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UNIT – 4 |
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Cloud Security:
Cloud Information security fundamentals, cloud security services |
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Unit-04/Lecture-01 |
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Cloud Security: Security is a
principal concern when entrusting an organization’s critical information to
geographically dispersed cloud platforms not under the direct control of that
organization. In addition to the conventional IT information system security procedures, designing security
into cloud software during the software development life cycle can greatly
reduce the cloud attack surface. Cloud Information Security
Fundamentals: Developing
secure software is based on applying the secure software design principles
that form the fundamental basis for software assurance. Software assurance has been given many definitions,
and it is important to understand the concept. The Software Security
Assurance Report 2 defines software assurance as “the basis for gaining
justifiable confidence that software will consistently exhibit all properties required to ensure
that the software, in operation, will
continue to operate dependably despite the presence of sponsored
(intentional) faults. In practical
terms, such software must be able to resist most attacks, tolerate as many as
possible of those attacks it cannot resist, and contain the damage and recover to a normal level of operation
as soon as possible after any attacks it is unable to resist or tolerate.” The Data and
Analysis Center for Software (DACS) 4 requires that software must exhibit the
following three properties to be considered secure: Dependability — Software that
executes predictably and operates correctly
under a variety of conditions, including when under attack or
running on a malicious host. Trustworthiness — Software that
contains a minimum number of vulnerabilities or no vulnerabilities or
weaknesses that could sabotage the software’s dependability. It must also be
resistant to malicious logic. Survivability (Resilience) — Software that
is resistant to or tolerant of attacks and has the ability to recover as
quickly as possible with as little harm as possible. Seven
complementary principles that support information assurance are
confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, authorization,
auditing, and accountability. These concepts are summarized in the following
sections. Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability Confidentiality,
integrity, and availability are sometimes known as the CIA triad of information system security,
and are important pillars of cloud software assurance. Confidentiality: Confidentiality
refers to the prevention of intentional or unintentional unauthorized
disclosure of information. Confidentiality in cloud systems is related to the
areas of intellectual property rights, covert channels, traffic analysis,
encryption, and inference: ·
Intellectual property rights — Intellectual
property (IP) includes inventions, designs, and artistic, musical, and
literary works. Rights to intellectual property are covered by copyright
laws, which protect creations of the mind, and patents, which are granted for
new inventions. ·
Covert channels — A covert
channel is an unauthorized and unintended communication path that enables the
exchange of information. Covert channels can be accomplished through timing
of messages or inappropriate use of storage mechanisms. ·
Traffic analysis — Traffic
analysis is a form of confi dentiality breach that can be accomplished by analyzing the volume,
rate, source, and destination of message traffi c, even if it is encrypted.
Increased message activity and high bursts of traffi c can indicate a major
event is occurring. Countermeasures to
traffi c analysis include maintaining a near-constant rate of message traffic
and disguising the source and destination locations of the traffic. ·
Encryption — Encryption involves
scrambling messages so that they cannot be read by an unauthorized entity,
even if they are intercepted. The amount of effort (work factor) required to
decrypt the message is a function of the strength of the encryption key and
the robustness and quality of the encryption
algorithm. ·
Inference — Inference is
usually associated with database security. Inference is the ability of an entity to use and
correlate information protected at one level of security to uncover
information that is protected at a higher security level. Integrity: The concept of
cloud information integrity requires that the following three principles are
met: ·
Modifications
are not made to data by unauthorized personnel or processes. ·
Unauthorized
modifications are not made to data by authorized personnel or processes. ·
The data is
internally and externally consistent — in other words, the internal
information is consistent both among all sub-entities and with the
real-world, external situation. Availability: Availability
ensures the reliable and timely access to cloud data or cloud computing
resources by the appropriate personnel. Availability guarantees that the
systems are functioning properly when needed. In addition, this concept
guarantees that the security services of the cloud system are in working
order. A denial-of-service attack is an example of a threat against
availability. The reverse of
confidentiality, integrity, and availability is disclosure, alteration, and
destruction (DAD). ------------------------------------REFERENCE {book: “Cloud Security, Wiley Pub, page number: 61-64}
Cloud Security Services Additional
factors that directly affect cloud software assurance include authentication,
authorization, auditing, and accountability, as summarized in the following
sections. Authentication Authentication is the testing
or reconciliation of evidence of a user’s identity. It establishes the user’s
identity and ensures that users are who they claim to be. For example, a
user presents an identity (user ID) to a computer login screen and then has
to provide a password. The computer system authenticates the user by
verifying that the password corresponds to the individual presenting the ID. Authorization Authorization refers to
rights and privileges granted to an individual or process that enable access
to computer resources and information assets. Once a user’s identity and
authentication are established, authorization levels determine the extent of
system rights a user can hold. Auditing To maintain
operational assurance, organizations use two basic methods: system audits and
monitoring. These methods can be employed by the cloud customer, the cloud
provider, or both, depending on asset architecture and deployment. ·
A system audit is a one-time
or periodic event to evaluate security. ·
Monitoring refers to an ongoing activity
that examines either the system or the users, such as intrusion detection. Information
technology (IT) auditors are often divided into two types: internal and
external. Internal auditors typically work for a given organization, whereas
external auditors do not. External auditors are often certified public
accountants (CPAs) or other audit professionals who are hired to perform an
independent audit of an organization’s fi nancial statements. Internal
auditors usually have a much broader mandate than external auditors, such as
checking for compliance and standards of due care, auditing operational cost
effi ciencies, and recommending the appropriate controls. IT auditors
typically audit the following functions: ·
System
and transaction controls ·
Systems
development standards ·
Backup
controls ·
Data
library procedures ·
Data
center security ·
Contingency
plans In
addition, IT auditors might recommend improvements to controls, and they
often participate in a system’s development process to help an organization
avoid costly reengineering after the system’s implementation. An audit trail or log is a
set of records that collectively provide documentary evidence of processing,
used to aid in tracing from original transactions forward to related records
and reports, and/or backward from records and reports to their component
source transactions. Audit trails may be limited to specific events or they
