Cloud Computing - Research Issues, Challenges, Architecture, Platforms and Applications: A Survey

This paper explores the concept of cloud architecture and compares cloud computing with grid computing. It addresses the characteristics and applications of several popular cloud computing platforms. The paper aims to pinpoint the challenges and issues of cloud computing and identifies several challenges from the cloud computing adoption perspective. It also highlights the cloud interoperability issue that deserves substantial further research and development. The paper investigates several cloud computing system providers about their concerns on security and privacy issues.