The Growing Field of Cloud Forensics

The focus of cloud computing is providing with scalable and a cheap on-demand computing infrastructure with a good quality of service levels. The process of the cloud computing involves a set of network enabled services that can be accessed in a simple and general way. Cloud computing provides with a unique value proposition for any organization to outsource their information and communication technology infrastructure. Moreover, the concept itself provides with a value proposition for an organization as using the cloud saves on cost, resources, and staff, and business opportunities for the organization (Katzan). An extensive connectivity of

The national institute of standards and technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as “a model that is meant to enable convenient access to a network that is on demand to a pool of shared computing resources that are configurable” (Jansen & Timothy, 2015). Computer system resources includes, but not limited to, storage, system servers, applications, services, and networks. Cloud computing allows these computing resources to be accessed virtually anytime, anywhere. Cloud computing opens up new possibilities in the field of information technology that many of us have or will experience. As the clients or the customers are very excited about the numerous opportunities that come along with the cloud computing technology such as a reduction in the costs of capital, and the opportunity of divesting themselves of management of infrastructure, and a massive focus on the core competencies, and most importantly, the agility that is usually offered by the provision of computing that is on-demand, there are challenges and other numerous issues that need to be looked into and addressed before a universal adoption might happen (Jansen & Timothy, 2015).

Cloud computing has been defined by NIST as a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or cloud provider interaction. Cloud computing can be considered a new computing paradigm insofar as it allows the utilization of a computing infrastructure at one or more levels of abstraction, as an on-demand service made available over the Internet or other computer network.

However, with the convenience of cloud storage come real risks. Cloud storage is quite attractive, given the advantages previously stated, but there are still great concerns, including reliability and security. Organizations relying on cloud computing must ensure that the third party they’ve entrusted to store their data can guarantee that they can access their information at any time and that their information is safe from the threat of hackers (Berman, 2008, p. ).

Cloud computing has become a major topic of discussion and debate for any business or organization which relies on technology. Anyone connected to the Internet is probably using some type of cloud computing on a regular basis. Whether they are using Google’s Gmail, organizing photos on an Apple iPhone’s photo steam or searching the Web with Bing they are engaged in cloud computing. The interesting thing about cloud computing is it did not start as a technology for the business enterprise, but was driven by the public with services like Facebook. Over the last few years businesses have started to see the value of cloud computing causing it to become a major technology solution for businesses and organizations around the world.

Cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing resources which include everything from applications to data centers over the Internet on a pay-for-use basis. Cloud computing is the result of evolution and adoption of existing technologies and paradigms. The goal of cloud computing is to allow users to take benefit from all of these technologies, without the need for deep knowledge about or expertise with each one of them. The cloud aims to cut costs, and help the users focus on their core business instead of being impeded by IT obstacles Cloud computing is so named because the information being accessed is found in the "clouds", and does not require a user to be in a specific place to gain access to it. The services are offered from data centers all over the world, which collectively are referred to as the "cloud." The idea of the "cloud" is to simplify the huge network connections and computer systems involved in online services. Cloud computing is a computing model, not a technology. In this model of computing, all the servers, networks, applications and other elements related to data centers are made available to IT and end users. Cloud computing is a type of computing that is comparable to grid computing. It relies on sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle applications.

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared information, resources, and software, are provided to terminals and portable devices on-demand. It is a rapidly developing and excellent promising technology. Cloud computing is the product of the combination of grid computing, distributed computing, parallel computing, and ubiquitous computing. Cloud Computing model has enabled IT organizations to serve the users globally. It gives the services like Platform as a Service, Software as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service without users being much aware of the details in which the services are provided.

Cloud computing is the new buzz in the recent days and cloud computing allows users to share files and applications over the internet. In the following pages we will discuss about the cloud computing its pros and cons, the security risk and how to overcome and use its resources for the best advantage of organizations. It is attracting much of the attention now-a-days which can be seen by observing the big names of the IT industry like IBM, Microsoft and Google investing millions of dollars into research on cloud computing.

Since the innovation of the internet, people in computing fields have seek to find storage solutions that could provide users and organizations with capabilities to store and process their data distant from end-uses. Since 2000s, cloud computing has come into existence, later on, became business feasible through the observation that organizations start to substitute from self-owned hardware and software to subscription mode based models. Thus, we’re currently on the shift to cloud computing that may cause a dramatic growth in internet-based IT services in some industrial areas and some decline in other areas. By definition, cloud computing is an internet based computing for storing or sharing used computer or applications on multiple servers.

Cloud computing is the growing method of computing adopted by many organizations nowadays around the world. The word ‘cloud’ refers to the network, the servers providing the cloud services can be located anywhere in the world (Garg & Buyya, 2012). The services are provided through internet and made available to the end users. Several definitions are given for the cloud computing in the literature. According to (Mell & Grance, 2011), “Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This Cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.” Different advantages of having cloud computing includes, services are available on demand, the users have to pay only as per the use and the services are accessible from anywhere as it is available over network. There are different service models and deployment models available for cloud computing.

Cloud Computing is one of the emerging technologies which now represent a reality and a low-cost computing power resource which has gained popularity among all business categories, especially medium and small size, governmental or medical organizations, as more people are realizing the power and benefits of cloud environments. Cloud computing involves deploying groups of remote servers and software networks that allow different kinds of data sources be uploaded for real time processing to generate computing results without the need to store processed data on the cloud. Clouds can be classified as public, private or hybrid

Cloud computing have revolutionized life as we know it; it allows people to store, manage, and access their data by using a network of remote servers which are hosted on the internet rather than using a local server or own hardware. A recent study conducted by KPMG found that 81% of businesses were either evaluating cloud services, planned a cloud implementation or had already implemented a cloud strategy [1]. Organizations tend to use the cloud to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Cloud is not a commodity, some people think that it comes out of the sky, while in fact it comes from physical hardware inside brick and mortar facilities which are connected to hundreds of miles by networking cables.

Cloud computing is a model for allowing convenient on-demand access from anywhere to a shared pool of computing resources. These can include servers’ storage, networking, applications, and services that can be rapidly and easily provisioned and released.

The explanation of “cloud computing” from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [2] is that cloud computing enables omnipresent, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. According to the explanation, cloud computing

With the rapid change in processing and storage technologies and the success in the communication network such as Internet, lessen cost of computing resources, more powerful and more ubiquitously available than ever before. This technological change has enabled the development of a new computing paradigm called cloud computing, in which resources are shared by multiple system over the communication network. Cloud computing is a set of IT services that are provided to a business organizations or customers over a network on a leased basis and with the ability to scale up or down their service requirements. Cloud computing services are delivered by a third party provider who owns the infrastructure. Cloud computing has turned up as a new model for hosting and delivering services over the internet. Cloud computing becomes an attraction in the business world as it does not require plan for provision and business can be set up with a small amount.