may encompass all of the activities on a system. Audit
logs should record the following: ·
The
transaction’s date and time ·
Who
processed the transaction ·
At
which terminal the transaction was processed ·
Various
security events relating to the transaction In
addition, an auditor should examine the audit logs for the following: ·
Amendments
to production jobs ·
Production
job reruns ·
Computer
operator practices ·
All
commands directly initiated by the user ·
All
identification and authentication attempts ·
Files
and resources accessed Accountability Accountability is the ability to determine the actions and behaviours
of a single individual within a cloud system and to identify that particular
individual. Audit trails and logs support accountability and can be used to
conduct post-mortem studies in order to analyze historical events and the
individuals or processes associated with those events. Accountability is
related to the concept of non repudiation, wherein an individual
cannot successfully deny the performance of an action. ------------------------------------REFERENCE {book: “Cloud Security, Wiley Pub, page number: 64-66}
Unit-04/Lecture-02 Cloud Security Design Principles Historically, computer software
was not written with security in mind; but because of the increasing
frequency and sophistication of malicious attacks against information
systems, modern software design methodologies include security as a primary
objective. With cloud computing systems seeking to meet multiple objectives,
such as cost, performance, reliability, maintainability, and security,
trade-offs have to be made. A completely secure system will exhibit poor
performance characteristics or might not function at all. Technically competent hackers can
usually find a way to break into a computer system, given enough time and
resources. The goal is to have a system that is secure enough for everyday
use while exhibiting reasonable performance and reliability characteristics. In a 1974 paper that is still
relevant today, 5 Saltzer and Schroeder of the University of Virginia addressed
the protection of information stored in a computer system by focusing on
hardware and software issues that are necessary to support information
protection. The paper presented the following 11 security design principles ·
Least privilege ·
Separation of duties ·
Defense in depth ·
Fail safe ·
Economy of mechanism ·
Complete mediation ·
Open design ·
Least common mechanism ·
Psychological acceptability ·
Weakest link ·
Leveraging existing components The fundamental characteristics of these principles are
summarized in the following sections Least Privilege The principle of least privilege maintains that an
individual, process, or other type of entity should be given the minimum
privileges and resources for the minimum period of time required to complete
a task. This approach reduces the opportunity for unauthorized access to
sensitive information. Separation of Duties Separation of duties requires that
completion of a specified sensitive activity or access to sensitive objects
is dependent on the satisfaction of a plurality of conditions. For example,
an authorization would require signatures of more than one individual, or the
arming of a weapons system would require two individuals with different keys.
Thus, separation of duties forces collusion among entities in order to
compromise the system. Defense in Depth Defense in depth is the application
of multiple layers of protection wherein a subsequent layer will provide
protection if a previous layer is breached. The Information Assurance
Technical Framework Forum (IATFF), an organization sponsored by the National
Security Agency (NSA), has produced a document titled the “Information
Assurance Technical Framework” (IATF) that provides excellent guidance on the
concepts of defense in depth. The IATFF encourages and supports technical interchanges on
the topic of information assurance among U.S. industry, U.S. academic
institutions, and U.S. government agencies. Information on the IATFF document
can be found at www.niap-ccevs.org/cc-scheme/IATF_3.1-Chapter_03-ISSEP.pdf. The IATF document 3.16 stresses the importance of the people
involved, the operations required, and the technology needed
to provide information assurance and to meet the organization’s mission. The defense-in-depth strategy as defined in IATF document
3.1 promotes application of the following information assurance principles: ·
Defense in multiple places — Information
protection mechanisms placed in a number of locations to protect against
internal and external threats ·
Layered defenses — A plurality of information protection and detection mechanisms
employed so that an adversary or threat must negotiate a series of barriers
to gain access to critical information ·
Security robustness — An estimate of the robustness of
information assurance elements based on the value of the information system
component to be protected and the anticipated threats ·
Deploy KMI/PKI — Use of robust key management infrastructures (KMI) and
public key infrastructures (PKI) ·
Deploy intrusion detection systems — Application of
intrusion detection mechanisms to detect intrusions, evaluate information,
examine results, and, if necessary, take action Fail Safe Fail safe means that if a
cloud system fails it should fail to a state in which the security of the
system and its data are not compromised. One implementation of this
philosophy would be to make a system default to a state in which a user or
process is denied access to the system. A complementary rule would be to ensure
that when the system recovers, it should recover to a secure state and not
permit unauthorized access to sensitive information. This approach is based on
using permissions instead of exclusions. In the situation where system recovery is not done
automatically, the failed system should permit access only by the system administrator
and not by other users, until security controls are re-established. Economy of Mechanism Economy of mechanism promotes simple and
comprehensible design and implementation of protection mechanisms, so that
unintended access paths do not exist or can be readily identified and
eliminated. Complete Mediation In complete meditation, every request by
a subject to access an object in a computer system must undergo a valid and
effective authorization procedure. This mediation must not be suspended or become
capable of being bypassed, even when the information system is being
initialized, undergoing shutdown, being restarted, or is in maintenance mode.
Complete mediation entails the
following: 1. Identification of the entity making the access request 2. Verification that the request has not changed since its
initiation 3. Application of the appropriate authorization procedures 4. Re examination of previously authorized requests by the
same entity Open Design There has always been an ongoing discussion about the
merits and strengths of security designs that are kept secret versus designs
that are open to scrutiny and evaluation by the community at large. A good
example is an encryption system. Some feel that keeping the encryption
algorithm secret makes it more difficult to break. The opposing philosophy believes that exposing the
algorithm to review and study by experts at large while keeping the
encryption key secret leads to a stronger algorithm because the experts have
a higher probability of discovering weaknesses in it. In general, the latter
approach has proven more effective, except in the case of organizations such
as the National Security Agency (NSA), which employs some of the world’s best
cryptographers and mathematicians. For most purposes, an open-access cloud system design that
has been evaluated and tested by a myriad of experts provides a more secure
authentication method than one that has not been widely assessed. Security of
such mechanisms depends on protecting passwords or keys. Least Common Mechanism This principle states that a minimum number of protection
mechanisms should be common to multiple users, as shared access paths can be
sources of unauthorized information exchange. Shared access paths that
provide unintentional data transfers are known as covert channels.
