Storage Provisioning and Networking - Deploying and Managing a Cloud Infrastructure - page 285

Cloud Security Cloud privacy and security is the most debated issue in cloud comput-
ing. Cloud security issues have generally been attributed to access controls, malicious
software, exploitation through bugs/viruses/malware, and multitenancy. Most of these
issues are resolved through access control policies and surveillance, the latest security
patches, anonymization for privacy, and ID-based access for stored data objects. Careful
planning and policy-driven data storage architecture can help mitigate most of the secu-
rity and privacy problems.
Data Usage Laws With the age of big data, a rising concern throughout the computing
and information technology domain is compliance with laws and regulations. Different
regions and countries have their own distinct laws regarding data capture, procurement,
processing, and usage. Organizations should take into account local and international
regulations concerning data and information before making any choices for particular
cloud service providers. Moreover, it is best for organizations that own or possess private
and confidential user data to deploy their own infrastructure or use a cloud service pro-
vider that is based in the same region or country where the confidential data is captured
or recorded (with consent from the user, such as a telecom operator or a DSL connection
provider). This makes it easier for the organization to comply with regional or local legal
regulations concerning data and information.
Supplier Lifetime Another rising concern of cloud storage service is supplier lifetime, also
known as vendor lock-in. There are three types of vendor lock-in: platform lock-in, tools or
services and applications lock-in, and data lock-in. Organizations should be keen on using
heterogeneous platforms to prevent difficult scenarios. For example, where an organization
cannot migrate from one platform to another, a service or an application is deemed incom-
patible for other platforms and data is bound by regional or local regulations where the
provider resides.