Social cloud computing, also peer-to-peer social cloud computing, is an area of computer science that generalizes cloud computing to include the sharing, bartering and renting of computing resources across peers whose owners and operators are verified through a social network or reputation system. It expands cloud computing past the confines of formal commercial data centers operated by cloud providers to include anyone interested in participating within the cloud services sharing economy. This in turn leads to more options, greater economies of scale, while bearing additional advantages for hosting data and computing services closer to the edge where they may be needed most.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing and networking to enable decentralized cloud computing has been an area of research for sometime. Social cloud computing intersects peer-to-peer cloud computing with social computing to verify peer and peer owner reputation thus providing security and quality of service assurances to users. On demand computing environments may be constructed and altered statically or dynamically across peers on the Internet based on their available resources and verified reputation to provide such assurances.