Security Challenges in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a very promising technology that helps companies reduce operating costs while increasing efficiency. The most beneficial features of using cloud computing include fast and easy deployment, the pay-per-use model, a reduction of in-house IT costs.  Even though cloud computing is heavily used today, security for cloud computing has still been an issue and still needs modifications.  In order to promote the widespread use of cloud computing, security issues must be addressed. The main cloud security issues are categorized as traditional and new cloud security challenges. The traditional security challenge of authentication and authorization applications for enterprises need to be cater more to work with a cloud environment. The availability of cloud service providers is also a big concern, since if the cloud service is down it can affect customers. Cloud providers using hypervisor and virtual machines may also have vulnerabilities. A compromise of a virtual machine can affect all users on the same physical server. Cloud providers need to reconsider traditional security concerns from different perspectives.

The most cloud security challenge for end-users as they utilize the cloud services and store their data is about privacy and user data confidentiality. Users want to know where their data is stored and who is in control of that information in addition to the owners. They also want to know that their information is not accessed and used illegally. Cloud computing moves most of the IT infrastructure and data storage to off-premises third-party providers. Due to this scheme the cloud faces two important consequences: a) Data owners have only limited control over the IT infrastructure, therefore data owners must establish a mechanism to mandate the enforcement of their security policies to ensure data confidentiality and integrity. b) Cloud service providers have excessive privileges, allowing them extensive control and ability to modify users IT systems and data.

There are many challenges in cloud computing, most dealing with security issues. As the cloud is more used in enterprises now and regular network users these challenges must be accommodated for and be fixed. To read more on this article click here!

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing refers to both the applications delivered as services over the internet and the hardware and systems software in the data centers that provide those services. Cloud computing services have long been referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). From a hardware stand point and pricing point of view, three aspects are new in cloud computing. 1) The appearance of infinite computing resources available on demand, quickly enough to eliminate the need for cloud computing users to plan ahead for provisioning. 2) The elimination of an up-front commitment by cloud users which allows companies to start small and increase in storage resources only when there is a need. 3) The ability to pay for use of computing resources on a short-term basis as needed and release them when needed. This allows for rewarding conservation by letting machines and storage go when they are no longer useful.

The construction and operation of extremely large-scale, commodity-computer data centers at low-cost locations was the key component of cloud computing. Other necessities that need to decrease in cost are electricity, network bandwidth, operations, software and hardware available at these very large economies of scale. There are 10 obstacles and opportunities for cloud computing to grow. These consist of: availability/business continuity (use multiple cloud providers), data lock-in ( standardize APIs), data confidentiality and auditability (deploy encryption, VLANsm firewalls), data transfer bottlenecks (FedExing disks, higher BW switches), performance unpredictability (improved VM support, flash memory, gang schedule VMs), scalable storage (invent scalable store), bugs in large distributed systems (invent debugger that relies on distributed VMs), scaling quickly (invent auto-scalar that relies on ML, snapshots for conservation), reputation fate sharing ( offer reputation-guarding services like those for email), software licensing (pay for use licenses). Cloud computing will continue to grow tremendously, so developers should take it into account of what techniques can be discovered and worked upon.

Article!

Backup and Archive

Cloud computing has been taking over the traditional backup fast and still gives consumers availability of their data. This week’s blog is on a novel about NASA and their usage of cloud computing. In 2010, NASA Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project became their first mission to incorporate a public cloud into its daily mission-critical operations. NASA goal has been to obtain as much durability as possible with minimal cost. Their goal is also to significantly reduce cost compared to traditional backup solutions while enhancing the durability and availability of their data. One of the primary reasons organizations approach the cloud is because of the variable pricing models. Compliance, privacy and integrity of the data are also considered high priority requirements. NASA backup process to the cloud, along with the variable cost model of cloud storage, provides   a compelling alternative to the traditional backup processes IT systems used.

The cloud data transfer client can support speeds that exceed common data backup strategies such as using an external hard drive or DVD archiving. The seamless integration of archiving, compressing and encryption, along with unlimited storage adds to the convenience of cloud storage. The automated auditing ensures that backups are reliable and up to date and when recovery is needed, data can be restored in a very short amount of time. NASA software is modular they are currently only employing Amazon S3 as the backup data store. Their cloud computing setup runs on very modest machines with very few tweaks in compression and encryption parameters. 

Novel: https://blackboard.ncat.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2060041-dt-content-rid-6615846_2/courses/ITT_305002.201510/BackupMERData.pdf

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the networking cloud. It is designed to make web-scale cloud computing easier for developers. Every application needs services and Amazon EC2 provides many. It can provide services for any application size whether it’s big or small. EC2 services also allows for your application services to be resized if the application grows overtime.  Amazon allows you to obtain your information fast and inexpensively. The benefit of this is that you won’t have to worry about having storage onsite and taking up space. You simply choose the instances that you want, the operating system and the storage quantity that you need.  Amazon has many instance types designed for the different use cases. These instances can be optimized for CPU, Memory, storage and GPU to give you the right performance and pricing for your task. They also have a variety of pricing options to help every business. EC2 gives you root control over your instances to modify them the way you want. Now let’s talk about why EC2 is reliable.

