Cloud Database Implementation and Security Issues

This paper discusses modern database technologies for implementing a web database on a cloud computing platform. It also covers the security issues related to DBaaS and some security measurements to maintain the database application. The benefits of DBaaS and the primary consumers of the technology are also discussed.

Title Page

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Cloud Database Implementation......................................................................................................3
Security Issues.................................................................................................................................4
Security Measurements....................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
The aim of the paper is to present information about some modern database technologies that
will help to implement a web database on an instance of a cloud computing platform. However,
the discussion has been extended to cover the security issues related to the database technology,
DBaaS or Database as a Service and some of the security measurements to maintain the database
application and to avoid any unexpected intrusion.
Cloud Database Implementation
DBaaS or Database as a Service is one of the rapidly growing database technologies being
delivered over the cloud computing platform. It is a component of the PaaS or Platform as a
Service cloud service delivery model. It provides improvements on the performance,
productivity, data security and standardization of the database (Quintero, Martins, Moya, &
Folco, 2018).
DBaaS software allows a user to manage, provision, configure, consume, and operate various
database software having a common set of primitives or abstractions. It does not need the users
to know about the exact implementation details of the primitives for any specific database
solution. For example, a DBaaS user want to provision a MySQL database to manage, operate
and configure. Then the user can perform the tasks with the help of the same interface that can be
used with Oracle and other databases. Users can request a cluster of the database anytime and by
any amount of storage. It does not require the user to know about the exact storage amount
needed to perform a task (Cuppett, 2016).

Very often, DBaaS is considered to be only a component of the PaaS. But it adheres to the
principle of the cloud computing architecture and can be directly linked to the underlying IaaS or
Infrastructure as a Service platform. On the PaaS, the database or the databases are present. The
underlying layer provides all require functions and physical implementation of the logical
schema.
There are two primary consumers of the DBaaS technologies. They are the IT organizations that
operate on cloud and the DBAs are there who work on these. And many developers who uses
cloud resources for application developments.
DBaaS enables the consumers like end users and developers to select different variations of
database technologies to work on the cloud platform. For example, a user can work on the
MySQL database and Oracle database from the same platform. It will hide the internal
implementation and the complexity details. The user just need to work on the platform for the
manipulation on the database. It can support the relational and non-relational databases used by
the organizations and can provide configurations for the same. In general, an instance of DBaaS
allows a user to select from the available options for the title of the database and other
configuration details. A user just needs a few clicks to create the database and to have the
provision for it. It allows simple processes to add database schemas, add users, and grant
permission to the users and so on (Antani, 2013).
There are many benefits of DBaaS, those are (Antonopoulos & Gillam, 2017; Bento, 2012),
 It makes the development process more agile
 It improves the productivity of the DBA.

 It makes the applications more reliable, boosts up the performance of the applications
and enhances the security of the applications.
Security Issues
Even though there are benefits, there are various issues related to DBaaS. As this is a cloud
based solution and data is always a sensitive asset to organisations, so the security issues are
always there. Some of the important information security issues related to the DBaaS platform
and the implementation of web databases are given below.
 There are chances that another tenant infects a database with virus or initiates an instance
of unauthorised access to data. As cloud servers are mostly multi-tenant. So, this is a
serious issue.
 There are chances of DDoS attacks, performance attacks and so on.
 It won’t be possible to track down the original physical database instance where the data
is actually stored. So, migration may be painful as the user won’t have any information
whether all instance of data have been deleted from the previous vendor’s infrastructure
or not (Zhu, Hill, & Trovati, 2016).
 Implementation of security is the responsibility of the vendor. Hence, there may be
information security loopholes.
Security Measurements
Some of the security mechanisms are listed below.
 It needs to select a vendor very cautiously. And must keep in mind about the vendor lock
in problem.
 The SLA must be well-defined with the details of the roles and responsibilities.

 The organisation must enforce some encryption rules to protect sensitive data. Even if
data is not protected by the vendor, it will help to ensure the protection from unauthorised
access (Jamsa, 2012).

References
Antani, V. (2013). Managing IaaS and DBaaS Clouds with Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud
Control 12c: Packt Publishing.
Antonopoulos, N., & Gillam, L. (2017). Cloud Computing: Principles, Systems and
Applications: Springer International Publishing.
Bento, A. (2012). Cloud Computing Service and Deployment Models: Layers and Management:
Layers and Management: Business Science Reference.
Cuppett, M. S. (2016). DevOps, DBAs, and DBaaS: Managing Data Platforms to Support
Continuous Integration: Apress.
Jamsa, K. (2012). Cloud Computing: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Quintero, D., Martins, F., Moya, E. L. C., & Folco, R. C. S. (2018). IBM Open Platform for
DBaaS on IBM Power Systems: IBM Redbooks.
Zhu, S. Y., Hill, R., & Trovati, M. (2016). Guide to Security Assurance for Cloud Computing:
Springer International Publishing.