Security of Heterogeneous Content in Cloud Based Library Information Systems Using an Ontology Based Approach

Abstract

As in any domain that involves the use of software, the library information systems take advantages of cloud computing. The paper highlights the main aspect of cloud based systems, describing some public solutions provided by the most important players on the market. Topics related to content security in cloud based services are tackled in order to emphasize the requirements that must be met by these types of systems. A cloud based implementation of an Information Library System is presented and some adjacent tools that are used together with it to provide digital content and metadata links are described. In a cloud based Information Library System security is approached by means of ontologies. Aspects such as content security in terms of digital rights are presented and a methodology for security optimization is proposed.Keywords: Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Library Information System, Ontology1 IntroductionCloud computing, alongside with mobile technologies, represents an important trend in the development of today's applications. Of this matter, cloud computing is also a research topic in all academic and research institutions in the field of computer science and information technology, example of such projects are presented in [2], [3] and [17].The paper is organized as follows.The first section, Generalities in Cloud-based Systems, presents the main concepts related to cloud computing. The section also presents the characteristics of public, private and hybrid clouds and provides an example of a private cloud implementation.The section Content Security Concerns in Cloud Applications focuses on security issues raised when using cloud-based applications.In chapter Cloud Based Information Library System Implementation is presented a type of ILS developed by Exlibris along with the adjacent tools that such system is interacting with. An example of an ILS architecture is presented and various tools used along to manage digital content.The chapter five called Security Approach Using Ontologies in ILS is suggesting a security approach using ontologies in order to improve the content protection feature of these types of systems. Ontologies are used in order to classify content and assign different levels of vulnerability. Based upon these levels, DRM controls implement a restriction policy specific to an ILS system.The paper ends with conclusions and future work.2 Generalities in Cloud Based SystemsCloud computing consists of three service models, as presented in [1], [2] and [3]:* Infrastructure as a service (IasS);* Platform as a service (PasS);* Software as a service (SaaS).IaaS is related to virtualization and provides services for access to hardware (physical or emulated) in terms of computing, storage and networking.PasS is oriented to application development and deployment software engines, libraries, compilers etc.). The cloud vendor provides the required environments for clients' applications.Through SaaS, clients have access to applications provided by the cloud vendor. The applications could be for general use (like a word processor or a spreadsheet application) or a dedicated service (like an ERP). Usually, the client uses a Web browser to access the applications.Another important characteristic of cloud computing is represented by the deployment models [4]. In a public cloud, services and resources are available to everyone and several clients share the infrastructure. In a private cloud, the clients don't share the resources with anyone. There is also the hybrid cloud, a mix between public and private cloud.From a technical perspective, several key concepts related to cloud computing have to be presented.The cloud is based on nodes that are physical or virtual machines (VMs). The nodes are grouped in clusters. The virtualization is controlled by a hypervisor that creates and monitors virtual machines running on a physical server. …