Blockchains have recently generated explosive interest from both academia and industry, with many proposed applications. But descriptions of many these proposals are more visionary projections than realizable proposals, and even basic definitions are often missing. We define “blockchain” and “blockchain network”, and then discuss two very different, well known classes of blockchain networks: cryptocurrencies and Git repositories. We identify common primitive elements of both and use them to construct a framework for explicitly articulating what characterizes blockchain networks. The framework consists of a set of questions that every blockchain initiative should address at the very outset. It is intended to help one decide whether or not blockchain is an appropriate approach to a particular application, and if it is, to assist in its initial design stage.

Blockchains have recently generated explosive interest from both academia and industry, with many proposed applications. But descriptions of many these proposals are more visionary projections than realizable proposals, and even basic definitions are often missing. We define "blockchain" and "blockchain network", and then discuss two very different, well known classes of blockchain networks: cryptocurrencies and Git repositories. We identify common primitive elements of both and use them to construct a framework for explicitly articulating what characterizes blockchain networks. The framework consists of a set of questions that every blockchain initiative should address at the very outset. It is intended to help one decide whether or not blockchain is an appropriate approach to a particular application, and if it is, to assist in its initial design stage.

The long-term goal of CLOUD is to establish a reputable and respectable conference for the international community of researchers and practitioners to exchange information regarding advancements in the state of the art and practice of Web Services, and to identify emerging research topics and define the future of Web Services computing. CLOUD 2015 is sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Services Computing (TC-SVC) and the Services Society (SS). CLOUD 2015 is the flagship conference of the 2015 IEEE Congress on Services (SERVICES 2015), celebrating the research accomplishments of the community along with other events to explore "Services" (Science and Technology), as promoted by IEEE Computer Society in 2003! “Change we are leading” is the theme of CLOUD 2015. Cloud Computing has become an elastic pay-as-you-go service creation, delivery, consumption, and management platform in Services Computing. The technical foundations of Cloud Computing include Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), virtualization of hardware and software, process and workflow optimization, and usage based accounting and billing. The goal of Cloud Computing is to cost-effectively manage the lifecycle of quality-assured services and to share resources among service consumers, partners, and vendors in the cloud value chain. The resource sharing at various levels results in various cloud offerings, such as infrastructure clouds (e.g. hardware, IT infrastructure management), software clouds (e.g. software as a service focusing on middleware as a service, or traditional CRM as a service), application clouds (e.g. application as a service, UML modeling tools as a service, social network as a service), and business clouds (e.g. business process as a service). As the most prestigious academic conference in the field of Cloud Computing, the CLOUD 20082014 conferences have proven to be excellent catalysts for research and collaboration, and we fully expect that the ICWS 2015 conference will continue this trend. Many people have worked very hard to make this conference possible. We would like to thank all who have helped in making CLOUD 2015 a success. The Program Committee members and referees all deserve credit for producing an excellent final program that resulted from diligent reviews of the submissions. Special thanks go to the program chairs and all of the other organizing committee members. We would also like to express our appreciation to the Services Computing Professional Interest Community (PIC) at IBM Research and Huawei for their continuous sponsorship. Clearly, there are still many unresolved research issues with regard to services computing as it is a young field. We hope you enjoy the conference and contribute to future CLOUD events as authors, speakers, panelists, volunteers, and conference organizers. Finally, CLOUD belongs to you, the audience.

The purpose of this panel is to present a broad range of best practices of SOA strategization and operationalization in the use of Web services in real-world SOA implementations. The focus will be on the common challenges and issues encountered in SOA projects. Topics include, but are not limited to, tenets, methodology, architecture, service management, standards, tools, process, organization, governance, security, and quality of services. Practitioner's guides and anti-patterns as well as trends will be discussed in the context. Real-life pragmatic solutions to business problems will be exemplified and illustrated in case studies.

A problem based on the Extended Euclidean Algorithm applied to a class of polynomials with many factors is presented and believed to be hard. If so, it is a one-way function well suited for applications in digital signicatures.

Services computing has been recognized as a new foundational discipline of the modern services industry. The Technical Committee on Services Computing (TC-SVC) within IEEE Computer Society is leading an initiative to promote Services Computing Curriculum around the world. This paper defines eleven key knowledge areas in the field of Services Computing. Based on defined knowledge areas, we report 2008 Summer School on Services Computing (Summer School), as a case study and pilot project to show how to dynamically compose reusable knowledge areas into expected courses. We present the design and delivery practices of Summer School, as well as experiences and lessons learned from the program.