[Paper Review] An Analysis of the Cloud Computing Security Problem

Mohamed Almorsy, John Grundy+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Sep 5, 2016

Cloud Computing and Resource Management2 references206 citations

TL;DR

The paper provides a detailed, multi-perspective analysis of cloud security issues—from architecture to service models—culminating in a specification of features required for security solutions.

ABSTRACT

Cloud computing is a new computational paradigm that offers an innovative business model for organizations to adopt IT without upfront investment. Despite the potential gains achieved from the cloud computing, the model security is still questionable which impacts the cloud model adoption. The security problem becomes more complicated under the cloud model as new dimensions have entered into the problem scope related to the model architecture, multi-tenancy, elasticity, and layers dependency stack. In this paper we introduce a detailed analysis of the cloud security problem. We investigated the problem from the cloud architecture perspective, the cloud offered characteristics perspective, the cloud stakeholders' perspective, and the cloud service delivery models perspective. Based on this analysis we derive a detailed specification of the cloud security problem and key features that should be covered by any proposed security solution.

Motivation & Objective

• Motivate cloud adoption by evaluating security concerns in cloud computing.
• Analyze the cloud security problem from multiple perspectives: architecture, characteristics, stakeholders, and service delivery models.
• Derive a detailed specification of the cloud security problem and the key features any security solution should cover.

Proposed method

• Analyze cloud architecture as a basis for security concerns.
• Examine cloud characteristics and elasticity, multi-tenancy, and layers dependency stack to identify security implications.
• Review the perspectives of cloud stakeholders and service delivery models to understand security requirements.
• Synthesize findings to specify the cloud security problem and essential security solution features.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What constitutes the cloud security problem when viewed from architectural, characteristic, stakeholder, and service-delivery perspectives?
• RQ2 What security features are essential for any effective cloud security solution given these perspectives?
• RQ3 How do factors like multi-tenancy, elasticity, and the layered dependency stack influence security requirements in cloud computing?

Key findings

• Provide a detailed specification of the cloud security problem.
• Identify key security features that any proposed cloud security solution should cover.
• Offer a cross-perspective analysis integrating architecture, characteristics, stakeholders, and service delivery models.