like vendor-lock-in
* Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting in the Cloud