As mentioned above, cloud computing offers new security features and cloud resources can be tracked back to their owner. For example, at the virtualization layer each virtual machine can be tracked back to a user account, and the cloud has a built-in inventory of virtual machines hosted. These virtual machines can be secured with virtual firewalls as well as other cloud security features.
One indication for this are special cloud offerings for regulated industries, such as pharmaceuticals and banking, where the security requirements are extremely high.
Non-technical aspects
When it comes to the non-technical factors, the use of cloud services poses increasingly complex challenges (e.g. with regard to legal, organizational and process aspects). At the same time, it is often said that the security requirements for IT infrastructure stay the same, irrespective of the technical implementation. It does not matter if the services are delivered by internal IT or by external providers, which usually provide globally standardised Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
In the latter case, we have to make sure that the contract with the external provider covers all our security requirements. As many members of our community have told us, security quickly extends beyond firewall filters, snapshots, redundancy, and the like. These days, there are various forms of possible interventions that can compromise data protection, without touching on basic forms of technical security. It is also becoming increasingly important to know which laws apply to a provider and its offerings, this depending on the countries they operate in.
Besides the technical know-how, this is where SWITCH can add considerable value and expertise to its cloud offerings. SWITCH’s governance model makes it possible for its stakeholders to take part in shaping the cloud offerings. In this sense it aims to become an extension of an institution’s infrastructure, thus performing quite a different role from an external provider. This allows the SWITCH community to participate in the governance of the SWITCH cloud and its operation.
Cloud for the Swiss academic community
Here at SWITCH, we are building a cloud infrastructure that is aimed at the Swiss academic community. In the initial phase, our target user group will be research projects and researchers. Based on the feedback from the community and our experience with the cloud infrastructure, we will be able to adapt these services in line with the future security needs of our community. We will be focusing especially on an integrated view of security that addresses both the technical and even more importantly non-technical aspects of operating a cloud, including specific legal and governance requirements of Swiss higher education institutions.
