An exploration of the benefits of cloud computing in geoscience research and applications as well as future research directions, Spatial Cloud Computing: A Practical Approach discusses the essential elements of cloud computing and their advantages for geoscience. Using practical examples, it details the geoscience requirements of cloud computing, covers general procedures and considerations when migrating geoscience applications onto cloud services, and demonstrates how to deploy different applications. The book discusses how to choose cloud services based on the general cloud computing measurement criteria and cloud computing cost models. The authors examine the readiness of cloud computing to support geoscience applications using open source cloud...