COMP609 - Network Systems and Administration - Cloud Computing
Added on - 04 Mar 2020
COMP609- Cloud migration is the process of movingdigital business operations into the cloud. Cloud migration has become common and widely adopted in businesses and for personal use in IT. Benefits of Cloud Migration. Cloud migration offers flexibility for users to either scale up or down on the IT infrastructure based on their needs. Cloud Computing Categorie.SECURITY ARCHITECTURE IN CLOUD COMPUTING.Cloud Computing Deployment Models.Data Security, Integrity, Privacy, and Availability.Data Sharing.
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Migration to the Cloud – Security ConcernsAuthors Name/sInstitutionStateContact Info (Email)Authors Name/sInstitutionStateContact Info (Email)Abstract—Cloud delivered approach in the IT field has become asignificant proposition in the present day enterprises. Cloudcomputing allows users to shift their information and criticalapplications to a cloud environment to cut the cost of ownership,improve availability, and achieve better performance. However,the shift from an on-site set up to cloud-based computingenvironment is also faced with challenges. The main issue incloud strategies involves addressing security issues. This paperlooks at some of the security concerns that face businesses andindividual users planning to adopt cloud computing. The securityconcerns addressed in this paper are concerned with access toapplications, servers and platforms, data sharing, networksecurity, data security, integrity, privacy, and availability, andsecurity policy compliance.Keywords-Cloud; Cloud Migration, Security Issues, SecurityPolicy Compliance, Data Security, Data Privacy, Network SecuritySaaS, PaaS, IaaSI.INTRODUCTIONThe cloud migration has become common and widelyadopted in businesses and for personal use in IT. Migrating tothis solution involves outsourcing computing needs to otherservice providers and accessing the resources via the Internet[1]. In other words, cloud computing migration involvesmoving information and computing resources from on-siteservers, desktops, and laptops to large off-site data centers [2].Cloud computing solutions makes it possible for clients toconnect to remote locations and access computinginfrastructure from any location at any time [3]. The lure ofreduced cost for highly available cloud services are compellingarguments for enterprises to welcome the move. As a result,government agencies and private organizations are welcomingthe benefits of migrating to the cloud [4]. However, recentattacks within various cloud computing solutions have broughtlight to security concerns in cloud-based networks, proprietaryinformation, and applications [5]. In effect, users planning toshift their IT infrastructure to the cloud must understand thesecurity concerns deployed by the providers and the potentialloopholes in the cloud. Security, thus, remains a keyconsideration for users considering adopting the technology asa feasible solution to IT challenges such as cost, availability,and performance [6]. Different groups share this opinion. Theyinclude government agencies, business leaders, and researchersin the academic field [7,8,9].Since cloud computing benefits are offering greatincentives for different firms and users to subscribe andimplement the solution, it is necessary to evaluate the trends incloud computing technology. This article identifies andclassifies the common cloud solutions security concerns andavailable solutions adopted by both service providers andclients.A.Cloud MigrationToday, many businesses and individual customers aretransferring critical information and software products to theremote host because of challenges faced in adopting newstandards and technology solutions. For instance, significantresources are needed to change the existing applications forthem to be compatible with newer solutions and devices.Further, it is expensive for an organization to maintain in-houseIT infrastructure and workforce for maintaining the systems[2]. Users need to be connected to the World Wide Web tocommunicate with cloud servers and to get services from avendor. Apparently, traditional computing environmentrequired software applications to be installed in desktop orportable PCs. On the other hand, cloud migration involvesmoving data, business elements, and other IT solutions formthe on-site environment to the cloud or from one cloudplatform to another [8,10, 11].B.Benefits of Cloud MigrationCloud migration offers flexibility for users to either scaleup or down on the IT infrastructure based on their needs. Assuch, an organization is not bothered about its future growth inIT needs since cloud resources and services are set up with theability to expand as the company needs increase [10,11].Additionally, cloud migration reduces the operating and startupcosts since users are not required to purchase physicalhardware for the services. Instead, an enterprise can acquireand pay for the resource needed. Further, there are nomaintenance and upgrading costs since the expenses aretransferred to the service provider who owns the computingresources [12]. Cloud migration offers a firm the ability tostore more information, applications, and business elements inthe large data centers. Moreover, clients can ask for extrastorage from the service provider. In other service plans, suchas accessing software from a vendor, organizational employeesshould not worry that the application is not up to date since thattask has been transferred to a service provider. Cloudcomputing also increases flexibility since applications can bedeployed and tested easily [13]. The solution allows employeesthe flexibility to access the company applications and filesfrom any location, and at any time using the Internet [14].
