Cloud Security

Cloud security is a discipline of cybersecurity dedicated to securing cloud computing applications, infrastructures and systems. Moreover, it keeps data secure and safe across multiple online infrastructures, applications and platforms that organizations rely to run their businesses. However, without the collaboration of cloud providers and cloud customers, it is difficult to assure cloud security requirements. Besides, cloud providers and cloud customers share responsibilities to protect data and secure their systems.

Nowadays, cloud computing has become the best alternative to host applications and systems. Due to this widespread acceptance, cloud platforms has become the main target of cyberattacks as well. Furthermore, cloud customers trust the providers to deploy even sensitive and critical organizational assets to relieve themselves the management overheads and focus on their business drivers. As a result, cloud security has become the top agenda in cybersecurity boardrooms.

Cloud security encompasses the technology stacks, protocols, best practices, frameworks, compliance and regulatory issues that protect cloud infrastructures, applications running in the clouds and the data stored in the cloud ecosystem. These components may be deployed in public, private, hybrid and community deployment models. Moreover, customers may consume these resources through the famous service delivery models namely infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) models. Regardless of the deployment and service models, cloud environments should be secured and protected from various cybercrimes and cyberattacks.

Cloud security focuses on securing the following cloud computing components:

• Physical and logical network infrastructures
• Data storage and servers
• Virtual platforms
• Operating systems and images/flavors
• Application programming interfaces (APIs)
• Applications and systems
• Data and information
• End user workstations
• Provisioning and deprovisioning processes

The major purpose of cloud security include the following:

• Greater and flexible threat detection
• Data recovery in case of data loss
• Protect data and computing environment from unauthorized disclosure, tampering and disruptions
• Reduce impacts compromise by hosting across multiple locations and datacenters
• Minimize human errors through automation
• Centralized security
• Compliance and governance requirements
• Improved data security and protection
• Data leakage prevention