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Home > CIIMA > Vol. 12 (2012) > Iss. 4

 

Communications of the IIMA

Abstract

In today’s economic climate organizations are seeking greater cost-saving measures, increased agility, and scalability that responds to the rapid changes in technology and business. Cloud computing, with its low cost pay-as-you-go business model, is helping organizations manage these changes while transforming information technology (IT) into an engine that drives business. Benefits from on-demand clouds provide users greater portability and the ability to access information from virtually anywhere: at home, a client location, when traveling, or at the office. The reduced costs and increased flexibility, however, associated with cloud computing also come with complex security issues and increased overall risk. When cloud services are moved beyond organizational boundaries, outside the border firewall, security is heightened for most organizations and navigating the complexity of these environments can be daunting. In this research paper we seek to help organizations make pragmatic decisions about where and when to use cloud solutions by outlining specific security issues that enterprises should address. We use external research sources and explore current security trends within cloud computing in order to provide background information, related research, and conclusions. We make use of colleagues, textbooks, peer reviewed journal articles, and Internet websites related to information technology and information security. Each section of our research is formatted similarly and presents pertinent security information, techniques, and tools that organizations would need in order to make relevant decisions when utilizing Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

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