Implications of security mechanisms and service level agreements (SLAs) of platform as a service (PaaS) clouds for geoprocessing services

Abstract

Cloud computing is an emerging computing paradigm aimed at running services over the internet to provide scalability and flexibility. The advantages in using the cloud for start‐up and small businesses that lack infrastructure have been shown to far outweigh the disadvantages. Cloud platform services, also known as Platform as a Service (PaaS), provide a computing platform or solution stack on which software can be developed for later deployment in a cloud. However, there are a number of security challenges because users of the cloud have to rely on third party companies to provide confidentiality, integrity and availability. Geoprocessing is the manipulation of geographic information, ranging from simple feature overlays and geocoding to raster processing and advanced climate modelling. The Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC) Web Processing Service (WPS) defines a standardized interface that facilitates the publishing of geospatial processes. Parallelization and distribution of geoprocessing services have received much attention lately, including running them in a cloud. However, work on the security aspects of geoprocessing in a cloud is limited. In this paper, we anaylse security mechanisms and Service Level Agreements (SLA) of PaaS clouds and present results of experiments run in the PaaS clouds. The implications of these results for the development of geoprocessing services in a PaaS cloud are discussed. Finally, recommendations for future work are presented.