The Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) invites to the fifth edition of the yearly scientific symposium on the topic “Operating the Cloud”. The Future SOC Lab, a cooperation of HPI and the industrial partners Dell EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and the SAP Innovation Center Network provides researchers with free of charge access to a complete infrastructure of powerful hardware and software. As cloud computing is one of the main research areas at the HPI Future SOC Lab, the lab hosts a scientific workshop that focuses on the area of operations within the context of cloud computing.

Cloud computing is experiencing a growth in attention world-wide. The necessity emerges from ever increasing amounts of data that must be stored and computed by companies of almost any area of business. Additionally, even in our daily private lives we utilize cloud services to synchronize files, keep track of our appointments, etc. However, we are still observing a gap between results of academic research and practical implementations cloud operators use. It is our goal to provide a persistent platform for representatives of academia and industry to bridge this gap.

The symposium aims at connecting industry and academia by inviting speakers and calling for paper presentations. On this occasion, we seek for research papers and practitioners' reports in the fields of operating, administrating, and utilizing cloud systems. Please submit your contribution to the electronic submission system we use. Accepted submissions will be presented at the symposium in Potsdam. "Operating the Cloud" aims to present a versatile compilation of talks which allow a deep exchange of experience and knowledge.