Securing the Cloud

A vendor's cloud security can be optimized by using frameworks and patterns. There are three service models described by the National Institute of Standards and Technology: Software‐as‐a‐Service, Platform‐as‐a‐Service, and Infrastructure‐as‐a‐Service. KC continues to look for ways to improve the due diligence and security of the cloud deployments that their vendors use. One well‐explored idea came from the Security Architecture world: patterns. In order to understand and assess the risk with cloud deployments, it is necessary to understand the Shared Responsibility Model. The Cloud Security Alliance published the Cloud Controls Matrix, which provides a framework for cloud computing that can be used to assess vendor cloud security. This tool provides guidance on which controls to use, depending on the Shared Responsibility model.