Book excerpt: Distributed and Cloud Computing: From Parallel Processing to the Internet of Things offers complete coverage of modern distributed computing technology including clusters, the grid, service-oriented architecture, massively parallel processors, peer-to-peer networking, and cloud computing. It is the first modern, up-to-date distributed systems textbook; it explains how to create high-performance, scalable, reliable systems, exposing the design principles, architecture, and innovative applications of parallel, distributed, and cloud computing systems. Topics covered by this book include: facilitating management, debugging, migration, and disaster recovery through virtualization; clustered systems for research or ecommerce applications; designing systems as web services; and social networking systems using peer-to-peer computing. The principles of cloud computing are discussed using examples from open-source and commercial applications, along with case studies from the leading distributed computing vendors such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Each chapter includes exercises and further reading, with lecture slides and more available online. This book will be ideal for students taking a distributed systems or distributed computing class, as well as for professional system designers and engineers looking for a reference to the latest distributed technologies including cloud, P2P and grid computing. - Complete coverage of modern distributed computing technology including clusters, the grid, service-oriented architecture, massively parallel processors, peer-to-peer networking, and cloud computing - Includes case studies from the leading distributed computing vendors: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and more - Explains how to use virtualization to facilitate management, debugging, migration, and disaster recovery - Designed for undergraduate or graduate students taking a distributed systems course—each chapter includes exercises and further reading, with lecture slides and more available online