The Need for a Secure Cloud:

Oracle has released a white paper describing their approach to securely implementing a Cloud Infrastructure. It can be found here : oracle_cloud_security_whitepaper

However the paper while primarily aimed at Oracle customers provides common sense advice that should be read by all organisations that are currently thinking of moving from on-premise to Cloud based computing.

“The global spending on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is growing rapidly. Still, many CIOs hesitate to fully embrace cloud infrastructure and platform services. Their uncertainty stems mainly from the anxiety over the security of their systems and data. CIOs want to build scalable hybrid cloud solutions while taking the necessary steps to secure their data across their enterprises. With the right security solutions and processes, even the most demanding enterprises can move to the cloud with confidence.

Cloud customers primarily need these security capabilities:

• Control: Security mechanisms to control who can access data and under which conditions
• Auditing: Ability to audit resources to maintain their security configuration
• Visibility: Logs providing visibility into accounts and resources
• Assurance: Ability to independently verify how data is being stored, accessed, and protected against unauthorised access and modification
• Security: Services that are designed, coded, tested, deployed, and managed securely
• Out-of-the-box integration with existing technologies”

All organisations should question if their Cloud provider can offer these assurances and controls prior to making any commitments.