Cloud computing for mobile environments

Cloud computing provides a useful metaphor for combining capability at different scales. Such environments may therefore consist of devices ranging from handheld smart phones to supercomputers, to serve communities ranging from individuals to whole industries. Cloud computing requirements are also widely regarded as a key enabler for next generation network environments and are expected to drive the creation of both jobs and commercial products. Cloud computing is also sometimes referred synonymously as next generation data centers, with an architecture consisting of network of virtual services (hardware, database, user-interface, and application logic) so that users are able to deploy and access applications globally and on demand at competitive costs depending on user driven quality of service requirements. Developers with innovative ideas for new Internet services no longer require large capital outlays in hardware to deploy their services, or human expense to operate it [1–7]. This technology is being driven by and used in a wide range of academic, research, and commercial application areas. This use is producing important new practical experience in a variety of different problem domains in each of these areas. There are also new computational methods, such as mobile agents, cellular automata, and massively parallel neural networks, which are particularly suited to concurrent execution. As an enabler, this technology is leading to a rapid growth in both scientific and information applications that will, in turn, enable additional requirements for cloud computing technologies to be identified. These will impact academia, business, and education [4–6, 8–12]. Given this context, this special issue calls for high-quality research papers in the development of cloud computing technology for mobile environments. In particular, the special issue showcased the most recent achievements and developments in the realm of cloud computing. Original research articles were solicited covering theoretical studies, practical applications, new communication technology, and experimental prototypes. All submitted papers were peer reviewed and selected on the basis of both their quality and their relevance to the theme of this special issue. The published papers are expected to focus on novel approaches for advanced cloud computing of mobile environments for future computing environments and to present high-quality results for tackling problems arising from the ever-growing advanced cloud computing technologies and services for future computing environments. We have received many manuscripts. Only five manuscripts with high quality were finally selected for this special issue. Each manuscript selected was blindly reviewed by at least three reviewers consisting of guest editors and external reviewers. We present a brief overview of each manuscript in the following.