Cloud networking and communications [Guest Editorial]

IEEE Communication Magazine published a feature topic on cloud computing in September 2012. This Special Issue on the same topic recognizes the proliferation of cloud networking and its importance in our lives today. Cloud architectures are continuously evolving, driven by challenges in multiple areas, for example: . Scalability of computing, storage, and bandwidth resources . Capacities of switches, routers, and gateways . Efficient utilization of resources . Dynamic service creation . Competitive cost structures for users and service providers . Reliability of applications and hardware . Privacy of user, data, and several other areas These challenges arise as a typical cloud consists of tens of thousands of servers, exabytes of storage, terabits per second of bandwidth, and tens of hundreds of users at a time. Creation of such a massive infrastructure would not have been possible without the advancements in virtualization of computing, storage, and networking resources. Virtualization becomes a necessity when hundreds or thousands of user requests arrive dynamically to a cloud, each having different storage, compute, and bandwidth demands. In such a dynamic environment, physical resource provisioning and management of client requests are impractical, if not altogether impossible.