Study of Security Issues in Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Cloud Model

Security is one of the key considerations when businesses look to adopt cloud models like Platform as a Service (PaaS). The main concern comes from the fact that business losses total control of deployed applications and data, leaving that trust in the hands of the Cloud Service Providers (CSP). Although CSPs put some level of security controls in place, it is ultimately the responsibility of the client to verify the presence of the controls and verify the suitability of their security needs. It is also the user's responsibility to ascertain compliance with these offerings to appropriate standards before patronage. This paper reviewed various security issues inherent in the PaaS cloud model, classified them according to the essential cloud characteristics and finally recommended high-level solutions to the identified security issues. The result of the review and recommendations provided can serve as a reference for organizations and individual users when deciding security needs and service level objectives for PaaS based deployments.