Architecting for a Secure Cloud

Cloud computing offers a number of useful services including Software as a Service (Saas),Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). Companies can leverage these services in different ways: they can go all-in hosting their applications and data in the cloud,they can leverage infrastructure services to compliment on-premise and cloud systems,and there are many hybrid solutions for combining on-premise and cloud services. The decision as to which assets are trusted to the cloud is highly dependent the risk assessment for placing the asset in the cloud. Companies need to maintain adequate control and protection over each asset no matter where it is hosted. The architecture and design phase is also critical to determining where assets will be hosted (on-premise or in the cloud) and how each asset will be secured. You need a clear picture as to how each asset is accessed both from an administration and usage perspective,a risk assessment for those usage patterns,and options for mitigating those risks and securing your assets. This session lays out popular architectural scenarios for leveraging the Windows Azure Platform including Windows Azure,Windows Azure AppFabric,and Microsoft SQL Azure and for each scenario discusses security concerns at each tier – on-premise or in the cloud – and recommended techniques for securing relevant assets. Security concerns addressed include identity and access management,transfer protection,data and content protection,key management,infrastructure security,auditing and compliance.