IaaS Cloud computing Model: attention to five security issues

In the IT world, clouds are as hot as the summer sun. Microsoft, Google, Apple, IBM and other heavyweight "big shots" are in the "cloud" side, launched its own different cloud products and services. In this way, anyone who is in trouble with the cloud is simply a chew.

However, many IT experts are wary of cloud development, and many still have doubts about what cloud computing is all about. However, the cloud does not matter how you feel, it is still growing and evolving, and the birth of different types of clouds. There are public and private clouds, even mixed clouds. There are different types of cloud services: http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/13763.html "> Software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS). Today, even technicians find it hard to find their way through the cloud.

Conceptual analysis

Many people may have taken the first step in cloud computing, but if you haven't, you might start with the following definitions. The cloud, defined by the National Institute of Science and Technology, includes the following features:

On-Demand self-service: Users can obtain computing, networking, and storage functionality without the intermediary coordinator, and can be implemented through self-service portals and some type of request center.
Broadband Network access: Information stores in the cloud infrastructure, such as desktops, notebooks, PDAs, smart phones, current and future devices, should be available from any location and from any broadband array in a network-attached device.
Resource pools: computing, network, and storage resources are delivered by a larger pool of resources, and different enterprises or organizations, called many different customers, can take advantage of the same pool of resources. There is also the independence of location, and each customer may not be aware of the location of specific resources at any point in the day.
Fast elasticity: Users can easily and quickly equipment and cancel equipment resources. In addition, equipment and cancellation equipment can be automatically completed according to the policy, so that resources can be allocated when they are no longer needed and require the release of resources.
Measurable services: Users get the computing, networking, storage resources they need, and only pay for the services they use.

Cloud computing Model

Many people believe that cloud computing is nothing more than a server virtualization, but cloud computing is far from just the virtualization of servers. Virtualization plays an important role in cloud computing, without virtualization there is no cloud, at least not safe and cost-effective cloud computing. But without the cloud, virtualization still exists. Cloud computing is a delivery and consumption pattern, and virtualization is a technology that supports this pattern.

Cloud computing has three modes of service:
Software as a Service (SaaS): Users can lease the required applications through SaaS. The cost of acquisition is generally very low, and the entrusted time can be long and short.
Platform as a service (PaaS): Unlike SaaS, it does not provide customers with completed services. Instead, PAAs provides a development platform within the cloud-built intelligence, so developers do not need to worry about underlying computing, networking, and storage infrastructures. All developers need to do is use the tools they already know how to use to develop applications and then deploy them to PAAs vendors. The PAAs vendor's cloud engine supports the core cloud capabilities needed for cloud applications.
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): Unlike the above, IaaS provides neither a completed service nor a development platform. Instead, IAAS provides the core computing, network, and storage infrastructure on which you can build your own PAAs or SaaS environment. In essence, IaaS provides a simple way to deploy virtualized servers in the cloud by leveraging servers and automation.

Security issues with IaaS

We've cleared up a few basic definitions, and now we're going to focus on the security of IaaS. Most administrators are very familiar with IaaS because it is very similar to the current practice in your datacenter. To save space for physical servers and save energy costs, you may have deployed some sort of server consolidation plan. After server consolidation, you may be interested in IaaS equipment, and you can access your application deployment and development resources more quickly by leveraging cloud features such as self-service, automation, and so on.

But before you do, you need to think about the security of IaaS. Security issues are also different depending on how IaaS is implemented by the public cloud or private cloud. For a private cloud, your business can fully control the solution. For IaaS in the public cloud, you control the virtual machines you create and the services that run on the virtual machines you create, but you don't control the underlying computing, network, and storage infrastructure. In either case, you need to consider security issues:
1, data leakage protection and data use monitoring
2. Certification and authorization
3. Event response and Forensics (End-to-end logging and reporting)
4. Infrastructure enhancement
5, End-to-end encryption

(Responsible editor: Lu Guang)