Security Management In Cloud Computing

Security Management In Cloud Computing

Most businesses are now adopting cloud services due to the numerous benefits associated with it. The cloud offers more communication facilities choices, and many companies have already reaped the cloud efficiency benefits.

However, cloud computing services have unique attributes that require risk assessments in different areas like privacy, data integrity,   data recovery, and critical evaluation of specific legal issues involving auditing, regulatory compliance, and e-discovery. As a result, several authors have come into play in order to help in shedding light on the importance of cloud computing and why every organization should adopt it. The authors provide the audience with clear insights on cloud computing including the services provided in the cloud computing error, cloud computing categories that organizations can adopt, the influence of cloud computing on the IT industry, the future of cloud data and privacy, issues associated with cloud computing among other perspectives.

By analyzing the five articles, I hope the author’s knowledge insights will help me in getting new online and offline ideas on the application of cloud computing, help me in building, testing and deploying cloud computing applications and software’s as well as clearing the stigma associated with cloud computing management issues. Consequently, if I find the articles convincing enough and reliable, I will not hesitate to reference them for future work. I consider the articles favorable in my research since they are all in favor of the organizational use of cloud computing services, citing the modes of application, benefits, issues that may arise from the services use as well as issues resolution mechanisms. In a nutshell, the authors detail everything that one needs to know about cloud computing.

According to an article cited by authors Zhou, Zhang, Zeng & Qian, (2017), “cloud computing is a tool for relaying Information Technology services, whereby resources are obtained from the internet through web-based applications and devices as opposed to having a direct connection to the server.” The scholar states that many organizations have benefited from using these tools by minimizing their operational costs, which translates into business efficiency. The problem that I see with this logic is that Cloud computing isn’t a cost play, and from an enterprise perspective, there are significantly more scenarios where cloud will cost you more money than doing things the old way. Organizations can only realize the benefits by improving their ways of designing, building, releasing, deploying, and managing software. Lifting and shifting old applications and processes to the cloud may make an organization lose on many fronts. Further, tapping the benefits of the cloud isn’t free but requires massive investment in money, time, cultural change, and processes.

According to a peer-reviewed article by authors Chang, Bacigalupo, Wills & De Roure, (2016), “Categorization of  Cloud  Computing Business Models include private cloud which favors single organizations more and consists of multiple consumers such as business units and can be managed by services providers charged with the responsibility of taking care of the organizations both off-site and on-site.” These public clouds comprise of provisioned infrastructure designed for open use by the concerned community. Public clouds are usually intended for a specific organization to share resources as well as the hybrid cloud, which allows organizations to use both public and Interconnected cloud infrastructure, enabling them to move application and data between Public and private clouds depending on its purpose. From this article, I greatly feel that the author has prejudiced the cloud computing approaches by just sharing o=insights only on the private and public cloud computing business models and overlooked the hybrid cloud computing model.  I the process of exploring the most appropriate cloud computing approach, most organizations rely on published literature. If one bumped on this article, the organizational cloud computing approach decision making would only be based on the private and public approaches with the assumption that there are only two approaches. Therefore, by including the hybrid approach in the article, the author would have increased the reader’s knowledge base. Probably they would have considered the hybrid approach since it can allow an organization to manage its applications and database more efficiently by hosting their valuable data on dedicated servers and private clouds, thus having absolute control of data and with minimal risks.

According to a peer-reviewed article by author RickBlaisdell (2019), “How Cloud Computing Influencing the Information Technology Industry” cites the reasons why organizations should implement cloud computing in their IT management systems. According to the scholar, cloud computing can help organizations in reducing the size of their data centers, servers, personnel, thus reducing their operational costs without affecting the organization’s IT capabilities negatively. Cloud computing also attracts flexible expenses compared to traditional servers, thus increasing its effectiveness.