Thus, the least common mechanism promotes the least possible sharing
of common security mechanisms. Psychological Acceptability Psychological acceptability refers to the ease
of use and intuitiveness of the user interface that controls and interacts
with the cloud access control mechanisms. Users must be able to understand
the user interface and use it without having to interpret complex
instructions. Weakest Link As in the old saying “A chain is only as strong as its weakest
link,” the security of a cloud system is only as good as its weakest
component. Thus, it is important to identify the weakest mechanisms in the
security chain and layers of defense, and improve them so that risks to the
system are mitigated to an acceptable level. Leveraging Existing Components In many instances, the security mechanisms of a cloud
implementation might not be configured properly or used to their maximum
capability. Reviewing the state and settings of the extant security
mechanisms and ensuring that they are operating at their optimum design
points will greatly improve the security posture of an information system. Another approach that can be used to increase cloud system
security by leveraging existing components is to partition the system into
defended subunits. Then, if a security mechanism is penetrated for one
sub-unit, it will not affect the other sub-units, and damage to the computing
resources will be minimized. ------------------------------------REFERENCE {book: “Cloud Security, Wiley Pub, page number: 66-70}
Unit-04/Lecture-03 Secure Cloud Software Requirements The requirements for secure cloud
software are concerned with non functional issues such as minimizing or
eliminating vulnerabilities and ensuring that the software will perform as
required, even under attack. This goal is distinct from security
functionality in software, which addresses areas that derive from the
information security policy, such as identification, authentication, and
authorization. Software requirements engineering is
the process of determining customer software expectations and needs, and it
is conducted before the software design phase. The requirements have to be
unambiguous, correct, quantifiable, and detailed. Karen Goertzel, Theodore Winograd, and
their contributors in “Enhancing the Development Life Cycle to Produce
Secure Software”7 from the United
States Department of Defense Data and
Analysis Center for Software (DACS) state that all software shares the following three
security needs: ·
It
must be dependable under anticipated operating conditions, and remain
dependable under hostile operating conditions. ·
It
must be trustworthy in its own behaviour, and in its inability to be
compromised by an attacker through exploitation of vulnerabilities or
insertion of malicious code ·
It
must be resilient enough to recover quickly to full operational capability
with a minimum of damage to itself, the resources and data it handles, and
the external components with which it interacts. In the following sections, cloud
software considerations related to functional security and secure properties
are explored in the context of software requirements engineering. Secure
requirements for security-related cloud software functions generally define
what the software has to accomplish to perform a task securely. Secure
Development Practices There are many methods for developing
code. Any of them can be used to develop a secure cloud application. Every
development model must have both requirements and testing. In some models,
the requirements may emerge over time. It is very important that security
requirements are established early in the development process. Security in a cloud application tends
to be subtle and invisible. Security is prominent at only two times in the
development life cycle: requirements definition and testing. At other times,
deadlines, capabilities, performance, the look and feel, and dozens of other
issues tend to push security to the back. This is why it is important to
ensure that security requirements are prominent at the beginning of the
software development life cycle. In many respects, the tools and
techniques used to design and develop clean, efficient cloud applications
will support the development of secure code as well. Special attention, however, should be
shown in the following areas: ·
Handling
data — Some data is more sensitive and requires
special handling. ·
Code
practices — Care must be taken not to expose too
much information to a would-be attacker. ·
Language
options — Consider the strengths and weakness
of the language used. ·
Input
validation and content injection — Data (content) entered by a user
should never have direct access to a command or a query. ·
Physical
security of the system — Physical access to the cloud servers
should be restricted. Handling
Data As the Internet continues to be a
driving force in most of our everyday lives, more and more personal and
sensitive information will be put on cloud servers. Requirements for handling
this private information did not exist five years ago, while other data, such
as passwords, has always required special handling. Following are some
special cases for the handling of sensitive or critical data: ·
Passwords
should never be transmitted in the clear. They should always be encrypted. ·
Passwords
should never be viewable on the user’s screen as they are entered into the
computer. Even though asterisks (*) are being displayed, care must be taken
to ensure that it is not just because the font is all asterisks. If that is
the case, someone could steal the password by copying and pasting the
password from the screen. ·
If
possible, passwords should always be encrypted with one-way hashes. This will
ensure that no one (not even a system administrator) can extract the password
from the server. The only way to break the password would be through
brute-force cracking. With one-way hashing, the actual passwords are not
compared to authenticate the user; rather, the hashed value is stored on the
server and is compared with the hashed value sent by the user. If the
passwords cannot be decrypted, users cannot be provided their passwords when
they forget them. In such cases, the system administrator must enter a new
password for the user, which the user can change upon re-entering the
application. ·
Credit
card and other financial information should never be sent in the clear. ·
Cloud
servers should minimize the transmissions and printing of credit card
information. This includes all reports that may be used for internal use,
such as troubleshooting, status, and progress reports. ·
Sensitive
data should not be passed to the cloud server as part of the query string, as
the query string may be recorded in logs and accessed by persons not
authorized to see the credit card information. Code
Practices The minimum necessary information
should be included in cloud server code.
Attackers will spend countless hours examining HTML and scripts for
information that can be used to make their intrusions easier to accomplish.
Comments should be stripped from operational code, and names and other
personal information should be avoided. HTML comment fields should not reveal
exploitable information about the developers or the organization. Comments
are not bad per se, but those embedded in the HTML or client script and which
may contain private information can be very dangerous in the hands of an
attacker. Third-party software packages, such as Web
servers and FTP servers, often provide banners that indicate the version of
the software that is running. Attackers can use this information to narrow
their search of exploits to apply to these targets. In most cases, these banners
can be suppressed or altered. Language Options One of the most frequently discovered
vulnerabilities in cloud server applications is a direct result of the use of
C and C++. The C language is unable to detect and prevent improper memory
allocation, which can result in buffer overflows. Because the C language cannot prevent
buffer overflows, it is left to the programmer to implement safe programming
techniques. Good coding practices will check for boundary limits and ensure
that functions are properly called. This requires a great deal of
discipline from the programmer; and in practice even the most experienced
developers can overlook these checks occasionally. One of the reasons Java is so popular
is because of its intrinsic security mechanisms. Malicious language
constructs should not be possible in Java. The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is
responsible for stopping buffer overflows, the use of uninitialized
variables, and the use of invalid opcodes. Input
Validation and Content Injection All user input that cannot be trusted
must be verified and validated. Content injection occurs when the cloud
server takes input from the user and applies the content of that input into
commands or SQL statements. Essentially, the user’s input is injected into a
command that is executed by the server. Content injection can occur when the
server does not have a clear distinction and separation between the data
input and the commands executed. Physical
Security of the System Any cloud server is vulnerable to an
attacker with unlimited time and physical access to the server. Additionally,
physical problems could cause the server to have down time. This would be a
loss of availability, which you may recall is one of the key principles of
the security triad — confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA). The
following items should be provided to ensure server availability: ·
Provide
an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) unit with surge protection. ·
Provide
fire protection to minimize the loss of personnel and equipment. ·
Provide
adequate cooling and ventilation. ·
Provide
adequate lighting and workspace for maintaining and upgrading the system ·
Restrict physical access to the server.
Unauthorized persons should not get near the server. Even casual contact can
lead to outages. The server space should be locked and alarmed. Any access to
the space should be recorded for later evaluation should a problem occur.
