Book excerpt: What’s new in the European research and development area? Cloud computing is a provision model where whatever computing resource that can be thought of (machines, network, software solutions, applications) is provided as a service. This new paradigm has changed the center of gravity of computing in both the academic and industry environments, but despite the considerable efforts and investments, there are critical problems that are not yet solved. The research and development community involved in distributed computing is searching for viable solutions that will increase the adoption of the cloud. This is the case of the collaborative work done by multi-national teams in the context of the FP7 programme of the European Commission. Students, researchers and developers working in the field of distributed computing will find in this book a snapshot of the on-going activities in research and development of cloud computing undertaken at the European level. These activities are organized by the latest hot topics of cloud computing research, which include services, management, automation and adoption. Summarizing, this book will help the reader understand and identify the research and development winds that are pushing the clouds to Europe.