The EC2 service runs within Amazon’s proven network infrastructure and data centers. The service level agreement commitment is 99.95% availability. EC2 also works in coincidence with Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) with an IP (Internet Protocol) range that you desire. VPC allows you to control inbound and outbound network access to and from your domain. The EC2 instance Purchasing Option such as; On-demand instances, reserved instances and spot instances gives you financial benefits of Amazon’s scale. Amazon EC2 is certainly a top notch storage provider as big name applications use them. Netflix uses the service as well as AutoDesk, NASA/JPL , Animoto, Recovery.gov, bankinter and many more. To learn more about Amazon EC2 and their other services click here. 

iOS 8.1: What you need to know

More than a week has passed since Apple released its update to iOS 8 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Apple seems to have fixed some of the problems that emerged after last month in iOS 8.0. iOS 8.1 problems are a big issues with some iPhone and iPad users ranging from bad Bluetooth to apps to random reboots. It has also been a growing trend of users saying that iOS 8.1 has made battery life drop. The iPhone’s history of bad battery has been known to decrease after months of heavy usage. Even though the new iPhone 6 and 6 plus battery life is supposed to be better than recent iPhones. This may be the biggest trending problem of the new update but there are still other problems that continue to be known by users.

 Landscape issues where the iPhone 6 would get stuck in landscape mode after moving from portrait mode has been cleaned up from iOS 8.0.2 but there still persist some issues that need to be cleaned up with it. Reloading the app sometimes fixes this glitch but I have heard of some users having to even restart the phone to make the problem go away. iMessenger has also had some bug issues. I read that one user had a group thread split into separate threads on its own. Alerts from iMessage have also been malfunctioning saying that a message was not received even though the person received the message due to their response. I would not download the new update until Apple fixes the bugs on iOS 8.1. So what should you iPhone users do in the meantime? Search the web for temporary fixes. Apple will continue to take up your already none expandable space on your phones to continue to fix ongoing problems. Here is a link to help with temporary bug fixes.

Tablets being a workplace standard

In the last 5 years, tablets have been one of the most growing and innovative technology devices. Tablets have killed the netbook market and are fast transforming the traditional PC and laptop. Consumers now are choosing tablets over laptops because some tablets can offer the same features while costing less money. Tablets are lightweight, portable, fast start up, easy web browsing and for loading presentations. Companies are now requesting tablets to be a workplace standard. Nine in ten IT managers worldwide said tablets are either a part of their workplace or currently being evaluated. The 68% of those in the UK already offer the devices. Android takes the top spot for supplied tablet operating systems in the UK with 69% of organizations supplying android tablets to workers. Tablets allow workers to be more flexible in their line of work. Many people now prefer to use tablets than PCs and smartphones for small task such as shopping. In the UK more than half of technology managers believe tablets have increased employee productivity by 20% through increasing their flexibility. This includes another 59% claiming tablets have fully met the requirements they had expected. There are companies in the US that have an employee’s BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy to allow flexibility in their workplace. Most companies have not started supplying their employees with tablets like the UK. This could be due to the concern of data security. Company’s security can still be hacked through portable devices. As there is a solution to everything, I believe security won’t continue to be an issue for companies to allow employees to BYOD. Tablets are not needed in the workplace but they do make like a little easier when completing task and not having to sit at a desk to do all of your work. 

More about tablets being a workplace standard.

Why you should get a tablet?

Cloud Storage and Security.

Cloud storage is a service model in which data is upheld, managed and backed up to a remote location for user access through a network (usually the internet). Cloud storage has become really popular in the last few years and it looks to be a big part of the future moving forward. When I think of cloud storage I think of Dropbox, Google Drive and Apple’s iCloud. These are the most popular cloud storage's that people use today. They are similar in providing users the ability to store data including media on their sites for later access. They also have automatic back-up capabilities for smartphones. When we talk about data over the internet, security always has to be at the front lawn ready to stop hackers.

                Security for cloud storage is definitely one of the major concerns that companies are trying to approach. Clients aren't likely to entrust companies with their data without a guarantee that they’ll be able to access this information at any time and without anyone being able to gain access to it. Yes user authentication (username and password) practices can only give them authorization to their accounts but is data at the remote storage systems vulnerable. Data security risks could include insecure file sharing, data leaks, hackers, data seizure by government, lack of file control, unknown location of servers and even cloud employee data snooping. There could be a lot of loop holes for cloud storage but I believe companies will continue to come up with solutions to make it more secure.

                I use cloud storage a lot particularly Dropbox and Google Drive. I haven’t had any data retrieval or security issues so far during my experiences. Cloud computing is becoming really big and widely used. It will be a big part of storage technology moving on in the future.

I recommend both Dropbox and Google drive for the convenience of storing data online. 

Cloud storage definition: http://searchcloudstorage.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-storage