Inventory should be tightly controlled and monitored. ·
The physical protections listed here should
extend to the network cables and other devices (such as routers) that are
critical to the cloud server’s operation. ------------------------------------REFERENCE {book: “Cloud Security, Wiley Pub, page number: 70-74} |
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Unit-04/Lecture-04 Cloud Computing Security Challenges Security
Policy Implementation Security
policies are the foundation of a sound security implementation. Often
organizations will implement technical security solutions without first
creating this foundation of policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures,
unintentionally creating unfocused and ineffective security controls. A policy
is one of those terms that can mean several things. For example, there
are security policies on firewalls, which refer to the access control and
routing list information. Standards, procedures, and guidelines are also
referred to as policies in the larger sense of a global information security
policy. A
good, well-written policy is more than an exercise created on white paper —
it is an essential and fundamental element of sound security practice. A
policy, for example, can literally be a lifesaver during a disaster, or it
might be a requirement of a governmental or regulatory function. A policy can
also provide protection from liability due to an employee’s actions, or it
can control access to trade secrets. Figure
1 shows how the policies relate to each other hierarchically: Figure 1: Security policy hierarchy Policy
Types In
the corporate world, when we refer to specific polices, rather than a group
policy, we generally mean those policies that are distinct from the
standards, procedures, and guidelines. Policies are considered the first and
highest level of documentation, from which the lower-level elements of
standards, procedures, and guidelines flow. This
is not to say, however, that higher-level policies are more important than
the lower elements. These higher-level policies, which reflect the more
general policies and statements, should be created first in the process, for
strategic reasons, and then the more tactical elements can follow. Management
should ensure the high visibility of a formal security policy. This is
because nearly all employees at all levels will in some way be affected,
major organizational resources will be addressed, and many new terms,
procedures, and activities will be introduced. Including
security as a regular topic at staff meetings at all levels of the organization
can be helpful. In addition, providing visibility through such avenues as
management presentations, panel discussions, guest speakers, question/answer
forums, and newsletters can be beneficial. Senior
Management Statement of Policy The first
policy of any policy creation process is the senior management statement of
policy. This is a general, high-level policy that acknowledges the
importance of the computing resources to the business model; states
support for information security throughout the enterprise; and
commits to authorizing and managing the definition of the lower-level
standards, procedures, and guidelines. Regulatory
Policies Regulatory
policies are security policies that an organization must
implement due to compliance, regulation, or other legal requirements. These
companies might be financial institutions, public utilities, or some other
type of organization that operates in the public interest. Such policies are
usually very detailed and specific to the industry in which the organization
operates. Advisory
Policies Advisory
policies are security policies that are not mandated but
strongly suggested, perhaps with serious consequences defined for failure to
follow them (such as termination, a job action warning, and so forth). A company
with such policies wants most employees to consider these policies mandatory.
Most policies fall under this broad category. Informative
Policies Informative
policies are policies that exist simply to inform the reader.
There are not implied or specified requirements, and the audience for this
information could be certain internal (within the organization) or external
parties. This does not mean that the policies are authorized for public
consumption but that they are general enough to be distributed to external
parties (vendors accessing an extranet, for example) without a loss of confidentiality. ------------------------------REFERENCE {book: “Cloud Security, Wiley Pub, page number: 153-156}
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Unit-04/Lecture-05 Virtualization
Security Management Although the global adoption of
virtualization is a relatively recent event, threats to the virtualized
infrastructure are evolving just as quickly. Historically, the development
and implementation of new technology has preceded the full understanding of
its inherent security risks, and virtualized systems are no different. The
following sections examine the threats and vulnerabilities inherent in
virtualized systems and look at some common management solutions to those
threats. The Virtual Machine (VM), Virtual Memory Manager (VMM),
and hypervisor or host OS are the minimum set of components needed in a
virtual environment. They comprise virtual environments in a few distinct
ways: ·
Type 1 virtual
environments are considered “full virtualization” environments and have VMs
running on a hypervisor that interacts with the hardware (see Figure 2). ·
Type 2 virtual
environments are also considered “full virtualization” but work with a host
OS instead of a hypervisor (see Figure 3). ·
Para-virtualized
environments offer performance gains by eliminating some of the emulation
that occurs in full virtualization environments. ·
Other type designations
include hybrid virtual machines (HVMs) and hardware-assisted techniques. Figure 2: Type 1
virtualized environment These classifications are
somewhat ambiguous in the IT community at large. The most important thing to
remember from a security perspective is that there is a more significant
impact when a host OS with user applications and interfaces is running
outside of a VM at a level lower than the other VMs (i.e., a Type 2
architecture). Because of its architecture, the Type 2 environment increases the
potential risk of attacks against the host OS. For example, a laptop running VMware
with a Linux VM on a Windows XP system inherits the attack surface of both
OSs, plus the virtualization code (VMM).1 ALIZATION TALIZATION MANAGEMENT ROLES Typically, the VMware Infrastructure is managed by
several users performing different roles. The roles assumed by administrators
are the Virtualization Server Administrator, Virtual Machine Administrator, and
Guest Administrator. VMware Infrastructure users may have different roles
and responsibilities, but some functional overlap may occur. The roles
assumed by administrators are configured in VMS and are defined to provide
role responsibilities: ·
Virtual Server
Administrator — this role is responsible for installing and configuring the
ESX Server hardware, storage, physical and virtual networks, service console,
and management applications. ·
Virtual Machine
Administrator — this role is responsible for creating and configuring virtual
machines, virtual networks, virtual machine resources, and security policies.
The Virtual Machine Administrator creates, maintains, and provisions virtual
machines. ·
Guest Administrator — this
role is responsible for managing a guest virtual machine or machines. Tasks
typically performed by Guest Administrators include connecting virtual
devices, adding system updates, and managing applications that may reside on
the operating system. Figure 3: Type 2
virtualized environment Virtual Threats Some threats to virtualized
systems are general in nature, as they are inherent threats to all
computerized systems (such as denial-of-service, or DoS, attacks). Other
threats and vulnerabilities, however, are unique to virtual machines. Many VM
vulnerabilities stem from the fact that vulnerability in one VM system can be
exploited to attack other VM systems or the host systems, as multiple virtual
machines share the same physical hardware, as shown in Figure 4. Various organizations are currently
conducting security analysis and proofof-concept (PoC) attacks against
virtualized systems, and recently published research regarding security in
virtual environments highlights some of the vulnerabilities exposed to any
malicious-minded individuals: ·
Shared
clipboard —
Shared clipboard technology allows data to be transferred between VMs and the
host, providing a means of moving data between malicious programs in VMs of
different security realms. ·
Keystroke
logging — Some VM technologies enable
the logging of keystrokes and screen updates to be passed across virtual
terminals in the virtual machine, writing to host files and permitting the
monitoring of encrypted terminal connections inside the VM. ·
VM
monitoring from the host —
Because all network packets coming from or going to a VM pass through the
host, the host may be able to affect the VM by the following: 1. Starting, stopping, pausing, and
restart VMs 2. Monitoring and configuring resources available
to the VMs, including CPU, memory, disk, and network usage of VMs 3. Adjusting the number of CPUs, amount
of memory, amount and number of virtual disks, and number of virtual network
interfaces available to a VM 4. Monitoring the applications running
inside the VM 5.
