What are the types of cloud security?

Since the public cloud services have appeared, companies and organizations have become concerned about security risks, making cloud security a challenge. Today, with the increasing number of cyber-attacks and the number of people using the cloud as a business threat, IT professionals are convinced that a stronger security system is needed to provide cloud security to companies and protect data. Today, more than anything, our servers may be exposed to cyber-attacks done by advanced systems and computers equipped to attack our servers.

What is cloud security?

The security of cloud servers is not easy, and it can not be said that the people who provide these servers can not protect you 100% against cyber attacks. Cloud Security is a set of strategies and methods to protect data and applications that are hosted in the cloud. Like cybersecurity, this is a very broad field and can never be prevented from being attacked. However, a well-designed cloud security strategy greatly reduces the risk of cyber-attacks. Cloud computing is often more secure than internal computing, even with these risks. Most cloud providers have more resources for data security than personal businesses, allowing them to keep their infrastructure up to date and fix vulnerabilities as quickly as possible. On the other hand, a business may not have enough resources to perform these tasks consistently.

Companies on different cloud server platforms, even in the SaaS model, have to set rules to access these platforms because of the user's authority, which is only possible by a well-trained security expert from the organization. There is no such service package on both SaaS and Iaas platforms to ensure their security. In Iaas, you can run any software on your system without a security check, in which case the organization will be responsible for your cloud security. this is a set of software, individuals, organizations, and policies that are used to protect data, network, and communication between the cloud and the user; a protective layer is created for data, applications, and infrastructure in the cloud. If you are using a cloud server, all access to your security layer will be checked; these layers of security to control include Firewall, IPS, and IDS. One of the most effective ways to prevent this from happening is to encrypt the data. Systems that do not use this method to transmit their data risk losing their information. There are encryption systems in the cloud security space, including SSL and TLS, that encrypts all communication between the server and the software.

Why is cloudsecurity important?

There is no more important issue than security for businesses that move to the cloud. Security threats are constantly evolving and becoming more complex, and cloud computing as a default environment is always at stake. For this reason, choosing a cloud service provider is very important to be able to provide the best level of security with custom infrastructure.

Different types of cloud security

- Software-as-a-service (SaaS)

SaaS or Software-as-a-Service is one of the solutions to provide software based on a web server. In this way, the user no longer needs to install software on their personal system and can only use it with Internet access and a web browser. The cost model of these programs is usually in the form of subscription fees. The introduction of SaaS-based software can be traced back to the era of cloud-based computing. The approach of cloud computing is to provide services over the Internet and remotely. That's why a way to present software on a cloud computing platform called SaaS was developed. In SaaS, the software is hosted on an external server instead of on the user's device. Access to SaaS-based applications is usually possible through a web browser using a username and password. One of the major differences between this software release method and the software model installed on the user's system is that, in SaaS, there is no need for strong hardware from the user because all the main and heavy processing is done on the server-side. It also makes it much easier than ever to upgrade and debug software systems because all the running software components are available to the developer.

But there is another main difference between the payment method and the access fee. In the SaaS model, subscription fees are typically defined in terms of periodic payment. While in the cost model, the entire cost of the program may be received from the user at once.

Benefits of SaaS

- Overall reduction in the cost of using software due to the need for no maintenance as well as the purchase of additional hardware for organizations. Usually, the initial cost of installing and training such programs is lower than others.

- The co-payment model and the use of the pay-as-you-go feature leading companies and organizations to direct their costs at all times of the day to ongoing operations. So they can upgrade or even make a service unavailable at any time they decide.

- Because SaaS-based applications are available over the Internet, users can use the software wherever the Internet is accessible and with any device.

- Because this software is available through the Internet and browsers, they are no longer limited to specific operating systems and platforms. This feature makes it possible to use the software on any device and platform and saves high costs and time for software developers. Because there is no need to develop and maintain separate software, it is suitable for each platform.

- The availability of receiving updates automatically and faster. As a result, users will not have to worry about doing their software and security updates.

- Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service is a type of cloud service that allows system administrators to meet their hosting needs without the hassle of purchasing and managing servers and other data center-related infrastructure. Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS for short, allows systems to personally install, configure, and manage their software, including operating systems, modifiers, and applications, on servers that are already provided by a specialized company such services. IaaS is the most basic layer of cloud services.

Its most important applications

- Software Development and Testing: Software development teams will simply be able to manage software development environments and launch their applications faster.

- Hosting: Setting up a site using the IaaS service is more cost-effective than traditional hosting services. IaaS provides all the required infrastructure to support web applications, including storage space, web server, network, etc.

- Data Storage, Backup, and Recovery: IaaS allows small and large organizations to store their data in a secure environment, depending on their changing needs over time.

- Platform-as-a-service (PaaS)

Platform as a Service, or PaaS for short, is a fully-fledged cloud computing software development environment that, unlike the IaaS service, does not require any configuration, operating system installation, or server management, but everything is prepared in advance by the cloud service provider, and as a developer, we just need to deploy our code on the server. PaaS cloud services are in the second layer of cloud services, which include network infrastructure, server, operating system, database, middleware (webserver), and other tools related to software development, which can be called the "platform as a service" for web developers. They help users to focus on application development and leave the rest of the concerns to the cloud service provider without getting involved in infrastructure issues. In addition, PaaS has other benefits, some of the most important of which we will review below:

- Ready-to-use development environment: As mentioned earlier, "Platform as a Service" provides the user with everything ready to focus on just coding the application and deploying it on the server without having to prepare the software development environment.

- Analytics: In addition to PaaS providing a development environment for developers, depending on the company from which we purchase cloud services, a number of complementary tools such as data analysis tools, business intelligence (BI), and data mining tools are available to users.

- No need for server management: Since PaaS is offered in the second layer of cloud services and is somehow implemented on the IaaS service, developers cannot worry about server management and focus all their attention on coding.