Challenges and Future Trends of Distributed Computing Systems

Due to the rapid progress in computer hardware, software, internet, sensor networks, mobile communications, and multimedia technologies, distributed computing systemshave recently evolved drastically to improve and expand various applications with better quality of services and lower cost, especially those involving human factors.Recent development in services and cloud computing are good examples. However, the challenges for distributed computing systems to satisfy increasing demands for various applications become also greater. Besides reliability, performance and availability, many other attributes, such as security, privacy, trustworthiness, situation awareness, flexibility and rapid development of various applications, have also become important.We have invited an excellent panel to discuss the challenges and future trends of distributed computing systems to meet these challenges from various perspectives. Each panelist will give a brief presentation at the beginning of the session, and then we will open the discussions from the floor.