Different Perspectives of Cloud Security

Cloud storage systems can be considered to be a network of distributed datacenters that typically use cloud computing technology like virtualization and offer some kind of interface for storing data. To increase the availability of the data, it may be redundantly stored at different locations. Basic cloud storage is generally not designed to be accessed directly by users but rather incorporated into custom software using API. Cloud computing involves other processes besides storage. In this chapter, the authors discuss different viewpoints for cloud computing from the user, legal, security, and service provider perspectives. From the user viewpoint, the stored data creates a mirror of currently available local data. The backup feature allows users to recover any version of a previously stored data. Synchronization is the process of establishing consistency among the stored data. From the legal viewpoint, provisions regulating the user processing and storage of the data must have to be constant from when the data is stored in the cloud. The security viewpoint requires interaction with the Web application, data storage, and transmission. The service provider viewpoint requires the maximum level of cloud storage service at the minimum cost.