Taking the High Ground: A Case for Department of Defense Application of Public Cloud Computing
Abstract
Cloud computing offers tremendous opportunities for private industry, governments, and even individuals to access massive amounts of computational resources on-demand at very low cost. Recent advancements in bandwidth availability, virtualization technologies, distributed programming paradigms, security services and general public awareness have contributed to this new business model for employing information technology (IT) resources. IT managers face tough decisions as they attempt to balance the pros and cons of integrating commercial cloud computing into their existing IT architectures. On one hand, cloud computing provides on-demand scalability, reduces capital and operational expenses, decreases barriers to entry, and enables organizations to refocus on core competencies rather than on IT expertise. In spite of the benefits, security concerns are still the dominant barriers to cloud service adoption. This research explores public cloud computing services from a Department of Defense (DoD) perspective. The objectives are to improve the general understanding of cloud computing; describe its potential benefits to the DoD; examine public cloud computing adoption from a risk management perspective; present threats special to public cloud computing; and provide a set of recommendations to help foster public cloud computing adoption within the DoD. In addition to advocating for incorporating public cloud computing into the DoD enterprise, this research also presents how it could be used by our adversaries to launch sophisticated attacks.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA543185
Entities
People
- Kris E. Barcomb
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology