acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Practice

Toward Confidential Cloud Computing


keyhole

Credit: Goraphol K

back to top 

Although largely driven by economies of scale, the development of the modern cloud also enables increased security. Large datacenters provide aggregate availability, reliability, and security assurances. The operational cost of ensuring that operating systems, databases, and other services have secure configurations can be amortized among all tenants, allowing the cloud provider to employ experts who are responsible for security; this is often unfeasible for smaller businesses, where the role of systems administrator is often conflated with many others.

Cloud datacenters are also subject to tight physical security: the number of people with physical access is limited, and the controls on their access are stricter in a large, cloud provider's datacenters than on premises—often vulnerable to insider threats such as disgruntled former employees leaving with a copy of sensitive data or physical media (including on-site backups).


 

No entries found

Log in to Read the Full Article

Sign In

Sign in using your ACM Web Account username and password to access premium content if you are an ACM member, Communications subscriber or Digital Library subscriber.

Need Access?

Please select one of the options below for access to premium content and features.

Create a Web Account

If you are already an ACM member, Communications subscriber, or Digital Library subscriber, please set up a web account to access premium content on this site.

Join the ACM

Become a member to take full advantage of ACM's outstanding computing information resources, networking opportunities, and other benefits.
  

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM Magazine

Get full access to 50+ years of CACM content and receive the print version of the magazine monthly.

Purchase the Article

Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears.
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account