Cloud computing security or simply referred to as cloud security is  set of procedures, technologies, and controls employed to safeguard data, applications, and other measures to protect the cloud computing infrastructure  as the many advantages of cloud computing such as no hardware investment, fast deployment also come with risks .

As many companies consider jumping on the cloud computing wagon and are so enthusiastic about it, they need  to take a look at the possibility of a failure in the cloud arising of a failed internet connection which it relies on and other important things such as what measures to take in case the Internet does not work, what emergency measures and backup system that are in place and so forth.

Before deciding to leverage its advantages a would-be user needs to know the answer to several basic questions such as who is behind the cloud computing infrastructure? Who manages it? Who is responsible for in case there are liability issues?, what are the rules of the game in the cloud which involves multi-party users? How are  the cloud database and critical data managed ?

Issues related to cloud computing security can generally be divided into two categories: cloud computing security issues faced by cloud providers (companies that provides  software, platform and infrastructure as a service via the cloud) and security issues faced by their customers. The provider needs to make sure that their infrastructure remains safe and secure and also their customers data and applications are protected while the customer need to ensure that the cloud providers have taken the appropriate security procedures to safeguard their data.

Specifically before a company makes use of  the cloud services they  needs  to ask the cloud service provider the following question:

  • How is  their data protected?
  • How the cloud  service providers deal with potential security vulnerabilities?
  • How do they deal with and fend off external attacks?

Cloud computing security involves complex set of  policies, before hop on the cloud wagon  a would-be customer needs to be sure that the cloud providers not only enforce the essential security measures in place  but also have the hindsight to cope with any possible security threats. There are at least four things to note concerning cloud computing security  notably confidentiality, infrastructure reliability, cloud service company  integrity and  service availability.

Cloud Computing Security Critical Aspects

An  expert at Gartner, an IT research firm, advises clients to check the cloud vendor about the bellow cloud computing security-related issues before they decide if the vendor fits into their needs:

Cloud Computing Security Log Management

The cloud service vendor must make sure only authorize persons have a full control of the data stored in the cloud. The vendor must not  in anyway grant administrator access to unauthorized personnel who can access the sensitive company information remotely. The customers need to know who the administrators are and who in charge of the data control.

Data Recovery and Investigation

Customers need to make sure vendor will provide data recovery in case the main cloud servers crash. The data recovery options  should be set out clearly in the service agreement between customers and the cloud vendor. Data recovery is part of the industry standards guaranteeing data backups and redundancy measures to avoid data loss in the event of a server crash.

 

Cloud Computing Security : Essential Measures To Secure Your Cloud Data

Image Credit : Cisco

 

The cloud computing vendor is responsible for investigating such an incident to make sure it will not occur again in the future. Customers need to be guaranteed that their cloud providers are reliable and can cope with emergencies like virus or hacker attacks.

Data Segregation

This element is one of the standard cloud computing security measures employed by most cloud vendors. As cloud vendors serve not just one but several customers at the same time, customers need to ask the vendor how they protect against other customers from gaining access to their applications, platform, files stored in the cloud server. In channel management, for instance, the partners needs to have individual access based on their channel partner profile.

Physical Location of Cloud Server

It’s highly likely hat the majority of web users do not have any idea where their data are actually stored physically. In many cases, redundant servers are placed in another location to secure the archive. Cloud customers need to be  aware  of the physical location of the servers  to make sure  that there are applicable laws to secure the data of the cloud servers. Cloud computing security does not necessarily encompasses the above aspects as the technology behind it keeps evolving.

References :

  1. Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing”. Cloud Security Alliance. 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-04
  2. Wikipedia : Cloud computing Security
  3. EzineArticles : The Risk of Cloud Computing

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