This book provides students and IT professionals with an in-depth analysis of the cloud from the ground up. After an introduction to network-centric computing and network-centric content in Chapter One, the book is organized into four sections. Section One reviews basic concepts of concurrency and parallel and distributed systems. Section Two presents such critical components of the cloud ecosystem as cloud service providers, cloud access, cloud data storage, and cloud hardware and software. Section Three covers cloud applications and cloud security, while Section Four presents research topics in cloud computing.