Viewing,
copying, and modifying data stored on the VM’s virtual disks ·
Virtual
machine monitoring from another VM —
Usually, VMs should not be able to directly access one another’s virtual disks
on the host. However, if the VM platform uses a virtual hub or switch to
connect the VMs to the host, then intruders may be able to use a hacker
technique known as “ARP poisoning” to redirect packets going to or from the
other VM for sniffing. ·
Virtual
machine backdoors — A
backdoor, covert communications channel between the guest and host could
allow intruders to perform potentially dangerous operations Table 5-1 shows how VMware’s ESX
server vulnerabilities can be categorized, as interpreted by the DoD . Figure 4: Basic VM system vulnerability According to the Burton Group five
immutable laws of virtualization security must be understood and used to
drive security decisions: Law 1: All existing OS-level
attacks work in the exact same way. Law 2: The hypervisor attack
surface is additive to a system’s risk profile. Law 3: Separating functionality
and/or content into VMs will reduce risk. Law 4: Aggregating functions and
resources onto a physical platform will increase risk. Law 5: A system containing a
“trusted” VM on an “untrusted” host has a higher risk level than a system
containing a “trusted” host with an “untrusted” VM.3 The current major virtualization
vendors are VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix Systems XenServer (based on
the Xen open-source hypervisor). Table 5-1: ESX
Server Application Vulnerability Severity Code Definitions
----------------------------------REFERENCE {book: “Cloud Security, Wiley Pub, page number: 157-161}
Unit-04/Lecture-06 Cloud computing security architecture With all the
advantages of the cloud paradigm and its potential for decreasing costs and
reducing the time required to start new initiatives, cloud security will
always be a major concern. Virtualized resources, geographically dispersed
servers, and co-location of processing and storage pose challenges and
opportunities for cloud providers and users. The security posture
of a cloud system is based on its security architecture. While there is no
standard definition for security architecture, the Open Security Alliance
(OSA) defines security architecture as “the design artifacts that
describe how the security controls (= security countermeasures) are
positioned, and how they relate to the overall IT Architecture. A second definition
developed by the Information Security Society Switzerland (ISSS) describes a security
architecture as “a cohesive security design, which addresses the
requirements (e.g., authentication, authorization, etc.) and in particular the
risks of a particular environment/scenario, and specifies what security controls
are to be applied where. Architectural Considerations A variety of factors
affect the implementation and performance of cloud security architecture.
There are general issues involving regulatory requirements, adherence to
standards, security management, information classification, and security
awareness. Then there are more specific architecturally related areas, including
trusted hardware and software, providing for a secure execution environment,
establishing secure communications, and hardware augmentation through micro architectures.
These important concepts are addressed in this section. General Issues A variety of topics
influence and directly affect the cloud security architecture. They include
such factors as compliance, security management, administrative issues,
controls, and security awareness. Compliance with legal regulations should be
supported by the cloud security architecture. As a corollary, the cloud
security policy should address classification of information, what entities
can potentially access information, under what conditions the access has to
be provided, the geographical jurisdiction of the stored data, and whether or
not the access is appropriate. Proper controls should be determined and
verified with assurance methods, and appropriate personnel awareness education
should be put in place. Compliance In a public cloud
environment, the provider does not normally inform the clients of the storage
location of their data. In fact, the distribution of processing and data
storage is one of the cloud’s fundamental characteristics. However, the cloud
provider should cooperate to consider the client’s data location
requirements. In addition, the
cloud vendor should provide transparency to the client by supplying information
about storage used, processing characteristics, and other relevant account
information. Another compliance issue is the accessibility of a client’s data
by the provider’s system engineers and certain other employees. This factor is a
necessary part of providing and maintaining cloud services, but the act of
acquiring sensitive information should be monitored, controlled, and
protected by safeguards such as separation of duties. In situations where information
is stored in a foreign jurisdiction, the ability of local law enforcement agencies
to access a client’s sensitive data is a concern. For example, this scenario
might occur when a government entity conducts a computer forensics investigation
of a cloud provider under suspicion of illegal activity. Security Management Security
architecture involves effective security management to realize the benefits
of cloud computation. Proper cloud security management and administration should
identify management issues in critical areas such as access control,
vulnerability analysis, change control, incident response, fault tolerance, and
disaster recovery and business continuity planning. These areas are enhanced
and supported by the proper application and verification of cloud security
controls. Controls The objective of
cloud security controls is to reduce vulnerabilities to a tolerable level and
minimize the effects of an attack. To achieve this, an organization must
determine what impact an attack might have, and the likelihood of loss. Examples of loss are
compromise of sensitive information, financial embezzlement, loss of
reputation, and physical destruction of resources. The process of analyzing
various threat scenarios and producing a representative value for the
estimated potential loss is known as a risk analysis (RA). Controls
function as countermeasures for vulnerabilities. There are many kinds of
controls, but they are generally categorized into one of the following four
types:1 ·
Deterrent controls — reduce the likelihood of a deliberate attack. ·
Preventative controls — Protect vulnerabilities and make an attack unsuccessful or reduce its
impact. Preventative controls inhibit attempts to violate security policy. ·
Corrective controls — reduce the effect of an attack. ·
Detective controls — Discover attacks and trigger preventative or corrective controls. Detective
controls warn of violations or attempted violations of security policy and
include such controls as intrusion detection systems, organizational
policies, video cameras, and motion detectors. Complementary Actions ·
Additional activities involved in cloud security management include the
following: Management and
monitoring of service levels and service-level agreements ·
Acquisition of adequate data to identify and analyze problem situations through
instrumentation and dashboards ·
Reduction of the loss of critical information caused by lack of
controls. ·
Proper management of data on an organization’s distributed computing resources.
