Solution

Distributed parallel computing involves splitting a computational task into smaller tasks and processing them simultaneously across multiple machines. Cloud computing provides an ideal platform for distributed parallel computing, as cloud providers can scale resources dynamically, offering virtually limitless compute power. This eliminates the need for specialized hardware and allows workloads to be distributed across multiple virtual machines in the cloud, making it highly scalable and flexible. Option A (Cloud only supports distributed, not parallel): This is incorrect. Cloud computing supports both distributed and parallel computing models. Option C (Cloud cannot scale for distributed systems): This is incorrect. Cloud computing is designed for scalability and can handle both parallel and distributed computing workloads. Option D (Distributed parallel computing is a subset of cloud): This is incorrect. Distributed parallel computing is a technique that can be employed using cloud computing resources but is not a subset of cloud computing itself. Option E (Cloud does not support distributed systems): This is incorrect. Cloud computing is inherently designed to support distributed systems, making it an ideal environment for parallel and distributed computing.