Cloud Computing: Information Security and Challenges Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of cloud computing, detailing its fundamental concepts, characteristics, and various applications. It explores the benefits of cloud technology, such as cost reduction, scalability, speed, and improved performance. The report also delves into real-world applications, including online file storage, e-commerce, big data processing, disaster recovery, and data backups. A significant portion is dedicated to the challenges associated with cloud computing, particularly data protection, security, privacy, and regulatory compliance. The literature review synthesizes existing research, highlighting the importance of security and the various threats faced by cloud infrastructure. The report concludes by emphasizing the transformative impact of cloud computing on businesses, while acknowledging the need to address its inherent security and privacy concerns. It offers valuable insights into the future of cloud technology, emphasizing its potential for innovation and efficiency.

Running Head: Cloud Computing
Information Security

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1
Overview of Cloud computing..............................................................................................................1
Characteristics of using Cloud Computing........................................................................................2
Applications..........................................................................................................................................2
Challenges.............................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review..................................................................................................................................4
Summary...............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Cloud computing is a computing paradigm which allow users to store the information
and access the data anytime. It is connections of large pool of systems that are connected
together to from private or public clouds to dynamically store the files. Cloud computing is a
technology which has reduced the cost of storage, computation cost as well an application
hosting cost. In this repot a brief discussion is done about cloud computing. The significance
of cloud computing has helped business in variety of ways (Microsoft, 2016). Cloud
computing serve various services at lower cost, better performance, high reliability, globally
scalable and better productivity. The increasing use of cloud computing has led to various
issues and challenges like security, privacy, data protection and disaster recovery. It has been
used for file storage, e-commerce business as well as providing backups. Then literature
review has been done regarding the issues caused by cloud computing and its concerns.
Cloud providers today provide storage and maintenance of large data volumes in reality.
Sudden workload on the network is also managed effectively and in an efficient manner as
the cloud can scale dynamically.
Overview of Cloud computing
Cloud computing has spread the footprints in various regions and is widely scalable in
today’s era. Cloud computing provide amendments services by leveraging the capability to
abstract the services and also allow user to pay only for what they use. Cloud computing is a
technology that is used for enabling the network access by sharing the resources and offering
a convenient way to users for accessing their information. Cloud computing allows the users
to use multiple resources by using pooled resources (Botta, Donato, Persico & Pescapé,
2016). Users may be at different physical location but cloud allows them to use by resources
dynamic as it is both service provider and service manager. It also helps in making decision
faster by flexible price and also provides elastic scaling by advanced virtualization. Cloud
computing has been used by business as well as organizations because it all remote clients to
access the information without investing on buying the resources. It allows user to store the
data packets, software or servers over the internet (Ibm, 2016). Users need to pay according
to their use this is similar to how an individual pays the electricity bill. As they do not pay the
cost of electricity plant implementation they just need to pay regarding the amount of
electricity they have used. Everyone is using the services of cloud knowingly or

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unknowingly. Cloud computing has made the work easy by proving online services from
sending mails to listening to music.
Characteristics of using Cloud Computing
 Cost- Cloud computing reduces the cost of capital as it eliminates the need to buying
hardware and software for running certain applications. It also improves the speed
which in turn enhances the performance (Hossain & Ahmed, 2015). It helps the users
to run to use the resources without setting up on their location.
 Scalability- Cloud computing offers the way to expand the services globally. The
services are accessible from any location on the globe and this is possible due to cloud
computing. It offers storage, bandwidth as well as power whenever and wherever it
needed (Harris, 2016).
 Speed- Cloud computing improves the speed of work as it provides the resources on
demand. It improves the flexibility of work by completely the task within a click.
 Reliability- Cloud computing is a reliable technology as it makes data backups at
regular time interval and also makes sure business continuity plans are designed o
recovery from any disastrous situation (Harris, 2016). It also data to be fetched from
multiple sites by avoiding the chance of redundancy.
 Performance- It improves the performance as data is stored on world wide networks
and that is secure. It provides result with better performance as regular updates of
software’s are done for generating fast and efficient hardware. It also offers better
economic scale and reduces the latency of network.
 Productivity- Cloud computing as removed the issues of installing the software’s on
personal computers or implementing the hardware. These processes are time
consuming and this could be avoided by using on-site datacenters (Hossain & Dillon,
2010). This reduces the time required to install the software’s and hardware’s which
in turn enhances the productivity.
Applications and technologies related to cloud computing
There are various applications and technologies which make use of cloud computing.
- Online file storage- Cloud has been stored for storing various files over the network
which could be readable from anywhere (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2016). This offers
an easy interface for downloading uploading files over the site.

