ABSTRACT

Cloud computing is becoming increasingly pervasive as businesses take advantage of a new utility approach to IT infrastructure. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines five essential characteristics of cloud computing. These are on-demand self-service; broad network access; resource pooling; rapid elasticity; and measured service. Regardless of the actual cloud model used, there are a variety of service models that might be offered or available to customers. With all the discussed different models (Software as a Service (SaaS); Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS); and Platform as a Service (PaaS)) and services available, it is becoming increasingly obvious that a strong focus on data protection needs to be applied to cloud computing to avoid the risk of significant or even catastrophic data loss. This focus is also important to avoid decreasing the level of data protection available when moving workloads into the cloud when compared to what had been used within a traditional datacenter.