With public cloud offerings from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others, vast computational resources have now become inexpensive and widely-available. Compute and storage capacity which was once only available to the largest organizations is now available to the masses. At the same time, the cloud imposes a new set of rules and constraints, and by extension, a new set of challenges for developers.

Traditional programming approaches designed for small clusters and fixed resources will not make the most efficient use of highly virtualized, distributed, and auto-scaled cloud infrastructures. Instead, we are forced to think about, design, and implement our systems in a new way. Only by embracing the unique aspects of the cloud can developers expect to fully reap its benefits.

This presentation will outline several critical elements of the evolving cloud programming model – what do developers need to do to develop successful systems in the cloud. It will discuss state management and statelessness, distribution- and network-awareness, workload partitioning, cost and resource metering, automation readiness, and deployment strategies.