A case for the accountable cloud

For many companies, clouds are becoming an interesting alternative to a dedicated IT infrastructure. However, cloud computing also carries certain risks for both the customer and the cloud provider. The customer places his computation and data on machines he cannot directly control; the provider agrees to run a service whose details he does not know. If something goes wrong – for example, data leaks to a competitor, or the computation returns incorrect results – it can be difficult for customer and provider to determine which of them has caused the problem, and, in the absence of solid evidence, it is nearly impossible for them to hold each other responsible for the problem if a dispute arises. In this paper, we propose that the cloud should be made accountable to both the customer and the provider. Both parties should be able to check whether the cloud is running the service as agreed. If a problem appears, they should be able to determine which of them is responsible, and to pr...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: SIGOPS
• Authors: Andreas Haeberlen
• Keywords: Cloud, Current Accountability Techniques, Customer, SIGOPS 2010