Ultimate Guide and List of Cloud Computing Security Companies, Vendors, Services, Issues and Solutions. Secure your Cloud.

‘Cloud security’ is a broad term referring to the many different security aspects of the cloud – which itself comes in many different forms, each having it own security implications and requirements. Like the cloud itself, cloud security is a relatively recent discipline which is constantly evolving to meet new challenges and demands. Cloud security encompasses all of the different elements of this broad ecosystem, including maintaining the security of data within the cloud itself and between end users and the cloud; ensuring the integrity of apps used to access the cloud and use its services; through to protection of the servers and other hardware that make up cloud infrastructure.

Although users talk about ‘the cloud’, cloud computing comes in several different forms, each of which has its own specific strengths and weaknesses – both from business and a security perspective.

Public cloud. The public cloud is what most people imagine when they refer to the cloud. It refers to Cloud Storage and computing facilities that are accessed remotely, thereby enabling individuals and organisations to outsource these and avoid purchasing servers and infrastructure themselves. The public cloud has particular security needs because it is outside the control of its users; data is held by a third party, and is subject to the reliability of their hardware, their training and expertise, their personnel’s security checks and the laws in their jurisdiction.

Private cloud. A private cloud is a model of cloud computing in which the cloud is located behind a corporate firewall. Data is not shared with the outside world in the way that it is with the public cloud.

Hybrid Cloud. As the name suggests, this is a combination of public and private clouds that allows organisations to access the best of both worlds. Nevertheless, there are some unique security challenges due to both the use of the public cloud for some data and the need to transport data from public to private cloud, and vice versa.

Community cloud. Somewhere between a public and private cloud, the community cloud shares storage and resources between several organisations, often with similar interests or shared concerns.

The profusion of different forms of cloud is also complicated, from a security perspective, by the different service models available, each of which again has its own issues:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). IaaS providers offer their customers computers or virtual machines, typically located in data centres, for remote use. Customers can install their own operating systems and software on them and use them as they would a local machine by connecting over the internet. The advantage is that the user does not have to purchase hardware, or often even concern themselves with upgrades or security patches. These responsibilities are taken on by the provider.

Software as a Service (SaaS). Users have access to software and databases that are run and maintained by cloud providers. These services are purchased by subscription or pay-per-use. Purchase and maintenance of the infrastructure required to host the software services is taken on by the provider, meaning that customers do not need to install or run the software itself.

Platform as a Service (PaaS). With PaaS, customers purchase an entire computing platform, which may comprise an operating system, programming language and its execution environment, a database, web server and so on, so they don’t have to purchase and maintain the hardware and software that would otherwise be required for such a platform. Depending on the platform and service model, resources may be scaled automatically.

Due to the diversity of cloud types and service models, maintaining cloud security is therefore an extremely broad task that demands a similarly large toolkit and range of disciplines.