Database Security in Cloud Computing: A Comprehensive Guide

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Database Security and Computer
Programming CSECO3
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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
A brief introduction to Databases..............................................................................................4
Brief description of cloud services.............................................................................................5
How to host databases on the cloud...........................................................................................6
Security provided by the cloud-hosted databases......................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
With the advancement in technology, cloud-based solution has shown its power. Today’s
companies and organisation are shifting from traditional method to cloud solutions for greater
efficiency and profit. Hence, the report aims at enhancing the knowledge regarding the
security of databases and computer programming. The topic selected for the assignment is
explaining how to host organisational databases on the cloud and describing how the cloud
services provide the highest degree of security to the data. The report focuses on the
following Learning Outcome: It helps to understand and enhance the knowledge of regarding
different types of security measures which are used to protect the data and databases of the
organisation. It also briefs about the different type of databases which can be used to store the
data of the organisation. It tries to explain the concept and various models in the cloud-based
storage. The report starts by explaining and giving an introduction to the cloud services and
what are the present cloud services available in the market. Next, it describes the databases
which can be hosted on the cloud and procedure to host the databases on the cloud platform.
At last, it talks about the security measures which are provided by the cloud platform to
protect the database of any company or organisation.
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A brief introduction to Databases
Every company need a platform where they can store details of their client, their private
information, their product details and so many other things. Place where all the information is
collected is known as Databases. Hence databases can be defined as the collection of
important data/information which is present in an organised form and can be easily
maintained. Data in the databases are organised into tables, rows and columns. A data model
is present which is used to give the structure of the data. Data models are the one which tells
that how data is going to be stored, updated, managed, organized and manipulated in the
databases. Some example of databases is a network model, object model, E-R model, etc
(Almorsy, et.al, 2016).
To handle databases software is required which are used to manage the databases which are
known as Database Management system. It is the bridge which combines the collection of
databases, help to interacts with the application and end user. DBMS has basically four main
functionalities which are described as below:
 Addition, creation, alteration, deletion and removal of database definition which
comes under Data definition.
 Insertion and modification of the data come in UPDATING.
 Extracting and providing information at the time of need is what it is called as
RETRIEVAL.
 Adding security, maintaining users and checking the performance, concurrency,
consistency, integrity is part of ADMINISTRATION.
Different type of databases is present based on the content, application utilization, on the
basis of structure, their interface interaction, for example, relational, graph, cloud, SQL,
distributed databases. With the more need for space to store petabytes of data, traditional
databases would not be that suitable to handle such huge data and the maintenance of that
data will definitely cost a company to pay a very big amount. Hence the solution lies in
hosting the databases on the cloud which will not only offer low cost but also easy
maintenance of the storage.
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Brief description of cloud services
Hosting Databases on the cloud has proven to be the most effective steps any organisation
could take to increase the efficiency of the organisation. Many organisations which have
adopted this new trend is very much comfortable with the service provider of the cloud. With
large elastic storage, cheap, multiple backup plans & replication, increased speed, high
computing capabilities, scalability, reliability, high-security standards and compliance have
drawn the attention of many organisation. Moreover, the (Ramirez and Scott, 2018) facility of
multi-cloud and also decreasing the task of managing and maintaining the database is also
added to its greatest functionality. Some of the cloud service provider providers are AWS
(Amazon Web Service), Google, Microsoft, etc. Different feature and services cloud platform
have been given below:
Cloud Computing models:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – This type of model contains virtual servers, networking
and storage to take as rent and allow to control all the elements of the services. IaaS helps to
reduce the deployment time of services and helps to innovate new application. One of the
greatest advantages it has provided is to cut down maintenance cost.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - With storage, networking and servers, it also provides
operating systems, tools, DBMS, middleware etc for the rent purpose.
Software as a Service (SaaS) – It is the model which delivers the applications or more
precisely software.
Cloud Services:
Private cloud – Private cloud help organisation to build their infrastructure and application
according to their needs. The organisation has access and know where their data is saved. In
simple means, they have their private space and access (Rittinghouse and Ransome, 2017) to
resources.
Public cloud – It is the open access platform where users can have permission to resources
over the Internet. It means that they have very large space for all and rent part of it to
whoever wants it.
Hybrid cloud – It is the combination of both private and public cloud which allow great
recovery from disaster and help in reducing the hardware cost.
