Improved Security Objectives in Cloud Migration

A.

When moving a system to the cloud, each of the security objectives (availability, integrity, privacy, and confidentiality) can be affected positively or negatively. However, in most cases, the security objective that is most improved when moving to the cloud is availability.

Availability refers to the ability of authorized users to access resources and data when needed. In a cloud environment, resources are usually distributed across multiple data centers and servers, which means that the system can continue to function even if one or more of the servers or data centers fail. This is because cloud service providers typically have redundant infrastructure and built-in failover mechanisms to ensure high availability.

Moreover, cloud providers typically offer service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee a certain level of availability. For example, an SLA may guarantee 99.99% uptime, which means that the system will be available for use 99.99% of the time. This is often higher than what organizations can achieve with their own on-premises infrastructure.

On the other hand, integrity, privacy, and confidentiality can also be improved by moving to the cloud, but this is highly dependent on the specific cloud service provider and the measures implemented by the organization. For example, a cloud provider may implement stronger encryption and access controls than an organization can achieve on-premises, thus improving privacy and confidentiality. However, it is also possible that moving to the cloud could result in a loss of control over data and potentially compromise confidentiality and privacy.

In summary, while all security objectives (availability, integrity, privacy, and confidentiality) should be considered when moving to the cloud, availability is often the most improved objective due to the built-in redundancy and high availability SLAs offered by most cloud service providers.