A cross section of the issues and research activities related to both information security and cloud computing

Cloud computing amplifies computer security issues that have proliferated with the growth of the Internet. A broad range of security research is being applied to cloud computing. This paper gives a description of cloud computing followed by a general description of information security issues and solutions, and a brief description of issues linking cloud computing with information security. Security solutions must make a trade-off between the amount of security and its performance cost and impact on the end-user experiences. This is accentuated in a cloud computing environment where users desiring different levels of security share the same resources. An essential issue for cloud computing is the perception of security, which is beyond the simple technical details of security solutions. This paper includes a list of a few key information security challenges that also present significant research opportunities. Solving these key problems will encourage the widespread adoption of cloud computing.