Security architecture for cloud networking

Cloud computing offers reduced capital expenditure, operational risks, complexity and maintenance, and increased scalability while providing services at different abstraction levels, namely Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). A new approach called cloud networking adds networking functionalities to cloud computing and enables dynamic and flexible placement of virtual resources crossing provider borders. This allows various kinds of optimization, e.g., reducing latency or network load. However, this approach introduces new security challenges. This paper presents a security architecture that enables a user of cloud networking to define security requirements and enforce them in the cloud networking infrastructure.