Software Engineering for the Cloud: A Research Roadmap

Having arisen from the industry, cloud computing is receiving increasing attention from the academy. We are witnessing an increasing number of papers dedicated to experience reports and proposal of methods, processes and tools focused on cloud-related technology. Researchers are also attempting to identify and formalize the main concepts behind cloud computing, forming a basis for future investigations about how this approach can be used to promote advances in many fields of computer science. However, while the main research challenges and opportunities related to cloud computing in general are already well-known, in the software engineering area the scenario is less clear. In this paper, we present the results of a systematic literature review where we tried to understand how researchers from the software engineering field are viewing the cloud computing paradigm. We identified ten software engineering research opportunities focused specifically on cloud computing, which are presented and discussed in terms of related work. We also present a discussion on some practical issues related to the development of software for the cloud, trying to make some obscure points clearer and aiming to facilitate the work of software engineering researchers and practitioners.