subject: Cloud Security And Its Solutions [print this page] Cloud Security popularly known as cloud computing security covers both aspects of computing security and network security. Cloud security has become an important matter to address; considering its growth and prospect. Cloud Testing provides affordable, on demand services.
It can be better said that, cloud commuting is not just a technological change but it is a social change. We are now considering that clouds have touched our daily life. The smart phones that we use, backs up users data on the cloud and it is being synchronized every moment. Internet browsers have already started backing up data on clouds and provide localized printing solution via clouds. We have also seen that various operating system (OS) provider companies have already started developing their OS fully customized to use the cloud. Many organizations have started providing cloud SQL services which help in creating relational databases.
Although cloud computing has many advantages, cloud security is still a big challenge which is restricting and delaying the cloud adoption by its customers. There are many cloud security concerns that need to be addressed.
One of the major issues is protection of client data and applications it uses on the cloud. The provider must ensure that their cloud infrastructure is securely protecting their client data and applications. Data is more vulnerable to be hacked when it is being processed. Resource allocation can be used to provide enhanced security for data. Multi-tenancy technology used by clouds enables sharing of resources for large pool of clients. There are chances that data may be leaked accidentally because of such multi-tenancy. Other aspect is, if a user deletes his data, it should be deleted from all the back-up data bases provided by clouds.
Since clouds configure and use virtual machines, there might be default or miss-configured virtual machines, which may give permission to access the protected data and application. There are chances that authenticated user may hack or destroy data. So it is important to verify that only relevant access, at the right levels is granted to users.
It is also important to ensure that cloud service provider has administrative access to all the data and applications. Also, there are chances that they modify data for their use legally or illegally.
The customer physically does not see these clouds centers, so there are chances that cloud may not be as secure as claimed by the cloud service providers. SLAs should clearly define how cloud security and other compliances are provided.
Considering these scenarios, customers may choose to use independent third party cloud security service providers, which provide multiple industry standard upgraded security solutions
The cloud logs must be used securely for auditing and rediscovery as it can be used by hackers to fetch sensitive data.
Many governments have enacted acts to regulate data security which can be enhanced to cover and regulate the data, information on the clouds. Service provider must plan business continuity and ensure its service for any unforeseen event such as natural disasters etc.
Cloud Testing is in great demand but as we all know, every coin is two sided; securing the cloud has its own implications. It drastically increases the cost of cloud services, however with continued innovations we can hope that in near future cloud will provide more secure, affordable, and on demand service to the customer.
