The amount of data and services supported by Information Systems (ISs) has increased exponentially during the last few years. To improve their efficiency and reduce costs, modern organizations have been shifting their services, with part of their ISs, to the Cloud. More recent developments have shown an inversion towards decentralization and distribution of applications and services in the huge pool of devices and computing facilities available nearer to the customers. This shift is due to the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is further increasing the amount of data to be stored and computed. The next generation of information systems will further push these trends to create seamless and pervasive systems. Fog computing, in particular, is the last frontier for ISs, where data and services can be moved in the continuum of resources between the cloud and the edge. In this context, the management of ISs can exploit the diversification of the resources available, but at the same time it is getting more and more complex and challenging. The management of next generation ISs should, therefore, take into consideration the heterogeneity of the Cloud/Fog infrastructure. Such complex architecture is posing new challenges in the management of modern applications, especially in reference to enhancement of quality of service, security, privacy, and energy efficiency. In particular, security and privacy need to be considered for the amount of sensitive data possibly produced, while energy efficiency is central, due to the high amount of computational nodes involved. Universally accepted solutions for next generation ISs are yet to be found.
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