Cloud computing is a rapidly developing area which stores ample promises for computer and information technology industry. Its emergence has made tremendous impact on the industry over the past few years. Cloud computing combines an array of existing developments such as parallel computing, distributed computing, grid computing and virtualization technologies, to name a few. Based on the idea of utility computing, it offers the convenience of pay-per-use and on-demand computing of shared IT resources to the users. Cloud computing services primarily operate on models such as SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) in order to drastically reduce the cost of computing and total cost of ownership. Computing services are deployed using private cloud, public cloud or hybrid cloud, which depends on several factors like budget, nature of data, security, etc.

This emerging form of computing has created new business entities such as cloud providers, cloud service brokers and cloud resellers to deliver computing services to the consumers. It has found fertile grounds and attracted investments in many industries like banking, healthcare, education, etc. Adoption of cloud computing is growing. According to IDC’s (International Data Corporation) worldwide report, 70% of organizations have at least one of their applications deployed using cloud computing. It is expected that spending on cloud services will be more than $210 bn by 2020.

As cloud computing becomes popular, it will continue to throw challenges such as security, reliability, scalability, sustainability, heterogeneity and data management, among others. Although there have been systematic attempts to address many challenges, there remains several issues open for future research. As cloud computing matures over the years, it will impact significantly on several other emerging trends such as Container Technologies, Fog Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, Serverless Computing, Software-Defined Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Machine and Deep Learning Services, etc.

The first paper, “Migration to Cloud: The Strategic Issues”, by Jitendra Singh, identifies several issues that need to be considered while adopting cloud computing by any organization in order to avoid any bumping. In particular, organizations with legacy systems should be more careful to examine quite a few factors related to migration to harness the benefits of cloud computing.

The second paper, “A Competence-Based Recruitment System Using Mean Deviation”, by Bridget Chinalu Ujah-Ogbuagu, presents a web-based system to verify the competency level of candidates in a recruitment process. Following a three-phase verification process, the system ensures that the recommended candidates are better qualified and competent for a job. The last paper, “A Study of ICT Competence Among Nigerian Academic Staff in Monotechnics”, by Aisha Awal, Amit Mishra, Elijah Joseph and Jamilu Mai Pan Uku, attempts to find ICT usage habits and competencies among the staff of various teaching institutions in Nigeria. The study finds dismal statistics and reveals worrisome facts.