Cloud computing is recognized as the most discussed topic in the IT industry while some people say it’s a game-changing technology. It mostly focuses on maximizing the efficiency of shared computing resources. It has completely changed the way of application usage. Application were running on personal computers before but cloud has made them available over Internet along with storage capacities and excellent computing power. Centralized data processing tasks, storages and access are the major features of cloud based infrastructure. While we have many potential benefits using cloud computing, we must take strong measures to protect the privacy and security. One must take serious considerations before moving their information to the cloud.
Security is the fact that implementation team should think first and act accordingly, particularly in cloud computing systems. These security goals are usually addressed for some specific event in the framework of the requirement definition and are part of the non-functional requirements to be met by the cloud vendor as well as by the cloud infrastrastructure itself. While planning for the security, three most important protection goals come in mind – confidentiality, integrity, authenticity. Our practices must evolve around these three facts while the implementation of security resources to our cloud.
Privacy is also an important matter. If a client has the ability to login from any location to access data and applications, privacy compromising can be very much possible . Cloud computing companies must have clear roadmap to protect client privacy. There can be various ways to accomplish this. One way is to use strong authentication techniques such as complex usernames and passwords. Another is to implement an authorization format — each user can access only their respective data and limited to that only.
Steps to address risks and challenges:
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We must take care of Vendor’s transparency and distinct service level agreement
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We must check if our possible vendor has adequate practices for privacy and confidentiality of personal, sensitive, or regulated data and information
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Our hosting provider is legally and regulatory compliance
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The possible hosting provider follows standard cyber security policies and support for incident forensics
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If our hosting provider has the efficient records preservation, access, and management
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Standard service availability and reliability
If we must get satisfactory answers for above questions in order to sign up for any cloud services. This will help us to make our cloud experience more result oriented. We will be successfully able to meet our goals that we set for cloud.
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