System software supports applications running on top of different computer hardware. Millions of applications run on top of system software every day. With the emergence of cloud and distributed computing environments, the reliability and security of system software have become an important topic due to resource sharing and open access. Furthermore, the system software architecture has been evolving — from operating system level resource sharing to virtualization-based resource sharing and container-based application instance distribution and management. The blockchain and decentralized systems further changed trust management in the existing software stack. New challenges and opportunities appeared.
This Research Topic aims to identify new security and reliability problems in system software under an emergent cloud and distributed computing environment and find new solutions for security and reliability measurement, enhancement, and optimization. This article collection encourages original research and extended versions of conference papers (containing at least 30% new content) to discuss and improve the reliability and security of system software in the cloud.
Relevant articles include security and reliability analysis and measurement, new attack methods, and defense mechanisms on system software. The topics include but are not limited to:
- Reliable system software
- Operating systems, virtualization systems, middleware, and container security
- Security in blockchain systems
- Automated software system analysis
- Security architectures for cloud and distributed computing
- Security, reliability and performance measurement and optimization
- Security, reliability, and performance issues and solutions in the heterogeneous-architecture systems
Keywords: Software reliability, software security, cloud computing, distributed systems, blockchain, software analysis and measurement.
Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