Data centralized on the cloud reduces the potential for data loss in
organizations with large numbers of laptop computers and other personal
computing devices. ·
Monitoring of centrally stored cloud information, as opposed to having to
examine data distributed throughout an organization on a variety of computing
and storage devices. ·
Provisioning for rapid recovery from problem situations. Cloud security
management should also foster improved capabilities to conduct forensic
analysis on cloud-based information using a network forensic model. This
model will provide for more rapid acquisition and verification of evidence,
such as taking advantage of automatic hashing that is applied when storing
data on a cloud. Cloud security
management can also be enhanced by the selective use of automation and by the
application of emerging cloud management standards to areas such as
interoperable security mechanisms, quality of service, accounting,
provisioning, and API specifications. APIs provide for control of cloud
resources through program interfaces, and remote APIs should be managed to
ensure that they are documented and consistent. Cloud security
management should address applications with the goal of enterprise cost
containment through scalability, pay as you go models, on demand implementation
and provisioning, and reallocation of information management operational
activities to the cloud. Information Classification Another major area
that relates to compliance and can affect the cloud security architecture is
information classification. The information classification process also
supports disaster recovery planning and business continuity planning. Information Classification Objectives There are several
good reasons to classify information. Not all data has the same value to an
organization. For example, some data is more valuable to upper management,
because it aids them in making strategic long-range or short-range business
direction decisions. Some data, such as trade secrets, formulas, and new
product information, is so valuable that its loss could create a significant
problem for the enterprise in the marketplace — either by creating public
embarrassment or by causing a lack of credibility. For these reasons,
it is obvious that information classification has a higher, enterprise-level
benefit. Information stored in a cloud environment can have an impact on a
business globally, not just on the business unit or line operation levels.
Its primary purpose is to enhance confidentiality, integrity, and
availability, and minimize risks to the information. In addition, by focusing
the protection mechanisms and controls on the information areas that most need
it, you achieve a more efficient cost to-benefit ratio. Information classification
has the longest history in the government sector. Its value has long been
established, and it is a required component when securing trusted systems. In
this sector, information classification is used primarily to prevent the
unauthorized disclosure of information and the resultant failure of confidentiality. Information classification
supports privacy requirements and enables regulatory compliance. A company
might wish to employ classification to maintain a competitive edge in a tough
marketplace. There might also be sound legal reasons for an organization to
employ information classification on the cloud, such as to minimize liability
or to protect valuable business information. Information Classification Benefits In addition to the
aforementioned reasons, employing information classification has several
clear benefits to an organization engaged in cloud computing. Some of these
benefits are as follows: It demonstrates an
organization’s commitment to security protections. ·
It helps identify which information is the most sensitive or vital to an
organization. ·
It supports the tenets of confidentiality, integrity, and availability
as it pertains to data. ·
It helps identify which protections apply to which information. ·
It might be required for regulatory, compliance, or legal reasons. Unit-04/Lecture-07 Cloud computing security
architecture(....Continued) Information Classification Concepts The information that
an organization processes must be classified according to the organization’s
sensitivity to its loss or disclosure. The information system owner is
responsible for defining the sensitivity level of the data. Classification according
to a defined classification scheme enables security controls to be properly
implemented. The following
classification terms are typical of those used in the private sector and are
applicable to cloud data: ·
Public data — Information that is similar to unclassified information; all of a
company’s information that does not fit into any of the next categories can
be considered public. While its unauthorized disclosure may be against
policy, it is not expected to impact seriously or adversely the organization,
its employees, and/or its customers. ·
Sensitive data — Information that requires a higher level of classification than normal
data. This information is protected from a loss of confidentiality as well as
from a loss of integrity due to an unauthorized alteration. This classification
applies to information that requires special precautions to ensure its
integrity by protecting it from unauthorized modification or deletion. It is
information that requires a higher-than-normal assurance of accuracy and
completeness. ·
Private data — this classification applies to personal information that is intended
for use within the organization. Its unauthorized disclosure could seriously
and adversely impact the organization and/or its employees. For example,
salary levels and medical information are considered private. ·
Confidential data — this classification applies to the most sensitive business information
that is intended strictly for use within the organization. Its unauthorized
disclosure could seriously and adversely impact the organization, its
stockholders, its business partners, and/or its customers. This information
is exempt from disclosure under the provisions of the Freedom of Information
Act or other applicable federal laws or regulations. For example,
information about new product development, trade secrets, and merger negotiations
is considered confidential. Secure Execution Environments and Communications In a cloud
environment, applications are run on different servers in a distributed mode.
These applications interact with the outside world and other applications and
may contain sensitive information whose inappropriate access would be harmful
to a client. In addition, cloud computing is increasingly being used to
manage and store huge amounts of data in database applications that are also
co-located with other users’ information. Thus, it is extremely important for
the cloud supplier to provide a secure execution environment and secure communications
for client applications and storage. Secure Execution Environment Configuring
computing platforms for secure execution is a complex task; and in many
instances it is not performed properly because of the large number of parameters
that are involved. This provides opportunities for malware to exploit vulnerabilities,
such as downloading code embedded in data and having the code executed at a
high privilege level. In cloud computing,
the major burden of establishing a secure execution environment is
transferred from the client to the cloud provider. However, protected data
transfers must be established through strong authentication mechanisms, and
the client must have practices in place to address the privacy and confidentiality
of information that is exchanged with the cloud. In fact, the client’s port
to the cloud might provide an attack path if not properly provisioned with
security measures. Therefore, the client needs assurance that computations and
data exchanges are conducted in a secure environment. This assurance is affected
by trust enabled by cryptographic methods. Also, research into areas such as
compiler-based virtual machines promises a more secure execution environment
for operating systems. Another major
concern in secure execution of code is the widespread use of “unsafe”
programming languages such as C and C++ instead of more secure languages such
as object-oriented Java and structured, object-oriented C#. Secure Communications As opposed to having
managed, secure communications among the computing resources internal to an
organization, movement of applications to the cloud requires a re-evaluation
of communications security. These communications apply to both data in motion
and data at rest. Secure cloud
communications involves the structures, transmission methods, transport
formats, and security measures that provide confidentiality, integrity, availability,
and authentication for transmissions over private and public communications
networks. Secure cloud computing communications should ensure the following: ·
Confidentiality — ensures that only those who are supposed to access data can retrieve
it. Loss of confidentiality can occur through the intentional release of
private company information or through a misapplication of network rights.
Some of the elements of telecommunications used to ensure confidentiality are
as follows: §
Network security protocols §
Network authentication services §
Data encryption services ·
Integrity — ensures that data has not been changed due to an accident or malice.
