-: Once we begin to rely on virtualization
and cloud computing for our deployments,
it becomes very important to recognize
that our data might be hosted
on the same physical server
as another organization's data.
By doing so, we introduce some vulnerabilities
into the security of our systems.
First, if the physical server crashes
due to something one organization does,
it can affect all of the organizations hosted
on that same physical server.
Similarly, if one organization has not maintained
the security of their virtual environments
being hosted on that server,
there is a possibility that an attacker could utilize that
to the detriment of all organizations
based on that same server being hosted.
Just as there are concerns when you conduct
the interconnection of your networks with somebody else's,
there are concerns with hosting multiple organizations' data
on the same physical server
that's being run by a given cloud provider.
It's important for us to properly configure, manage,
and audit user access to the virtual servers being hosted.
Also, you should ensure that your cloud-based servers
have the latest patches, antivirus, anti-malware,
and access control in place
if you're going to be using infrastructure
as a service as your model.
To minimize the risk of having a single
physical server's resources being overwhelmed,
it's a good idea to set up your virtual servers
in the cloud with proper failover, redundancy,
and elasticity.
By monitoring the network's performance
and the physical server's resources,
you should be able to balance the load across
several physical machines
instead of relying on a single one.
After all, elasticity is one of the main benefits
of migrating to the cloud, in the first place.
Most of cloud security relies
on the same security practices
that you would perform for other servers,
such as ensuring complex passwords are used,
strong authentication mechanisms are in place,
and strong encryption being used
to protect your data at rest, in transit, or in process.
Also, your cloud environment should have strong policies
in place to ensure that it's clear what things a user may do
and may not do with that cloud service.
Finally, remember that the data
that you're hosting in the cloud
is on somebody else's physical server.
If you're using a public cloud model,
you need to be concerned about data remnants
that could be left behind
when a cloud server is deprovisioned
after demand for the service is reduced.
This could lead to a vulnerability
where your data is available
to other organizations using that same server.
To prevent this, data should always be encrypted
when placed in the cloud server,
including the virtual hard disk files
for those virtual servers that are being hosted.