Cloud computing : theory and practice provides students and IT professionals with an in-depth analysis of the cloud from the ground up. Beginning with a discussion of parallel computing and architectures and distributed systems, the book turns to contemporary cloud infrastructures, how they are being deployed at leading companies such as Amazon, Google and Apple, and how they can be applied in fields such as healthcare, banking and science. The volume also examines how to successfully deploy a cloud application across the enterprise using virtualization, resource management and the right amount of networking support, including content delivery networks and storage area networks. Developers will find a complete introduction to application development provided on a variety of platforms.