Integrity is the guarantee that the message sent is the message received and
that the message is not intentionally or unintentionally altered. Integrity
also contains the concept of non repudiation of a message source. Some of the
constituents of integrity are as follows: §
Firewall services §
Communications Security Management §
Intrusion detection services ·
Availability — Ensures that data is accessible when and where it is needed, and that
connectivity is accessible when needed, allowing authorized users to access
the network or systems. Also included in that assurance is the guarantee that
security services for the security practitioner are usable when they are
needed. Some of the elements that are used to ensure availability are as
follows: §
Fault tolerance for data availability, such as backups and redundant disk
systems §
Acceptable logins and operating process performances § Reliable and interoperable security
processes and network security mechanisms APIs Common
vulnerabilities such as weak antivirus software, unattended computing platforms,
poor passwords, weak authentication mechanisms, and inadequate intrusion
detection that can impact communications must be more stringently analyzed,
and proper APIs must be used. For example, in
using IaaS, a cloud client typically communicates with cloud server instances
through Representational State Transfer (REST) client/server model or Simple
Object Access Protocol (SOAP) APIs. REST is software architecture such as
used in the World Wide Web and was developed with the HTTP/1.1 protocol. With
SOAP, applications running on different operating systems and using different
programming languages can communicate with each other. Virtual Private Networks Another important
method to secure cloud communications is through a virtual private network
(VPN). A VPN is created by building a secure communications link between two
nodes by emulating the properties of a point-to-point private link. A
VPN can be used to facilitate secure remote access into the cloud, securely
connect two networks together, or create a secure data tunnel within a
network. The portion of the
link in which the private data is encapsulated is known as the tunnel.
It may be referred to as a secure, encrypted tunnel, although it’s more
accurately defined as an encapsulated tunnel, as encryption may or may not be
used. To emulate a point-to-point link, data is encapsulated, or wrapped,
with a header that provides routing information. Most often the data is
encrypted for confidentiality. This encrypted part of the link is considered
the actual virtual private network connection. Figure 5 shows a common VPN
configuration with example IP addresses for remote access into an
organization’s intranet through the Internet. Address 192.168.123.2 designates
the organization’s router. Figure 5: VPN configuration The two general
types of VPNs relevant to cloud computing are remote access and
network-to-network. These VPN types are described in the following sections. Remote Access VPNs A VPN can be configured
to provide remote access to corporate resources over the public Internet to
maintain confidentiality and integrity. This configuration enables the remote
user to utilize whatever local ISP is available to access the Internet
without forcing the user to make a long-distance or 800 call to a third-party
access provider. Using the connection to the local ISP, the VPN software
creates a virtual private network between the dial-up user and the corporate
VPN server across the Internet. Figure 6 shows a remote user VPN connection. Figure 6: Remote access VPN configuration Network-to-Network VPNs A VPN is commonly
used to connect two networks, perhaps the main corporate LAN and a remote
branch office LAN, through the Internet. This connection can use either
dedicated lines to the Internet or dial-up connections to the Internet. However, the
corporate hub router that acts as a VPN server must be connected to a local
ISP with a dedicated line if the VPN server needs to be available 24/7. The
VPN software uses the connection to the local ISP to create a VPN tunnel
between the branch office router and the corporate hub router across the
Internet. Figure 7 shows a
remote branch office connected to the corporate main office using a VPN
tunnel through the Internet.
Figure 7: A network-to-network VPN configuration VPN Tunnelling Tunnelling is a
method of transferring data from one network to another network by
encapsulating the packets in an additional header. The additional header provides
routing information so that the encapsulated payload can traverse the intermediate
networks, as shown in Figure 8. For a tunnel to be
established, both the tunnel client and the tunnel server must be using the
same tunnelling protocol. Tunnelling technology can be based on either a
Layer 2 or a Layer 3 tunnelling protocol. These layers correspond to the Open
Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model. Tunnelling, and the
use of a VPN, is not intended as a substitute for encryption/ decryption. In
cases where a high level of security is necessary, the strongest possible
encryption should be used within the VPN itself, and tunnelling should serve
only as a convenience. A popular tunnelling
protocol for network-to-network connectivity is IPSec, which encapsulates IP
packets in an additional IP header. IPSec operates at the Network Layer of
the OSI Reference Model and allows multiple simultaneous tunnels. IPSec
contains the functionality to encrypt and authenticate IP data. It is built into the
new IPv6 standard and is used as an add-on to the current IPv4. IPSec tunnel
mode allows IP packets to be encrypted and then encapsulated in an IP header
to be sent across a corporate IP Intranet work or a public IP Internetwork,
such as the Internet. Figure 8: A VPN tunnel and payload IPSec uses an
authentication header (AH) to provide source authentication and integrity
without encryption, and it uses the Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) to
provide authentication and integrity along with encryption. With IPSec, only
the sender and recipient know the key. If the authentication data is valid, then
the recipient knows that the communication came from the sender and was not
changed in transit. Public Key Infrastructure and Encryption Key Management To secure
communications, data that is being exchanged with a cloud should be
encrypted, calls to remote servers should be examined for imbedded malware,
and digital certificates should be employed and managed. A certification
process can be used to bind individuals to their public keys as used in public
key cryptography. A certificate authority (CA) acts as notary by
verifying a person’s identity and issuing a certificate that vouches for a
public key of the named individual. This certification agent signs the
certificate with its own private key. Therefore, the individual is verified
as the sender if that person’s public key opens the data. The certificate
contains the subject’s name, the subject’s public key, the name of the
certificate authority, and the period in which the certificate is valid. To verify
the CA’s signature, its public key must be cross-certified with another CA.
(The X.509 standard defines the format for public key certificates.) This
certificate is then sent to a repository, which holds the certificates and certificate
revocation lists (CRLs) that denote the revoked certificates. Figure 9
illustrates the use of digital certificates in a transaction between a
subscribing entity and a transacting party. Digital certificates are
discussed in more detail in the following sections. The integration of
digital signatures and certificates and the other services required for
e-commerce is called the public key infrastructure (PKI). These services
provide integrity, access control, confidentiality, authentication, and non repudiation
for electronic transactions. The PKI includes the following elements: ·
Digital certificates ·
Certificate authority (CA) ·
Registration authorities ·
Policies and procedures ·
Certificate revocation ·
Non repudiation support ·
Time stamping ·
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) ·
Security-enabled applications Digital Certificates The digital certificate
and management of the certificate are major components of PKI. Remember: The
purpose of a digital certificate is to verify to all that an individual’s
public key — posted on a public “key ring” — is actually his or hers. A
trusted, third-party CA can verify that the public key is that of the named
individual and then issue a certificate attesting to that fact. The CA
accomplishes the certification by digitally signing the individual’s public
key and associated information. Certificates and
CRLs can be held in a repository, with responsibilities defined between the
repository and the CA. The repository access protocol determines how these
responsibilities are assigned. In one protocol, the repository interacts with
other repositories, CAs, and users. The CA deposits its certificates and CRLs
into the repository. The users can then access the repository for this
information. Figure 9: A transaction with digital certificates ---------------------------------REFERENCE {book: “Cloud Security, Wiley Pub, page number: 177-198}
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Unit-04/Lecture-08 Some Important Information Related to
Virtualization What is virtualization?
