Proposal for standard Cloud Computing Security SLAs - Key Metrics for Safeguarding Confidential Data in the Cloud

Many organizations are adopting cloud solutions as part of their portfolio of business applications. There are many documented advantages to using cloud computing including lower cost of entry, lower maintenance, improved availability, and global access. The good news is that many of the service organizations offer credible Service Level Agreements (SLA) for cloud availability. The bad news is that the same level of SLA maturity and standardization is not as pervasive for confidentiality and integrity. This is a serious concern when confidential and sensitive data is being hosted in the cloud. This paper proposes service level standards for security controls that customers can ask of service organizations offering cloud solutions.