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- E-commerce software- Cloud based application allows users to perform online
business as responds faster and grab the market opportunities (Rittinghouse &
Ransome, 2016). It does not require huge investment of resources and helps in getting
new opportunities.
- Big data - It provides benefits to business by extracting the information and values.
- Disaster Recovery- This is another benefit that is achieved using cloud. Disaster
recovery through cloud is a cost effective approach and also provide faster recovery.
- Backups-Before discover of cloud computing backing up of data was a time
consuming and difficult job. Cloud computing provides backup facility by
maintaining a set of information at different locations (Rittinghouse & Ransome,
2016). So that if one server fails, data could be quickly retrieved from other server.
Some real time application of cloud computing is communication, collaboration and
storage.
Communication of business is done through cloud as it provides faster and reliable way to
store important. Cloud computing is useful as it aloe client to make use of online storage
facility to access the data from any location globally (González-Martínez, Bote-Lorenzo,
Gómez-Sánchez & Cano-Parra, 2015). Companies are also using cloud-based services
like SaaS, IaaS and PaaS to enable access to enterprise information instantly from any
location.
Challenges
There are various challenges faced by cloud computing, discussing some of them:
 Protection of data- It is challenging to maintain the security of data packets stored
over cloud as all the enterprises relies on cloud for keeping their information securely
and secretly (Ali, Khan & Vasilakos, 2015). There is no idea about where the location
is stored to the end users thus it is responsibility of cloud to protect the data by
maintaining its confidentiality and availability.
 Managing Capabilities- There are various cloud available and many providers to
take care of cloud services still it is difficult to manage its infancy.
 Recovery of data- There are possibilities if any bug hit the cloud, data loss occurs. It
is important to recover the data as all the enterprises rely for the data on the cloud. It

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data replication occurs, cloud fails or disasters hits the system. In these situations it is
difficult for cloud providers to recover the data.
 Privacy- The main challenge of cloud computing is privacy of data packets. There are
chances when data packets get accessed by unauthorized users (Ali, Khan &
Vasilakos, 2015). Hackers try to access the data packets by keeping track on the
networking channels.
 Regulatory and Compliance Restrictions- There are several departments that do not
allow their sensitive information to get shared on cloud as there are chances of data
leakage. Setting up a data center that manages all the clouds regulations is not feasible
and this is very difficult for cloud providers to manage the infrastructure.
 Confidentiality- Sometimes unauthorized user access the data and discloses the
private data which in turn violates the confidentiality of network (Ali, Khan &
Vasilakos, 2015). Attackers may also modify the data without the prior notice which
may cause huge loss to business.
 Architecture- It is difficult to maintain the infrastructure and architecture of cloud
computing. Proper control should be done to maintain the security and privacy of the
cloud.
 Data segregation- It is difficult to maintain the data as it is scattered over large
network.
Literature Review
According to (Bera, Misra & Rodrigues, 2015) ,cloud computing had changed the way the
resources have been utilized. It has provided the flexibility to access the information from
anywhere. It has reduced the manual work as everything is managed remotely over the
network. Cloud computing have numerous possibilities and challenges, one of the major issue
faced in cloud computing is security (Singh & Chana, 2016). It is considered as a critical
barrier in the path of success. Transparency of data packets location has both advantages and
threats associated to it. It provides a chance for attackers to identify where the information is
stored which in turn increases the trust issue (Rao & Selvamani, 2015). The confidentiality of
data packets is lost due to attacks. Denial off service is another issue that is faced by cloud
infrastructure.
In the view of (Fehling, Leymann, Retter, Schupeck & Arbitter, 2014), use of cloud
computing is increasing day by day which in turn also leads to issues to increase. Issues

