Areas of interest include, but are not limited to: Novel storage organizations for large scale systems (e.g., NoSQL databases, in-memory databases, geo-replicated systems). Consistency, reliability, and fault models for large scale distributed systems Data recovery: online and disaster recovery System assumptions for dependability and performance Scaling-out and elasticity with large number of nodes Fully decentralized versus central control architectures Robust and efficient protocols for unstructured overlay networks (epidemic-based dissemination, aggregation, slicing) Peer-to-Peer systems, protocols, and applications Large-scale infrastructure technologies (locking, group membership services) Cloud computing Grid Computing Smart Grids Security and privacy for planetary-scale distributed systems.