Cloud computing is now a well-known subject. Digital media can also be considered a very clearly defined term. But how is digital media handled using cloud computing technology? This book introduces some digital media processing practices in a cloud computing environment.

This edited book contains 15 chapters, each written by different authors. Therefore, I am afraid readers cannot learn a systematic approach for handling digital media via the cloud from this book. An ideal content sequence would be, for example, how digital media is represented in the cloud, how it is stored, how it is processed, and finally how it is displayed or utilized.

The book is not categorized into parts. Each chapter is independent and can be read as such. It would have been nicer if the authors could have grouped the chapters into three parts, for example, fundamentals, techniques, and applications, as the title of the book suggests.

The contents include multimedia cloud computing, multimedia information retrieval, database handling (query processing and optimization) in the cloud, healthcare applications, and e-learning applications in the cloud. The writing styles are mostly consistent, except for in chapters 6 and 8 where the reference lists are not numbered like the other chapters.

Overall, it is a well-edited book. However, the contents could have been presented in more of a survey style than a research-oriented one, to be more useful. Both cloud computing and digital media are important, hot, and useful topics. I was looking for a comprehensive yet fundamental textbook, but unfortunately did not find that here.