In almost a decade I Programmer's book reviewers have read and commented on over 1500 programming titles. That's only a fraction of the programming books published, but we try to cover the important ones. In Programmer's Bookshelf we recommend the books you might find helpful at different stages in your personal development.

Cloud computing is both a way of working that's important and growing; and the latest arena of hype and snake oil claims, and the books about cloud computing are equally divided between those that tell you useful things and those that seem aimed at separating the gullible from their money.

The books in this roundup are all useful, and have been rated worthy of at least four stars out of a possible five by our reviewers. They split into those that describe cloud computing in general, and those written to explain a particular piece of software or service that is used for cloud computing.

If you want to read more of the original review click in the link in each title. Clicking on the book jacket in the side panel will take you to Amazon. If you just want to find out more about the book click in the top portion of the thumbnail to open the book's product details page. If you do decide to make a book purchase accessing Amazon from a link on I Programmer means that we are credited with a few cents - so thanks to all of you who support us in this way.

The Evolution of Cloud Computing

Author: Clive Longbottom
Publisher: British Computer Society (BCS)
Pages: 172
ISBN: 978-1780173580

This book aims to explain cloud computing in terms of how we got to where we are now, what options are available at the moment, and how things are likely to develop in the future, according to Kay Ewbank, who gave it 4.5 stars.

She concludes:

"Overall, I enjoyed this book. It's not aimed at programmers and developers, more at general IT managers and directors, and for that audience it presents a clear explanation of where we are in cloud computing, how we got here, and where we are (and should) be going. The material is well researched and presented, and is sprinkled throughout with interesting quotes from industry leaders."

Cloud Computing Design Patterns

Authors: Thomas Erl, Robert Cope and Amin Naserpour 
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Pages: 592
ISBN: 978-0133858563

The problem with cloud services, according to the authors of this book, is that they’re too easy to set up, meaning they’re put into service without enough consideration to the dangers inherent on the Web, or the difficulties of creating a cloud system that works in real life.

Awarding the book four stars, Kay Ewbank says that this is a book mainly drawn from content from Cloud Certified Professional courses developed by Arcitura Education, and its aim is to provide a catalog of design patterns that show how particular problems can be solved or requirements met.

The conclusion is that this an interesting book, but its relevance would only be truly understood by people actually setting up cloud systems. It is strictly vendor neutral, which sounds good but means you don’t know which particular hypervisor (say) the authors would recommend. On the whole, if you need to configure cloud systems, it would be a useful read. 

Code in the Cloud

Author: Mark C. Chu-Carroll
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Pages: 320
ISBN: 978-1934356630

As its subtitle indicates, this book is about using the Google AppEngine rather than general cloud computing. Alex Armstrong found it a well written book that deals using AppEngine in Python reasonably well but really wants you to work in Java GWT. This said, the treatment of Python isn't bad and the whole approach of covering the two languages works quite well, but has uneven coverage of the basics.

Awarding it a four star rating, Alex concluded that overall this is a book that doesn't go very deep into the subject and it would make a good introduction for the beginner who wanted a quick start to Python and Java GWT with App Engine.

Testing Cloud Services

Authors: Kees Blokland, Jeroen Mengerink, Martin Pol
Publisher: Rocky Nook
Pages: 184
ISBN: 978-1937538385

This book attempts to answer the question, how can you ensure a cloud service does what you want it to do? It's a tricky problem because testing a cloud service that you want to use presents a whole extra set of uncertainty, says Kay Ewbank, who gave this book a four star rating. The book is subtitled "how to Test SaaS, PaaS & IaaS", and the authors' aim is to highlight the risks that are particular to working in the cloud, and how you can test those areas.  This is a fairly slim book that has just six chapters, but the material in it is well written and to the point.

Kay's conclusion is that:

"the discussions were down to earth and useful, and I can imagine a lot of IT managers finding the checklists of questions and tests invaluable. For developers, it’s less directly relevant, but still interesting and a good guide to formalizing your own testing regime." 

<ASIN: 178017358X>

<ASIN: B075XG81GJ>

<ASIN: 0133858561>

<ASIN: B001IGOVVY>

<ASIN: 1934356638>

<ASIN: 1937538389>

<ASIN: B00FEQLODC>