Perspectives on cloud computing: interviews with five leading scientists from the cloud community
Abstract
Cloud computing is currently one of the major topics in dis-
tributed systems, with large numbers of papers being writ-
ten on the topic, with major players in the industry releasing
a range of software platforms offering novel Internet-based
services and, most importantly, evidence of real impact on
end user communities in terms of approaches to provision-
ing software services. Cloud computing though is at a for-
mative stage, with a lot of hype surrounding the area, and
this makes it difficult to see the true contribution and impact
of the topic.
Cloud computing is a central topic for the Journal of In-
ternet Services and Applications (JISA) and indeed the most
downloaded paper from the first year of JISA is concerned
with the state-of-the-art and research challenges related to
cloud computing [1]. The Editors-in-Chief, Fabio Kon and
Gordon Blair, therefore felt it was timely to seek clarifica-
tion on the key issues around cloud computing and hence
invited five leading scientists from industrial organizations
central to cloud computing to answer a series of questions
on the topic.
The five scientists taking part are:
• Walfredo Cirne, from Google’s infrastructure group in
California, USA
• Dejan Milojicic, Senior Researcher and Director of the
Open Cirrus Cloud Computing testbed at HP Labs
• Raghu Ramakrishnan, Chief Scientist for Search and
Cloud Platforms at Yahoo!
• Dan Reed, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Tech-
nology Strategy and Policy and Extreme Computing
• Dilma Silva, researcher at the IBM T.J. Watson Research
Center, in New York
Research Areas