Conversely, the author states that the majority of the cloud computing server’s providers are very reliable in their services, and workers can access the services from any corner of the world, provided they have an internet connection. Further, the scholar recommends the use of cloud computing due to its mobile-friendly app, which allows workers to access the app through smartphones and tablets, roaming to check clients out, working from the field, or visiting clients from their premises. In light of this, the authors supporting grounds on the reliability of cloud computing services reliability is questionable since reliability is the basic aspect of all systems. For instance, a computer can only be useful only when it’s functioning, and the same case applies to a website that is only using while running with the appropriate band-with and resources. Considering cloud computing from this perspective, it is then apparent that computing in the cloud is less reliable, with everything else remaining equal. Any application requires just a work station with adequate resources with functioning hardware to run it similar to cloud computing requirements yet being used by multiple users. Thus, increasing the point of failure will most probably increase the chances of service failure.

According to an article written by authors Wheeler & Winburn, (2016), “on the future of cloud data privacy and storage security” shows that organizational cloud computing requires an in-depth understanding of the cost-benefit analysis compared to the business in house solutions. The authors note that the cloud should help in reducing the operational capital and expenses without compromising the user’s functionality, including availability. The hardware-agnostic approach, which integrates the world’s leading Internet and Saabs providers ‘commodity architecture, is recommended as the most convenient cloud functionality delivery model. The adoption of these systems can help organizations in making informed decisions. In most occurrences, technology brings in a myriad of risks and challenges as opposed to rewards. Before an organization settles on the decision on which model of technology to adapt in its business transactions for example in case of cloud computing; detailed research on the benefits, risks associated with the model and the security measures that ought to be enforced for the efficient running of the organization should be prioritized. The author’s argument that cloud computing should help in reducing the operational capital and expenses without compromising the user’s functionality, including availability, is quite questionable due to the privacy implications associated with cloud computing of storing and data in foreign servers. Cloud computing results in fundamental loss of control as privacy is only entitled to selected few who may over control the data and also manipulate it. Through this, the data owner is placed in a position  that lacks actual data physical control

Cloud computing also foresees robust security in future whereby when organizations move to the cloud and entrust their organization intellectual property rights to third parties; the cloud providers will be in a position to provide a wide range of security solutions allowing for information-centric approaches for securing sensitive interfaces between public and private services, end-users as well as physical and virtual infrastructure. According to an article cited by author Dutta, (2016), on security issues in Cloud Computing“ acknowledges that despite the many benefits associated with cloud computing, the cloud also requires risk assessment, measures in data recovery, privacy, data integrity, and legal issues evaluation, which include regulatory compliance and e-discovery.” On this note, service customers are advised to demand transparency from the cloud providers and also seek risk control processes clarification. Cloud computing is facing a lot of controversies since many organizations are uncertain about the effectiveness and the risks associated with, thus limiting its usage. Therefore, it is recommended for firms to purchase these cloud services if only they can handle the associated risks. Firms should also have effective strategies for promoting data security since the adoption of the cloud leads to more data being dispersed into the market. In this article, it would have been much better if the author highlighted some of the security issues associated with cloud computing as opposed to just mentioning the risk assessment and mitigation measures. This creates a slight lack in the argument and could be contradicting.

Refernces

Chang,V.,Bacigalupo,D.,Wills,G.,&DeRoure,D.(2017). ACategorisationofCloud ComputingBusinessModels.201710thIEEE/ACMInternationalConferenceon Cluster,CloudandGridComputing.doi:10.1109/ccgrid.2017.132

Dutta, S. (2016). Security Issues in Cloud Computing. International Journal of Emerging Trends in Science and Technology, 04(11), 4747-4752. doi:10.18535/ijetst/v3i11.04

RickBlaisdell.(2019,June18).HowIsCloudComputingInfluencingTheITIndustry? Retrievedfrom<https://rickscloud.com/how-is-cloud-computing-influencing-the-it- industry/>

Wheeler,A.,&Winburn,M.(2016).TheFutureofCloudDataPrivacyandSecurity.Cloud StorageSecurity,125-138.doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-802930-5.00007-1

Zhou, M., Zhang, R., Zeng, D., & Qian, W. (2017, October). Services in the cloud computing era: A survey. In 2010 4th International Universal Communication Symposium (pp. 40-46). IEEE.