June 2, 2011 June 3, 2011

Cloud Futures 2011

Location: Microsoft Conference Center, Building 33, Redmond, Washington, United States

The Cloud Futures Workshop series brought together thought leaders from academia, industry, and government to discuss the role of cloud computing across a variety of research and educational areas—including computer science, earth sciences, healthcare, humanities, life sciences, and social sciences. Presentations and discussions highlighted how new techniques, software platforms, and methods of research and teaching in the cloud may solve distinct challenges arising in those diverse areas.

Cloud computing is an exciting platform for research and education. It has the potential to advance scientific and technological progress by making data and computing resources readily available at unprecedented economy of scale and nearly infinite scalability. To realize the full promise of cloud computing for research and education, however, we must think about the cloud as a holistic platform for creating new services, new experiences, and new methods to pursue research, teaching, and scholarly communication. This goal presents a broad range of interesting questions.

This workshop included presentations that illustrated the role of cloud computing across a variety of research and educational areas—including computer science, engineering, earth sciences, healthcare, humanities, life sciences, and social sciences. Attendees had the opportunity to learn how new techniques and methods of research in the cloud may solve distinct challenges arising in those diverse areas. All of the sessions in the Cascade conference room were streamed live while the workshop was in session. To view abstracts and information on the speakers, click here.