Find Out Which Cloud model Fits for Your Security Concerns

Our data is stored in the cloud in an environment owned by our cloud provider. We utilize physical resources, data centers, and underlying infrastructure with other clients. However, none of us physically own this equipment or control the infrastructure. So, how can we define security borders in cloud models?

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

In this type of cloud model, you have the biggest responsibility. The cloud platform is in charge of the data center’s buildings, connections, electricity, and other physical assets that will house your programs and data. You, on the other hand, are in charge of everything, such as installing and patching, and managing the operating system and software. And finally, you are responsible for supplying and handling all your data.

As for network security, you can not fully monitor network traffic inside the data center that belongs to the cloud provider. Your cloud platform may not let you install surveillance tools on its data centers. Also, the cloud provider may not want to share infrastructure and networking data with you.

When auditing is limited or complicated, this has an impact on security policy and regulatory compliance. Because when a business migrates to the cloud, its security policy must be dramatically altered to reflect the new limits. You need to handle this at the beginning of the migration plan and contact the authorities first. Some authorities may need regular audits of the environment and direct inspection of network traffic and event logs.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The cloud provider is accountable for establishing, supporting, and managing the operating systems and the infrastructure. You have less control in the PaaS environment. You will need to make further changes to the customer’s security policy and measures to guarantee regulatory compliance. You can still monitor and assess software events since you own the applications executing on the OS. You are in charge of patching and maintaining the installed programs. However, administration and upgrading of the operating system are now your cloud provider’s responsibility. Although you aren’t responsible for operational and security controls, PaaS provides efficiency.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

You will not own the hardware, software, or management of either in SaaS. You will merely supply and process data. You are responsible for all legislative and contractual duties relating to your data protection, but you have limited control over how that data is handled. The cloud platform is nearly entirely accountable for the whole supervision of protection policies, and their execution.

A general overview

In IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, you don’t have control over physical access to the equipment containing your data. Anybody who can access your resources physically poses a security risk to your data. We can take some actions to enhance data protection in the cloud as follows:

• Assure that the cloud provider conducts a rigid investigation and ongoing supervision of all workforce having facility access.

• Ensure that your provider implements extreme physical security measures at the data centers.

• Encrypt data at rest and in transit in the cloud.

You can also consider deploying your resources in multiple availability zones as a general convention.

Conclusion

We briefly covered security issues for different cloud models. Even when controls or other risk-reduction strategies are applied, the chance of losing physical access still persists.

Each cloud service provider has its own unique set of features and services, which makes each contract unique. Your rights and duties will change depending on the platform. Now that you have read this blog post, you’ll have no trouble deciding which model offers the most benefit for your security needs.

See also

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