ISSN 2348-1196 (print) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology Research ISSN 2348-120X (online) Vol. 9, Issue 4, pp: (30-34), Month: October - December 2021, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
SECURE BY DESIGN PRIVATE CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE Badi Salah1, Hasan Ahmadi2, Mohammed Fadlalla3, Mohammed Jugaiman4 Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Abstract: In recent years many enterprises have transformed from traditional data centres into Software Defined Data Centre leveraging private and public Cloud Technologies. This study aims to analyse the resiliency of a typical private cloud infrastructure to security threats and vulnerabilities. A series of assessments and risk analysis were performed that showed the existence of major design weaknesses. Thus, design enhancements are recommended based on the findings to render Private Clouds more secure and to better protect Company data and business. Keywords: private cloud, information technology, cyber security.
I. INTRODUCTION Cloud Computing is the delivery of on-demand computing resources ranging from applications to data centres. This brings many benefits to enterprises such as cost efficiency, flexibility, elasticity and business continuity (IBM, 2019). Large enterprises provide IT applications and services to thousands of active users. Many of such applications are customized to business needs by developers working around the clock onsite, or remote, bringing new features and enhancements as required by the business. Traditionally, enterprises have been running its data centres for years based on physical servers where applications are hosted and pinned to their own physical hardware. With long cycles of commissioning and decommissioning servers and applications, such enterprises could not keep up with the fast-growing business demand. The emergence of virtualization and Cloud computing has helped them to be more dynamic where the transformation to a Software Defined Data Centre has revolutionized the way IT services are provided. The elimination of wait time for procurement, rapid provisioning of servers on demand and the sharing of computing resources are some of the benefits realized with the adoption of cloud technologies. While public cloud providers seem a good fit to help realize these benefits, the introduction of strict data protection regulations most often limits their use. Thus, it becomes imperative to transform traditional on-premise data centres into a private cloud infrastructure. As such transformation brings numerous benefits and advantages, this big shift in architecture, processes and functionality, introduces major security considerations that must be addressed in early stages. In most cases, not all security considerations are addresses properly due to many factors such as manpower shortage, software compatibility, people resistant to change and having operated a legacy infrastructure for long time. This study looks at typically transformed Private Cloud architecture, assess and analyse its security and proposes design enhancements. In addition, as future work this study examines tools and solutions that would help in boosting the resiliency of private cloud to emerging security threats and vulnerabilities.
II. MOTIVATION Although establishing a Private Cloud for new startup companies is challenging, it is even a more complex and challenging task for well-established big scale legacy IT infrastructure typically found in large enterprises. Such implementation touches every aspect of operation, people, processes, and technologies. Thus, a major transformation is required to ensure success of a Private Cloud implementation. Throughout such major transformation, some details may fall in the cracks due to manpower shortages, software compatibility or other factors resulted by running a traditional and a cloud infrastructures side-by-side in a phased approach.
Page | 30 Research Publish Journals