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How to host databases on the cloud
There is a variety of cloud services provider, for example, AWS Aurora, AWS RDS,
Snowflake Computing, Oracle database cloud server, Microsoft SQL Server, Postgre SQL,
Google Cloud Spanner, SAP HANA and many more. Different type of databases is hosted on
cloud services differently. Let’s take the example of Amazon Web services RD (Botta,et.al,
2016) is the location where relational databases are stored in the cloud. Hence to host
MySQL databases on AWS following steps will be followed.
1. First of all, create a DB instance. DB instance is the platform or more precise location
where MySQL databases are run. DB instance will be running the database engine.
2. Next step, open the console of Amazon RDS by signing into AWS Management
Console. Then choose the Databases option.
3. Create Database option will be seen selecting Select Engine page will appear which
will show various option like MariaDB, Oracle, MySQL etc. As we are hosting
MySQL database hence select MySQL option and proceed with (Amazon, E.C.,
2015) Next option.
4. Next page will open which will ask to Choose Use case, select the appropriate option
and click Next.
5. Page with heading Specify DB detail will be shown where information about DB
instance will be needed to fill out. Click Next.
6. After all, this Configure Advanced setting will appear.
7. Next click on Create Database.
8. View DB instance details to see the DB instance created.
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Security provided by the cloud-hosted databases
Cloud security can be defined as the protocols and policies which are used to protect the data
and applications. Organisations store their data on the external centres and hence there can be
the security issues faced both from user side as well as service provider side. Hence there are
various security measures and activities which make cloud services as the greatest
mechanism providing higher security and privacy. Data stored on the cloud are present in the
encrypted form. The cloud instances which are created as firewalls which are used to protect
the networks and give overall control to the network (Coronel and Morris, et.al, 2016)
Security control mechanism provided by the cloud services are:
Preventive Control – This mechanism helps to reduce the vulnerabilities caused by the
incident. Authorized user is identified easily.
Deterrent Control – This control measure help and notify attackers that the consequence of
further proceeding may lead to some trouble for them. They protect the cloud system and
give warning to the attackers.
Detective Control – this control scheme is used to identify and respond to the incident which
has caused damaged or happened. Generally, IDS & IPS (Intrusion detection and prevention
System) are installed.
Corrective Control – It helps to diminish the effect of damage caused for example
restoration system installed to restore the lost data and have (Gabryel, 2016) backup plans.
These measures generally come into play after the incident took place.
Identity Management System – This system helps to store the data in an encrypted file
which is stored in the biometrics of the user, for example, Cloud ID.
Scanning testing – This measure helps to scan and test the environment necessary to host the
cloud services.
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Conclusion
Hence it can be concluded that, with the growth and development in the organisation, the
storage requirement to store the data is also increasing and hence the new solution of storing
on the cloud platform is invented. The cloud services provided not only provide space but
help to reduce the maintenance cost also. Cloud services have gained a high amount of
attention from the various organisation due to their services and security measures to handle
the security and privacy issues of data. There are many cloud services providers like Google,
Amazon Microsoft which helps to store data on the databases. Databases are also different
types and hence different databases have different hosting proceeding according to the type
of cloud service provider selected. Hence the following report helps to understand all these
above-stated statements and help to host the MySQL database on Amazon Web Services.
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References
Almorsy, M., Grundy, J. and Müller, I., 2016. An analysis of the cloud computing security
problem. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107.
Amazon, E.C., 2015. Amazon web services. Available in: http://aws. amazon.
com/es/ec2/(November 2012).
Botta, A., De Donato, W., Persico, V. and Pescapé, A., 2016. Integration of cloud computing
and internet of things: a survey. Future generation computer systems, 56, pp.684-700.
Coronel, C. and Morris, S., 2016. Database systems: design, implementation, & management.
Cengage Learning.
Gabryel, M., 2016, June. The bag-of-features algorithm for practical applications using the
MySQL database. In International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Soft
Computing (pp. 635-646). Springer, Cham.
Ramirez, G. and Scott, S., 2018. AWS Certified Solutions Architect–Associate Guide: The
ultimate exam guide to AWS Solutions Architect certification. Packt Publishing Ltd.
Rittinghouse, J.W. and Ransome, J.F., 2017. Cloud computing: implementation,
management, and security. CRC press.
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