Secure Partitioning of Application Logic In a Trustworthy Cloud

Abstract

Cloud computing based scalable applications or software services (Software-as-a-Service) offer many new opportunities for provisioning and the usage of IT services. Not without risks: sensitive and even mission- critical information and personal data will be stored and processed outside the direct control of the cloud user. Cloud administrators may access those data. Trustworthy Cloud services may only be built upon a strong basis of a trusted cloud infrastructure, separating users from each other and administrators from user data. The cloud model of “Software as a Service” (SaaS), combined with the innovative methods of strict separation of roles and trusted components proposed in this paper is a big chance for higher security in enterprises, especially for SMEs. This is currently been explored in the project SPLITCloud (Secure Partitioning of application Logic In a Trustworthy Cloud) in Germany. An innovative use case in the area of meter data management demonstrates how future trusted SaaS infrastructures and services may look like.