The goal of the Architectural Concepts and Design Requirements domain is to provide you with knowledge of the building blocks necessary to develop cloud-based systems.
You will be introduced to such cloud computing concepts as the customer, provider, partner, measured services, scalability, virtualization, storage, and networking.
You will be able to understand the cloud reference architecture based on activities defined by industry-standard documents. Lastly, you will gain knowledge in relevant security and design principles for cloud computing, including secure data lifecycle and cost-benefit analysis of cloud-based systems.
After completing this domain, you will be able to do the following:
“Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”
Cloud computing, or cloud, means many things to many people. There are indeed various definitions for cloud computing and what it means from many of the leading standards bodies.
The previous National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) definition is the most commonly utilized, cited by professionals and others alike to clarify what the term cloud means.
There are indeed various definitions for cloud computing and what it means from many of the leading standards bodies. The previous National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) definition is the most commonly utilized, cited by professionals and others alike to clarify what the term cloud means.
It’s important to note the difference between a cloud service provider (CSP) and a managed service provider (MSP). The main difference is to be found in the control exerted over the data and process and by who. With an MSP, the consumer dictates the
technology and operating procedures.
According to the MSP Alliance, MSPs typically have the following distinguishing characteristics:2
A Denial of Service (DOS) or its now more popular unruly child the DDoS attack is not a new phenomenon and has plagued information technology (IT) managers for many years. It refers to an attack that aims to overwhelm the victim with network traffic or consume resources (central processing unit, memory, for example) and subsequently …
The following list of Legal issues in cloud is a general guide designed to help you focus on some of the areas and legislative items that might impact your cloud environments: Legal issues in cloud computing are comes under the international law, International law is the term given to the rules that govern relations between …
What is Cloud SLA (Cloud Service-Level Agreement)? Its similar to a contract signed between a customer and a CSP, the Cloud SLA forms the most crucial and fundamental component of how security and operations will be undertaken. The Cloud SLA should also capture requirements related to compliance, best practices, and general operational activities to satisfy …
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Cloud Application Architecture It is important that we examine the mechanisms behind the scenes that make application security and software development for the cloud work, as well as the weaknesses and vulnerabilities associated with each. The readers need to understand how to evaluate and discover these for the customer. Application programming interfaces (APIs) are the …
The need for the use of Cloud encryption, cryptography and encryption is universal for the provisioning and protection of confidentiality services in the enterprise. In support of that goal, the Cloud encryption blog should ensure that he understands how to deploy and use cryptography services in a cloud environment. In addition, it’s important to integrate …
Cloud Computing Functions and traditional computing and technology environments, several functions are essential for creating, designing, implementing, testing, auditing, and maintaining the relevant assets So for more understanding, we will look in this blog the Cloud Computing Functions. The same is true for cloud computing, with the following key roles representing a sample of the …
Multi factor authentication schema such as the use of robust tokens and requiring multi-factor authentication can reduce the likelihood of unauthorized users gaining access, and restricting authorized users to permitted activities. Cloud Multi factor authentication has become more popular and widespread in the last five years due to increased demand for better authorization security and …
Developers often face challenges when working in a new and unfamiliar environment. that’s why the organization faces challenges with cloud application security. For instance, they may be used to working in a certain language or framework that may not be available to them on a particular platform. There is also a serious lack of documentation …
E-discovery is depending on whether an organization is employing a hybrid, public, or community cloud, there are issues that the organization has to understand. The extra dynamic is the presence of a third party the cloud service provider (CSP) so the organization must understand how laws and regulations apply to the cloud. In other words, …
An ISMS (Internal Information Security Controls System) should exist to reduce risks related to the AIC of information and assets, while looking to strengthen the stakeholder confidence in the security posture of their organization in protecting such assets. Although these systems may well vary in terms of comprehensiveness, along with how the controls are applied, …
Supply chain management is big concern when the organizations have invested heavily to protect their key assets, resources, and intellectual property in recent years, changes to these practices present challenges and complexities. With the supply chain adjusting to include CSPs, security truly is only as good as the weakest link. Of late, many sizable and …
Risk Mitigation and risk reduction is the approach and desired outcome when undertaking risk management and associated activities should always be to reduce and mitigate risks. Mitigation of risks reduces the exposure to a risk or the likelihood of it occurring. Risk mitigation to cloud-based assessments or environments is most often obtained by implementing additional …
To understanding and appreciating cloud computing contracts has long been the duty and focus of procurement and legal functions. Whether it is related to the single cloud computing contracts of personnel, roles, functions, or entire business functions, these have been availed and utilized globally to maximize cost benefits, plug skills gaps, and ultimately ensure that …
You must take care when gathering, handling, transporting, analyzing, reporting on, and managing evidence that the proper chain of custody or chain of evidence has been maintained. Every jurisdiction has its definitions as to what this may mean in detail; however, in general, a chain of custody and chain of evidence Why need Chain of …
Cloud security operations management there are many aspects and processes of operations that need to be managed, and they often relate to each other. Cloud security operations management include the following: Information security management Configuration management Change management Incident management Problem management Release and deployment management Service-level management Availability management Capacity management Business continuity management …