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associated with cloud computing is due to specific type of operating system used by end
users. It imposes various security threats as it is difficult to manage. Other risks associated
with cloud computing is some licensing issues, unavailability of services or business
discontinuity. Thus these factors need to be taken care to avoid the chances of security
leakage.
It was stated by (Dastjerdi & Buyya, 2016), the major issue faced by business due to cloud
computing is service level agreement. As the users using the service of cloud do not have
complete control over all the resources. Thus it is necessary that resources remain available
always and cloud should provide guarantee that services would be delivered to the end users
instantly. Additionally it is also difficult for resource managers as they need to keep the
information updated. If security is provided to cloud, there are other concerns that hit the
network such as bandwidth (Sadiku, Musa & Momoh, 2014). Bandwidth is a problem as
cloud requires more bandwidth due to the heavy workload on the cloud.
According to (Puthal, Sahoo, Mishra & Swain, 2015), while using cloud services there are
various other issues that arise. Cloud is difficult to handle when dozens of developers what to
access the resources over the cloud. Other that when high transaction processes occur over
the cloud than they need to be taken back to the data centers which is a time consuming
process (Díaz, Martín & Rubio, 2016). These problems arise because of access usage of
network. Cloud is not able to work in some cases due to poor traffic management which leads
to bottleneck condition.
Summary
It can be summarized from this article that cloud computing is very important
technology and is widely accepted in every sector. It allows business to run every kind of
resources and users do not need to pay for all the resources. This technology is more
beneficial as it is scalable over large network and is more secure and reliable. It is flexible
enough as it allows users to customize according to their needs.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that cloud computing is a booming technology in today’s market.
It allows user to access the resources from front end machines and there is no need of
installing the software’s for using them. Cloud computing offers various services like PaaS,

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IaaS and SaaS. There are various issues and benefits associated with cloud computing. Some
issues are due to security, privacy, data related issues or bandwidth issue. Cloud computing
has offered opportunities to business as well as attackers simultaneously. Cloud computing is
a better way to run a business as it allows to share the resources instead of buying them. It
even decreases the investment cost and improves the flexibility and feasibility of business.
Cloud computing have eliminated the need of personal storage of business, technical team to
look after the data and a maintenance team to update the software’s. These tasks have been
automatically completed by using cloud computing.

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References
Ali, M., Khan, S. U., & Vasilakos, A. V. (2015). Security in cloud computing: Opportunities
and challenges. Information sciences, 305, 357-383.
Bera, S., Misra, S., & Rodrigues, J. J. (2015). Cloud computing applications for smart grid: A
survey. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 26(5), 1477-1494.
Botta, A., De Donato, W., Persico, V., & Pescapé, A. (2016). Integration of cloud computing
and internet of things: a survey. Future Generation Computer Systems, 56, 684-700.
Dastjerdi, A. V., & Buyya, R. (2016). Fog computing: Helping the Internet of Things realize
its potential. Computer, 49(8), 112-116.
Díaz, M., Martín, C., & Rubio, B. (2016). State-of-the-art, challenges, and open issues in the
integration of Internet of things and cloud computing. Journal of Network and
Computer Applications, 67, 99-117.
Fehling, C., Leymann, F., Retter, R., Schupeck, W., & Arbitter, P. (2014). Cloud computing
patterns: fundamentals to design, build, and manage cloud applications. Springer
Science & Business Media.
González-Martínez, J. A., Bote-Lorenzo, M. L., Gómez-Sánchez, E., & Cano-Parra, R.
(2015). Cloud computing and education: A state-of-the-art survey. Computers &
Education, 80, 132-151.
Harris. T. (2016). CLOUD COMPUTING – An Overview. Retrieved from
https://www.thbs.com/downloads/Cloud-Computing-Overview.pdf.
Hossain. M. & Ahmed. M. (2015). CLOUD COMPUTING AND SECURITY ISSUES IN THE
CLOUD. Retrieved from http://airccse.org/journal/nsa/6114nsa03.pdf.
Hossain. M. & Dillon. T. (2010). Cloud Computing: Issues and Challenges. Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3d2f/ca1fe368696d2a433786d927a710ab2812a4.pdf.
Ibm. (2016). Top 7 most common uses of cloud computing. Retrieved from
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud-computing/2014/02/06/top-7-most-common-uses-
of-cloud-computing/.

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Microsoft. A. (2016). What is cloud computing. Retrieved from
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/overview/what-is-cloud-computing/.
Puthal, D., Sahoo, B. P. S., Mishra, S., & Swain, S. (2015, January). Cloud computing
features, issues, and challenges: a big picture. In Computational Intelligence and
Networks (CINE), 2015 International Conference on (pp. 116-123). IEEE.
Rao, R. V., & Selvamani, K. (2015). Data security challenges and its solutions in cloud
computing. Procedia Computer Science, 48, 204-209.
Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2016). Cloud computing: implementation,
management, and security. CRC press.
Sadiku, M. N., Musa, S. M., & Momoh, O. D. (2014). Cloud computing: opportunities and
challenges. IEEE potentials, 33(1), 34-36.
Singh, S., & Chana, I. (2016). A survey on resource scheduling in cloud computing: Issues
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