Cloud Computing: Theory and Practice provides students and IT professionals with an in-depth analysis of the cloud from the ground up. The third edition updates content throughout the book while retaining the popular features and organization of the second edition. After an introduction to network-centric computing and network-centric content in Chapter One, the book is organized into four sections. Section One reviews basic concepts of concurrency and parallel and distributed systems. Section Two presents such critical components of the cloud ecosystem as cloud service providers, cloud access, cloud data storage, and cloud hardware and software. Section Three covers cloud applications and cloud security, while Section Four presents research topics in cloud computing. Specific topics covered include resource virtualization, resource management and scheduling, and advanced topics like the impact of scale on efficiency, cloud scheduling subject to deadlines, alternative cloud architectures, and vehicular clouds. An included glossary covers terms grouped in several categories, from general to services, virtualization, desirable attributes and security. Includes updated content throughout chapters on concurrency, cloud hardware and software, challenges posed by big data and mobile applications and advanced topics Expanded appendix that presents several cloud computing projects Presents more than 400 references in the text, including recent research results in several areas related to cloud computing