May 7, 2012 May 8, 2012

Cloud Futures 2012

Location: University of California, Berkeley

The Cloud Futures 2012 workshop was a joint venture between the Microsoft Research Connections, Azure Research Engagement, and Developer & Platform Evangelism Academic groups, and in association with and supported by the University of California, Berkeley.

Cloud computing is an exciting platform for research and education. It has already advanced scientific and technological progress by making data and computing resources available at unprecedented economy of scale. 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 and teaching. Pursuing these goals presented a broad range of interesting questions for the 2012 Microsoft Research Cloud Futures workshop.

This year’s presentations highlighted hot topics in cloud computing and explored how new techniques and methods of research may solve distinct challenges arising in diverse areas, including computer science, engineering, Earth sciences, healthcare, humanities, interactive games, life sciences, and social sciences.