Virtualization is software that separates physical
infrastructures to create various dedicated resources. It is the fundamental
technology that powers cloud computing. "Virtualization software makes it possible to run
multiple operating systems and multiple applications on the same server at
the same time," said Mike Adams, director of product marketing at
VMware, a pioneer in virtualization and cloud
software and services. "It enables businesses to reduce IT costs while
increasing the efficiency, utilization and flexibility of their existing
computer hardware." The
technology behind virtualization is known as a virtual machine monitor (VMM)
or virtual manager, which separates compute environments from the actual
physical infrastructure. Virtualization
makes servers, workstations, storage and other systems independent of the
physical hardware layer, said John Livesay, vice president of InfraNet, a
network infrastructure services provider. "This is done by installing a
Hypervisor on top of the hardware layer, where the systems are then
installed." How is virtualization
different from cloud computing?
Essentially, virtualization differs from cloud
computing because virtualization is software that manipulates hardware,
while cloud computing refers to a service that results from that manipulation. "Virtualization
is a foundational element of cloud computing and helps deliver on the value
of cloud computing," Adams said. "Cloud computing is the delivery
of shared computing resources, software or data — as a service and on-demand
through the Internet." Most of the confusion occurs because virtualization and cloud
computing work together to provide different types of services, as is the
case with private clouds. The cloud
can, and most often does, include virtualization products to deliver the
compute service, said Rick Philips, vice president of compute solutions at IT
firm Weidenhammer. "The difference is that a true cloud provides
self-service capability, elasticity, automated management, scalability and
pay-as you go service that is not inherent in virtualization." What are the advantages of a virtualized environment over the cloud?
To best understand the advantages of virtualization, consider
the difference between private and public clouds. "Private
cloud computing means the client owns or leases the hardware and software
that provides the consumption model," Livesay said. With public cloud
computing, users pay for resources based on usage. "You pay for
resources as you go, as you consume them, from a [vendor] that is providing such
resources to multiple clients, often in a co-tenant scenario." A private
cloud, in its own virtualized environment, gives users the best of both
worlds. It can give users more control and the flexibility of managing their
own systems, while providing the consumption benefits of cloud computing,
Livesay said. On the
other hand, a public cloud is an environment open to many users, built to
serve multi-tenanted requirements, Philips said. "There are some risks
associated here," he said, such as having bad neighbors and potential
latency in performance. In
contrast, with virtualization, companies can maintain and secure their own
"castle," Philips said. This "castle" provides the
following benefits: ·
Maximize resources — Virtualization can reduce the number of physical systems you
need to acquire, and you can get more value out of the servers. Most
traditionally built systems are underutilized. Virtualization allows maximum
use of the hardware investment. ·
·
Multiple systems — with virtualization, you can also run multiple types of
applications and even run different operating systems for
those applications on the same physical hardware. ·
·
IT budget integration — when you use virtualization, management, administration and
all the attendant requirements of managing your own infrastructure remain a
direct cost of your IT operation. ·
How do you know if your business needs a virtualization solution?
Determining
whether or not virtualization is the best solution for a business requires an
in-depth analysis of the organization's specific needs and requirements. "Some
of the items we discuss with customers when they are evaluating private cloud
— virtualization — versus cloud computing include who is going to be
providing the support and how challenging is integration with other systems,"
Livesay said. You should
also consider costs — total cost of expenditure (TCO), operational
expenditures (OPEX) and capital expenditures (CAPEX) — how much management
the business can and want to do, scalability requirements, security needs and
how much feature development can be expected, Livesay said. "Generally
speaking, businesses who work more on an OPEX model that have less IT staff
and fewer security concerns are more cloud oriented," Livesay said.
"Businesses that need greater control for integration and security or
who work more on a CAPEX model would lean towards virtualization." How do businesses know if they should use a true cloud solution?
While
virtualization is the best solution for some organizations, a cloud solution
offers several benefits that are more suitable for other businesses. Philips
said cloud solutions are best for business with the following needs: ·
Outsourced IT — the day-to-day administration, care and feeding of
supporting systems move away from you to the service provider. This could
free up internal IT resources for higher-value business support and allow you
to put IT budget dollars toward efforts that advance your business. ·
·
Quick setup — Cloud start-up is relatively quick and easy. Plus, servers,
appliances and software perpetual licenses go away when you use such a
service. ·
·
Pay-as-you-go — an example could be found in Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) applications
available today that allow the off-loading of basic IT requirements to cloud
service providers. You pay for what you need and use. But you do not
have to continue to invest in many of the products used to support the
network and systems, such as spam/anti-virus, encryption, data archiving,
email services and off-site storage. ·
·
Scalability — by using the cloud,
you can also temporarily scale your IT capacity by off-loading high-demand
compute requirements to an outside provider. As a result, as mentioned above,
you pay for only what you need and use, only at the time when you need it. Keep in mind,
however, that virtualization and cloud services are not end-all, be-all
solutions. Like any other technology or service a business adopts, things can
always change. "While
cloud computing and virtualization each have their own benefits, they are not
competing approaches," Adams said. "We view cloud computing as an
evolution of virtualization. Customers that virtualized their hardware
servers may adopt cloud computing over time for increased self-service,
scale, service delivery levels and agility." What should businesses look for in a virtualization provider?
Businesses
considering virtualization should think about the following questions, Adams
said: ·
Is it a tried and tested solution?
Research the vendor's track record of product innovation, success and customer
adoption. ·
Is there a vision and public roadmap for
the solution? You want to understand how the solution will advance and how it
will help your business in the long run. ·
What type of ecosystem support exists for
the solution? It's imperative that the vendor work with key business and
industry-specific independent software vendors (ISVs), as well as a wide
range of resellers, service providers and system integrators. ·
Does the solution support openness and
choice? As your business grows, you want the flexibility to evolve your
products and processes, and the ability to incorporate other technologies
over time. ---------------------------------REFERENCE {Internet link:
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5791-virtualization-vs-cloud-computing.html}
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