HotCloud '12 Call for Papers

Overview

HotCloud brings together researchers and practitioners from academia and industry working on cloud computing technologies. Cloud computing has gained traction over the past few years, becoming a viable alternative to dedicated data centers and enabling the launch of many prominent companies. However, many challenges remain in the design, implementation, and deployment of cloud computing, such as automated service provisioning, service monitoring and management, resource elasticity and interference/isolation between users, cloud programming models, economic models, charging and accounting, and service creation using virtual appliances.

HotCloud provides a forum for both academics and practitioners to share their experience, leverage each other's perspectives, and identify new/emerging "hot" trends in this important area. Its program is arranged to create close interaction between researchers and industry practitioners, so that the research can inform current deployments and deployment challenges can inform new research. HotCloud is open to examining all models of cloud computing, including the scalable management of in-house servers, remotely hosted infrastructure (IaaS), infrastructure augmented with tools and services that provide platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).

We solicit original papers on a wide range of cloud computing topics for HotCloud. We particularly encourage the submission of position papers that describe novel research directions and work that is in its formative stages, and papers about practical experiences and lessons learned from production systems. Interesting issues show up at all levels of the software stack, but HotCloud's emphasis is on combining mechanisms to build working clouds rather than on implementing new low-level mechanisms themselves. For example, papers on using virtual machines in new ways would be preferred over papers on improving core VM technology.

Topics

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Improving elasticity and availability in cloud infrastructure and cloud services
• Multi-tenancy and related issues such as performance isolation
• Charging models and economics
• Power-efficient ("green") computing for clouds
• Monitoring, troubleshooting, and failure recovery
• Debugging and performance analysis of cloud applications
• Cloud management and configuration
• Virtual appliance management and composition
• Storage architectures for cloud computing
• Novel networking approaches for cloud computing
• Programming models
• Security and privacy in clouds
• New applications for clouds
• Mobile clouds
• Integrating enterprise applications with the cloud

Submission Instructions

Please submit full papers (no extended abstracts) in PDF format via this Web form. Do not email submissions.

• The complete submission must be no longer than five (5) pages. It should be typeset in two-column format in 10 point type on 12 point (single-spaced) leading, with the text block being no more than 6.5" wide by 9" deep. Submissions that violate any of these restrictions may not be reviewed. The limits will be interpreted fairly strictly, and no extensions will be given for reformatting. If you wish, you may use this LaTeX template and style file.
• There are no formal restrictions on the use of color in graphs or charts, but please use them sparingly—not everybody has access to a color printer.
• The names of authors and their affiliations should be included on the first page of the submission.
• Simultaneous submission of the same work to multiple venues, submission of previously published work, or plagiarism constitutes dishonesty or fraud. USENIX, like other scientific and technical conferences and journals, prohibits these practices and may take action against authors who have committed them. See the USENIX Conference Submissions Policy for details. Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. If you are uncertain whether your submission meets USENIX's guidelines, please contact the program co-chairs, hotcloud12chairs@usenix.org, or the USENIX office,submissionspolicy@usenix.org.

Reviewing of full papers will be done by the program committee, assisted by outside referees. Accepted papers will be shepherded through an editorial review process by a member of the program committee.

All papers will be available online to registered attendees before the workshop. If your accepted paper should not be published prior to the event, please notify production@usenix.org. The papers will be available online to everyone beginning on June 12, 2012. Accepted submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the USENIX HotCloud '12 Web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.

By submitting a paper, you agree that at least one of the authors will attend the workshop to present it. If the workshop registration will pose a hardship for the presenter of the accepted paper, please contact conference@usenix.org.

Poster Session

We invite submissions to HotCloud's Poster Session, which will take place in the evening on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. This session provides an opportunity to present early-stage work and receive feedback from the community. Posters provide a great way to have more in-depth conversations between authors and audience—so much so that we are automatically granting each accepted paper a poster slot. In addition, submissions are open to any submitter. Topics must fall within the scope of the HotCloud '12 Call for Papers; submissions will be judged on the novelty and insightfulness of the work described, as well as the quality of the draft poster itself. Thought-provoking or controversial work, approaches, or ideas are particularly encouraged. We encourage submissions that represent early work that is not yet ready for submission to a refereed conference or journal. Student and industry submissions meeting these criteria are particularly welcome. Please check back here for submission instructions.