Cloud manufacturing was incepted a decade ago. Researchers have since been working on this topic to find more feasible, cost-effective, and less complex ways to implement cloud manufacturing platforms. This literature review analyzes the concept, characteristics of cloud manufacturing, and impediments to its quick adoption. In recent years, research and practical developments have been analyzed in areas pertaining to scheduling, service composition, Quality of Service (QoS), platform architecture, resource virtualization, and data security. This article analyses each of these areas, the research in recent years in those sectors, and the existing prototype service initiatives for cloud manufacturing. © 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)