In partnership with the cloud security management professionals, you need to have a detailed understanding of the management operation of the cloud environment. As complex networked systems, clouds face the traditional computer and network security issues such as AIC. By imposing uniform management practices, clouds may be able to improve on some security updates and …
Patch management is a crucial task. All organizations must perform and Regularly patch OSs, middleware, and applications to guard against newly found vulnerabilities or to provide additional functionality. Patch management is the process of identifying, acquiring, installing, and verifying patches for products and systems. Patches correct security and functionality problems in software and firmware. From …
Cloud Security Threats is nothing but to secure a server, it is essential to first define the threats that must be mitigated. Organizations should conduct risk assessments to identify the specific threats against their servers and determine the effectiveness of existing security controls in counteracting the threats. They then should perform risk mitigation to decide …
Securely configuring the virtualization management VM tools set is one of the most important steps when building a cloud environment. Compromising on the management VM tools may allow an attacker unlimited access to the VM, the host, and the enterprise network.Therefore, you must securely install and configure the management VM tools and then adequately monitor …
Cloud network security is top end technology today we all using in the Data Center. When it comes to securing the network configuration, there is a lot to be concerned with. Several technologies, protocols, and services are necessary to ensure a secure and reliable network is provided to the end-user of the cloud-based services. Transport …
The creation and implementation of a fully tested BCDR Planning that is ready for the failover event have a great structural resemblance to any other IT implementation plan as well as other disaster response plans. It is wise to consult or even adapt existing IT project BCDR Planning and risk management methodologies. In this section, …
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Best practices for cloud security are crucial to build the robust environment that prevent upcoming vulnerability/ Attacks. The actual settings for the hardware depending on the chosen operating system (OS) and virtualization platform. Servers Best practices for cloud security Implement the following best practice recommendations to secure host servers within cloud environments: Secure build: To …
There are several characteristics of the cloud environment that you need to consider for your BCDR plan. They represent opportunities as well as challenges. First, though, it pays to have a more detailed look at some different scenarios in which you might want to consider BCDR. The following sections discuss these scenarios, BCDR planning factors, …
As Enterprise Operations and IT environments have dramatically grown in scale, complexity, and diversity of services, they have typically deployed application and customer environments in silos of dedicated infrastructure. These silos are built around specific applications, customer environments, business organizations, operational requirements, and regulatory compliance (Sarbanes-Oxley, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA], and PCI …
The Secure software development life cycle in cloud computing is one of the most interesting concept. Although some view a single point-in-time vulnerability scan as an indicator of trustworthiness, much more important is a holistic evaluation of the people, processes, and technology that delivered the software and will continue to maintain it. Several software development …
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Cloud Threat Modeling is performed once an application design is created. The goal of Cloud Threat Modeling is to determine any weaknesses in the application and the potential ingress, egress, and actors involved before the weakness is introduced to production. It is the overall attack surface that is amplified by the cloud, and the threat …
Cloud Security risks its an main concept whether run in the platform as a service (PaaS) or infrastructure as a service (IaaS) deployment model, applications running in a cloud environment may enjoy the same security controls surrounding them as applications that run in a traditional data center environment. This makes the need for an application …
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OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities 2021 is nothing but an Applications run in the cloud should conform to best practice guidance and guidelines for the assessment and ongoing management of vulnerabilities. As mentioned earlier, the implementation of an application risk-management program addresses not only vulnerabilities but also all risks associated with applications. The most common software …
As cloud computing based application development continues to gain popularity and widespread adoption, it is important to recognize the benefits and efficiencies, along with the challenges and complexities. cloud computing application development typically includes integrated development environments (IDEs), application lifecycle management components, and application security testing Benefits and efficiencies tend to conflict with challenges and …
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) Strategy for IT Professionals We already discussed BCDR scenarios. Although the departing positions are different and each situation requires a tailored approach, there are several common components to these scenarios. A logical sequence to discuss these components is location, data replication, functionality replication, event anticipation, failover event, and return …
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There are several categories of risks to consider in the context of BCDR. First, risks are threatening the assets and support infrastructure that the BCDR plan is protecting against. Second, some risks threaten the successful execution of a BCDR plan invocation; that is, what can go wrong if and when you need to failover? Does …
For to understand how to Secure Cloud! We need to focus on countermeasure strategies that span those levels. First, it is highly recommended that you implement multiple layers of defense against any risk. For example, in physical protection there should not be reliance on a single lock; there should be multiple layers of access control, …
Security risks for cloud computing is become increases from last decade, Because information technology (IT) is typically deployed to serve the interests of the organization, the goals, and management practices in that organization are an important source of guidance to cloud risk management. From the perspective of the enterprise, cloud computing represents outsourcing, and it …
For you to understand disadvantages of cloud storage first we need to understand On a technical level, persistent mass storage in cloud computing typically consists of spinning hard disk drives or solid-state drives (SSDs). For reliability purposes, disk drives are often grouped to provide redundancy. The typical approach is the Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks …
The Hypervisor becomes important about the compute resources of a host is the ability to manage and allocate these resources effectively, either on a per-guest operating-system (OS) basis or on a per-host basis within a resource cluster. The use of reservations, limits, and shares offers the contextual ability for an administrator to allocate the compute …
Cloud Storage Encryption is an important technology to consider and use when implementing systems that allow for secure data storage and usage from the cloud. Although having encryption enabled on all data across the enterprise architecture reduces the risks associated with unauthorized data access and exposure, there are performance constraints and concerns to be addressed. …
The cloud infrastructure consists of data centers and the hardware that runs in them, including compute, storage, and networking hardware; virtualization software; and a management layer The Physical Environment of the Cloud Infrastructure Just like traditional or onsite computing, cloud computing runs on real hardware that runs in real buildings. At the contemporary scale of …
DRM is not just the use of standard encryption technologies to provide confidentiality for data it is much more. Here is a shortlist of some of its features and use cases: DRM adds an extra layer of access controls on top of the data object or document. The ACL determines who can open the document …
Data Discovery implementation is the solution that provides an operative foundation for effective application and governance for any of the P&DP fulfillments Data Discovery From the customer’s perspective The customer, in his role of the data controller, has full responsibility for compliance with the P&DP laws obligations. Therefore, the implementation of data discovery solutions with …
How to do data discovery ? Data discovery is a departure from traditional business intelligence in that it emphasizes interactive, visual analytics rather than static reporting. The goal of data discovery is to work with and enable people to use their intuition to find meaningful and important information in data. This process usually consists of …
DLP, also known as data leakage prevention or data loss protection, describes the controls put in place by an organization to ensure that certain types of data (structured and unstructured) remain under organizational controls, in line with policies, standards, and procedures. Controls to protect data form the foundation of organizational security and enable the organization …
Data Masking is a process that need to provide confidentiality protection for data in cloud environments is a serious concern for organizations. The ability to use encryption is not always a realistic option for various reasons including performance, cost, and technical abilities. As a result, additional mechanisms need to be employed to ensure that data …
Cloud Security Framework System and subsystem product certification is used to evaluate the security claims made for a system and its components. Although there have been several evaluation frameworks available for use over the years, such as the Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC) developed by the United States Department of Defense, the Common Criteria …
Cloud Computing Security Considerations can be a subjective issue, viewed differently across different industries, companies, and users, based on their needs, desires, and requirements. Many of these actions and Cloud Computing Security Considerations appetites are strongly influenced by compliance and other regulatory requirements. Within IaaS, a key emphasis and focus must be placed on the …
The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) has provided the 10 most critical web application security threats that should serve as a minimum level for application security assessments and testing. The open web application security project (OWASP) top 10 covers the following categories: Injection Injection flaws, such as SQL, OS, and LDAP injection occur when …
The deployment of cloud solutions, by its nature, is often deemed a technology decision by Cloud Security Posture Management; however, it’s truly a business alignment decision. Although cloud computing no doubt enables technology to be delivered and utilized uniquely, potentially unleashing multiple benefits, the choice to deploy and consume cloud services should be a business …
The concept of Identity management and access control in cloud computing covers most areas of technology, access control is merging and aligning with other combined activities. Some of these are automated using single sign-on capabilities; others operate in a standalone, segregated fashion. The combination of access control and effective management of those technologies, processes, and controls has …
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Cloud Computing elements is a very important concept we need to consider before moving to the cloud environment. Below, Anything as a service (XaaS): The growing diversity of services available over the Internet via cloud computing as opposed to being provided locally or on-premises. Apache CloudStack: An open-source cloud computing and IaaS platform developed to …
Cloud Attacks Surface Essentials is the process where Cloud data centers can be perceived as similar to DMZs in legacy enterprises. Because everything in the cloud can be accessed remotely, it can be considered exposed to the Internet, to a greater or lesser extent. Instead of the discrete perimeter of a private network, cloud configurations …
The vendor offering cloud services. The CSP will own the datacenter, employ the staff, own and manage the resources (hardware and software), monitor service provision and security, and provide administrative assistance for the customer and the customer’s data and processing needs. Cloud Computing Roles & Responsibilities Examples include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Rackspace, and Microsoft’s …
Before moving to the main important cores of the cloud we need to understand what are the boundaries of cloud computing we need to understand some concepts. In legacy environments, we had bright-line definitions of the organization’s IT perimeter. Everything inside the perimeter belonging to the organization, including data, hardware, and risk; everything outside was …
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Virtualization in cloud computing is the term creating a virtual (a logical vs. a physical) version of something, including virtual computer hardware platforms, operating systems, storage devices, and computer network resources. Computer hardware virtualization is a way of improving overall efficiency. It involves CPUs that provide support for virtualization in hardware and other hardware components that …
Private cloud security risks. A private cloud configuration is a legacy configuration of a data center, often with distributed computing and BYOD capabilities. The organization controls the entire infrastructure (hardware, software, facilities, administrative personnel, security controls, and so on). A private cloud configuration is a legacy configuration of a data center, often with distributed computing and …
