A view at desktop clouds

Cloud has emerged as a new computing paradigm that promises to move into computing-as-utility era. Desktop Cloud is a new type of Cloud computing. It merges two computing models: Cloud computing and volunteer computing. The aim of Desktop Cloud is to provide Cloud services out of infrastructure that is not made for this purpose in order to reduce running and maintenance costs. This paper discusses this new type of Cloud by comparing it with current Cloud and Desktop Grid models. It, also, presents several research challenges in Desktop Cloud that require further attention