Keynote address I: Programming the cloud

Abstract

Client + cloud computing is a disruptive, new computing platform, combining diverse client devices — PCs, smartphones, sensors, and single-function and embedded devices — with the unlimited, on-demand computation and data storage offered by cloud computing services such as Amazon's AWS or Microsoft's Windows Azure. As with every advance in computing, programming is a fundamental challenge as client + cloud computing combines many difficult aspects of software development. Systems built for this world are inherently parallel and distributed, run on unreliable hardware, and must be continually available — a challenging programming model for even the most skilled programmers. How then do ordinary programmers develop software for the Cloud?