Cloud applications are extremely complicated yet sophisticated. Multiple instances of cloud applications can run in a cloud environment. Similarly, different components of an application can run on clouds. The tasks might be working together in parallel to perform the individual parts of a complex calculation.

The task instances might run separately for much of the time, but it might also be necessary to coordinate the actions of each instance to ensure that they don't create any sort of conflict, cause contention for shared resources, or accidentally interfere with the work that other task instances are performing. So, there is a need for adept coordinator software; each action has to be coordinated.

A single task instance should be elected to act as the leader, and this instance should coordinate the actions of the other subordinate task instances. If all of the task instances are running the same code, then one instance can act as the leader. However, the election of the leader has to be done smartly. There has to be a robust mechanism in place for leader selection. This selection method has to cope with the events, such as network outages or process failures. In many solutions, the subordinate task instances monitor the leader through some type of heartbeat method, or by polling. If the designated leader terminates unexpectedly, or a network failure makes the leader unavailable to the subordinate task instances, it is necessary for them to elect a new leader.