Security in the Cloud Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Security in the Cloud - Essay Example Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most exciting technologies in the modern world as institutions and individuals seek to reduce cost while at the same time increase scalability and flexibility for computing processes and data storage. Anthes (2010) observe that due to cloud computing, computing may be organized as a public utility in the near future. He further argues that cloud computing bring people closer and promises elasticity, economy, transparency, and convenience. However, despite the many benefits that comes with cloud computing, there is a thorny issue of privacy and security. This paper will discuss security in the cloud; it will focus on the issue of security as regards the concept of cloud computing. Concepts Related to Cloud Computing Cloud computing is defined as the management and provision of applications, information, software, and resources as services over the cloud based on demand (Singh and Shrivastava, 2012). This technology uses the central remote serv ers and internet to maintain applications and data. It is broken down into three segments that include connectivity, storage, and application, as demonstrated in the diagram below. Cloud computing allows businesses and consumers to use applications necessarily without installation and to access their files and data at any computer that has internet access. It is a network-based environment providing reliable information technology services to users via the internet. It provides services and resources based on demand across the internet. In addition, it allows developers to create applications and run those applications in the internet. It is as a result of this flexibility that cloud computing is considered as a very attractive solution to many institutions, enterprises and individuals. Many users also prefer it because it heavily cut down expenses (Rani et al, 2012). A good example of cloud computing is Hotmail, Gmail, and yahoo email. While using cloud computing, one does not need a server or software. All that one need is simply an internet access and one can start accessing, sending and receiving information. The email and server management is all in the cloud and is managed completely by the cloud or internet service provider such as Google (Singh and Shrivastava, 2012). The diagram below shows the services of cloud computing: Source: Singh and Shrivastava (2012) The fact that cloud computing has numerous benefits to individuals and enterprises cannot be disputed. However, there is a major concern that relates to cloud computing; how security is taken care of and implemented. Cloud computing technology allows for centralization of bandwidth, processing, memory and storage thus making it a much more inefficient and insecure form of computing (Singh and Shrivastava, 2012). While in a sense cloud computing simplifies some of issues of security for consumers by outsourcing them to a different party, it at the same time signifies insecurity to the same consume rs. Complacency by the cloud users to think that they do not have to worry concerning their data and software because it is in the hand of experts is a mistake (Anthes, 2010). Cloud computing, in general has several customers from ordinary users, enterprises, and academia who have varying motivation of moving to cloud. Therefore, cloud