Cloud Computing and Applications

Dear Colleagues, 

Tens of years of progress in computer hardware, networks and the recent enhancements in virtualization and containerization made the long-sought vision of cloud computing possible. Cloud providers compete with a wide portfolio of pay-as-you-go services, from simple computing or storage infrastructure, to machine learning services, including image, speech, and text recognition. More than simple IT outsourcing, these services can spark new, innovative and affordable products. 

While the benefits are undeniable, citizens and companies must still consider a few drawbacks. First, as integration with the cloud increases, the complex pricing schemes become harder to manage and control. A second risk is vendor lock-in, as companies upgrade their online presence with state-of-the-art provider-dependent cloud services. At the same time, companies should be able to retain part of their data on premises, or explore different providers, in hybrid and multi-cloud solutions, while maintaining observability, to ensure fine-tuned, highly performant distributed systems. 

The challenges for providers are equally demanding. Downtime, data losses, and data breaches can jeopardize third-party businesses, causing all sorts of damage. To preclude such scenarios, providers must replicate data and services, while maintaining privacy, by preventing access by other users, attackers and their own employees. Finally, providers must operate efficiently, or competition will drive them out of the market.

This Special Issue aims at publishing high-quality manuscripts covering new research on topics related to cloud computing, including but not limited to the following:

• Cloud applications
• Cloud architecture
• Virtualization, containerization and container orchestration
• Public, private and hybrid clouds
• Interoperability and portability
• Microservices
• Observability and monitoring of distributed systems
• Security and privacy
• Reliable operation
• Efficient operation

Prof. Dr. Filipe Araujo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.