The paper "Cloud Computing – Issues, Research and Implementations" by Mladen A. Vouk from North Carolina State University explores the concept of cloud computing, its underlying issues, related research topics, and a practical implementation. Cloud computing, a term that gained popularity in 2007 following IBM and Google's collaboration, builds on decades of research in virtualization, distributed computing, utility computing, and recent advancements in networking, web, and software services. It emphasizes a service-oriented architecture, reduced IT overhead for end-users, flexibility, reduced total cost of ownership, and on-demand services. The paper discusses the importance of cyberinfrastructure in enabling applications and shifting focus from IT development to scientific and engineering research. It highlights the role of service-oriented architectures (SOA), component-based system engineering, orchestration, and virtualization in cloud computing. The Virtual Computing Laboratory (VCL) technology, implemented at NC State University since 2004, is presented as a suitable framework for dynamic cloud solutions. VCL supports various user categories, including developers, service authors, integration and provisioning experts, and end-users, each with specific requirements and functionalities. The paper also addresses research issues such as the economy of scale for image and service construction, metadata management, image portability, security, and return on investment (ROI). It concludes with a discussion on the excellent experience with VCL and ongoing efforts to enhance its capabilities for cloud framework construction.The paper "Cloud Computing – Issues, Research and Implementations" by Mladen A. Vouk from North Carolina State University explores the concept of cloud computing, its underlying issues, related research topics, and a practical implementation. Cloud computing, a term that gained popularity in 2007 following IBM and Google's collaboration, builds on decades of research in virtualization, distributed computing, utility computing, and recent advancements in networking, web, and software services. It emphasizes a service-oriented architecture, reduced IT overhead for end-users, flexibility, reduced total cost of ownership, and on-demand services. The paper discusses the importance of cyberinfrastructure in enabling applications and shifting focus from IT development to scientific and engineering research. It highlights the role of service-oriented architectures (SOA), component-based system engineering, orchestration, and virtualization in cloud computing. The Virtual Computing Laboratory (VCL) technology, implemented at NC State University since 2004, is presented as a suitable framework for dynamic cloud solutions. VCL supports various user categories, including developers, service authors, integration and provisioning experts, and end-users, each with specific requirements and functionalities. The paper also addresses research issues such as the economy of scale for image and service construction, metadata management, image portability, security, and return on investment (ROI). It concludes with a discussion on the excellent experience with VCL and ongoing efforts to enhance its capabilities for cloud framework construction.