A Critique of Cloud Computing and its Security

Cloud computing is an on-demand service model for IT provision, often based on virtualization and distributed computing technologies. Cloud computing is a new way of delivering computing resources, not a new technology. It provides access to potentially Compos able & Interchangeable Services. There is a growing trend of using cloud environments for ever growing storage and data processing needs. Cloud computing introduces significant concerns about privacy, security, data integrity, intellectual property management, audit trails, and other issues. Adopting a cloud computing paradigm may have positive as well as negative effects on the data security of service consumers. While using various cloud services, there are so many complications related to security of cloud. There should be a trust between cloud provider and consumer accessing services. Hence it is needed to know its basic layered services, its various security standards and mechanisms to provide security for cloud computing. This paper focuses on various hardware and software components of cloud and its various security mechanisms.