II.CLOUDCOMPUTINGBASICSA.Cloud Computing CategoriesVarious studies highlight three main categories of cloudcomputing. They include services offered for software (SaaS)[15,16], infrastructure (IaaS) [17,18,19], and online platforms(PaaS) [19, ]. Software as a Service involves offering asoftware application by a vendor over the Internet. Instead ofusers purchasing, developing, installing, and maintaining anapplication, SaaS provider develops one and takes theresponsibility for implementing and supporting the ITinfrastructure required for the application to run on the cloud[16]. Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Cisco WebEx, WorkdayGoToMeeting, and Concur.On the other hand, Infrastructure as a Service involvessharing hardware resources through virtualization to executeservices. IaaS improves the availability and accessibility ofnetwork, storage, and servers by clients. IaaS vendors offerinfrastructure services on demand by offering their clients withapplication programming interface (API) needed for clients toconnect to routers and hosts [18]. IaaS eliminates the need forusers to manage underlying hardware since it is owned by thecloud service vendor [17]. Customers pay based on per-usebasis and according to their demands. Examples of IaaSinclude Amazon Web Services (AWS), Micrisft Azure, andCisco Metapod.Lastly, PaaS involves accessing a solution stack thateliminates the need of a user to download and install asoftware. PaaS offers services that allow integration formanaging and tasting other applications. Instead of managinginfrastructure such as storage, operating system and servers,PaaS subscribers controls only their deployed software andconfigurations [19]. PaaS examples include Heroku andForce.com.B.Cloud Computing Deployment ModelsOther than these cloud computing categories, thetechnology is deployed in a set of deployment models. Theyinclude public, private, community and hybrid implementationstrategies [21]. Public cloud is managed by a service providerand adopted by many users. More than one company share theservices provided by a public cloud provider. As the namesuggests, private cloud is leased or fully owned and controlledby an enterprise or a vendor. The difference between a publicand a private setup is that the latter is owned or leased by anindividual user and has a restricted network [21]. Communitymodel involves providing infrastructure for sharing by severalcompanies. It is managed by users of a service provider.Related businesses, such as banks or educational institutions,agree to share cloud computing services under a communitymodel. Finally, a hybrid model involves the combination oftwo or more models. Information sharing between the modelsis abstracted [21].III.SECURITYARCHITECTUREINCLOUDCOMPUTINGCloud computing security is a major concern since devicesand IT infrastructure used to offer the services are not ownedby users. Users lack knowledge and control of the IT resourcesor their applications and data stored by a cloud serviceprovider. Today, users are critical on privacy of theirinformation assets. They need assurance from the serviceprovider that their data will be secure and private before theypurchase a cloud-based service. Unfortunately, despite theeffort made by vendors to secure clients’ data and applications,hackers always find ways to access and manipulate thisinformation.The diagram below shows the security architecture for acloud computing solution. This paper follows this set up toassess some of the common security concerns in the field.Authentication, client browsersecurityThe clientInformation Sharing securityThe vendorVirtual machines safetyVirtualization phaseData storage, servers, network andother computing resources securityData centerFigure 1: Cloud Computing Security ArchitectureFrom the figure shown above, the service provider layer isresponsible for metering, load balancing, resource reservation,policy management, and resource provisioning [22] the serviceprovider layer is responsible for metering, load balancing,resource reservation, policy management, and resourceprovisioning. The layer has various security concerns arisingfrom various elements such as privacy, infrastructure, identity,people, and compliance. The virtualization phase is concernedwith issues such as separation between customers, VM Escape,Sprawl, legal and regulatory issues. The data center isconcerned with access and identity control, and physicalsecurity.Various local and international bodies and institutions havebeen focused on handling cloud architectures adoption,benefits, security issues, and mitigation strategies [23,24,25].For instance, the Cloud Security Alliance promotes theadoption of effective strategies for ensuring security assurancein this field of technology. Additionally, the Open SecurityArchitecture (OSA) has developed the OSA pattern to illustratekey cloud functions and controls [23]. NIST has also createdinitiatives that promote best practices in cloud computingarchitecture [23,25].IV.KEYSECURITYCONCERNSINCLOUDMIGRATIONAs noted earlier, cloud computing architecture is acombination of various components such as infrastructure,applications, and platform hosted in the Internet. Eachcomponent offers different services to users and business.Despite the many benefits of such solutions, there are severalsecurity concerns in cloud migration that involves theintegration of several IT components and processes such as
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In summary of this cloud computing continues to provide several benefits to individual users and companies today. The technology offers a low-cost computing environmentthat is scalable, highly accessible, and available. However, as the benefits of the technology flow, the adoption process is still faced with issues such as potential security concerns. Notably, cloud migration involves transferring sensitive information and application to the cloud. This issue requires companies and users to be sure about the privacy and security of their information assets.