The Cloud Service Provider (CSP) operational process responsible for receiving, fulfilling, managing, monitoring, and metering customer services across all data centers, availability zones, and regions is referred to as cloud orchestration. The CSP software component responsible for orchestration is called the cloud operating system. Orchestration is accomplished using hardware, software, and service application programming interfaces…
ISO/IEC Cloud Service Categories and Cloud Capabilities
ISO/IEC 17788 includes the three basic services in an extended list referred to as cloud service categories. In that standard, a cloud service category is a group of cloud services that possess some common set of qualities. A cloud service category can include capabilities from one or more cloud capability types. Representative cloud service categories…
Cloud Computing – Compute, Network, Storage
Cloud computing introduces new and different economic, operational, and business models. It doesn’t, however, change the fundamentals of technology or security. Although standardization and automation drive revolutionary change in those three domains, fundamentally, cloud computing still delivers compute, storage, and networking services. Compute Services Compute services combine computing processing unit (CPU), memory, and ephemeral storage…
QuickGuide: Amazon Kinesis Setup
Learn how to setup Kinesis data and delivery streams on a Linux instance
QuickGuide: Amazon CloudWatch Setup
Learn how to install Amazon CloudWatch on a Linux EC2 instance on AWS
Cloud Computing Characteristics
Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. The following essential characteristics of cloud are sort of a rule book, or a set of laws when identifying cloud…
Cloud Service Capabilities
ISO/IEC 17788 defines cloud capability types as a classification of the functionality provided by a cloud service provider to the cloud service customer, based on the resources used. There are three different cloud capability types: Software capabilities Platform capabilities Infrastructure capabilities Software Capabilities The benefits of leveraging software capabilities via cloud computing are multifold. Clients…
Cloud Computing Activities
With traditional computing and technology environments, there are several activities that are essential for creating, designing, implementing, testing, auditing, and maintaining the relevant assets. ISO/IEC 17789 links cloud computing activities to traditional technology environment activities by sub-role activities. A cloud service customer’s activities include: Use cloud service activity: Use the services of a cloud service…
The Birth of Cloud Computing
Although cloud computing drastically changes some of the traditional norms associated with information technology, most of the underlying technology and security basics remain the same. The below listed NIST definition is the most commonly and globally utilized, cited by professionals and others alike to clarify what the term “cloud” means. “Cloud computing is a model…
Intrusion Kill Chain Framework by Lockheed Martin
The “intrusion kill chain” framework is an analytical tool introduced by Lockheed Martin security researchers in 2011. It is also sometimes referred to as the “Cyber Kill Chain”. It is an intelligence- driven, threat-focused approach to study intrusions from the adversaries’ perspective that could give network defenders the upper hand in fighting cyber attackers. So, what is…