Issues and challenges of data security in a cloud computing environment

Abstract

Now customers can opt for software and information technology services according to his requirements and can get these services on a leased basis from the network service provider and this has the facility to scale its requirements to up or down. This service is known as cloud computing, provided by the infrastructure provider which is a third party provider. Cloud computing provides many advantages to the customer like scalability, better economics of scaling, its ability to recover from problems, its ability to outsource non-core activities and flexibility. Cloud computing is a better option for the organizations to take as their best option without any initial investment and day by day frequent and heavy use of cloud computing is increasing but despite all the benefits a cloud offers to an organization there are certain doubts and threats regarding the security issues associated with a cloud computing platform. The security issues primarily involve the external control over organizational structure and management and personal and private data of the organization can be compromised. Personal and private data in this computing environment has a very high risk of breach of confidentiality, integrity and availability. Growth of cloud computing is mainly hampered due to these security concerns and challenges. Proper security arrangements are need to be placed before selecting the service provider for any cloud computing service and customers need to be very careful about understanding the risks of security breaches and challenges of using this new computing environment. This detailed study discusses about some of the challenges associated with cloud computing services and security issues related to this platform.