CLOUD COMPUTING 2012 The Third International Conference on Cloud Computing, GRIDs, and Virtualization

Cloud computing is a normal evolution of distributed computing combined with Service-oriented architecture, leveraging most of the GRID features and Virtualization merits. The technology foundations for cloud computing led to a new approach of reusing what was achieved in GRID computing with support from virtualization. The Third International Conference on Cloud Computing, GRIDs, and Virtualization (CLOUD COMPUTING 2012), held between July 22 and 27, 2012, in Nice, France, intended to prospect the applications supported by the new paradigm and validate the techniques and the mechanisms. A complementary target was to identify the open issues and the challenges to be fixed, especially on security, privacy, and inter- and intra-clouds protocols. We welcomed technical papers presenting research and practical results, position papers addressing the pros and cons of specific proposals, such as those being discussed in the standard fora or in industry consortia, survey papers addressing the key problems and solutions on any of the above topics short papers on work in progress, and panel proposals. We take here the opportunity to warmly thank all the members of the CLOUD COMPUTING 2012 Technical Program Committee, as well as the numerous reviewers. Th