To cope with the growing demand for wireless data and to extend service coverage, future 5G networks will increasingly rely on the use of low powered nodes to support massive connectivity in diverse set of applications and services [1]. To this end, virtualized and mass-scale cloud architectures are proposed as promising technologies for 5G in which all the nodes are connected via a backhaul network and managed centrally by such cloud centers. The significant computing power made available by the cloud technologies has enabled the implementation of sophisticated signal processing algorithms, especially by way of parallel processing, for both interference management and network provision. The latter two are among the major signal processing tasks for 5G due to increased level of frequency sharing, node density, interference and network congestion. This article outlines several theoretical and practical aspects of joint interference management and network provisioning for future 5G networks. A cross-layer optimization framework is proposed for joint user admission, user-base station association, power control, user grouping, transceiver design as well as routing and flow control. We show that many of these cross-layer tasks can be treated in a unified way and implemented in a parallel manner using an efficient algorithmic framework called WMMSE (Weighted MMSE). Some recent developments in this area are highlighted and future research directions are identified.