Domain based storage protection with secure access control for the cloud

Abstract

Cloud computing has evolved from a promising concept to one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry. How- ever, many businesses and individuals continue to view cloud computing as a technology that risks exposing their data to unauthorized users. We introduce a data confidential- ity and integrity protection mechanism for Infrastructure-as- a-Service (IaaS) clouds, which relies on trusted computing principles to provide transparent storage isolation between IaaS clients. We also address the absence of reliable data sharing mechanisms, by providing an XML-based language framework which enables clients of IaaS clouds to securely share data and clearly define access rights granted to peers. The proposed improvements have been prototyped as a code extension for a popular cloud platform.