A Consumer-Centric Conceptual Framework for Trust Assessment in Cloud Computing

Abstract

Consumers are heavily dependent on secure and reliable cloud computing services. However, there are various shortcomings in cloud services, such as those concerning performance, security, trust and privacy, among others. Cloud services consumers do not have enough information on these critical issues neither on compliance with laws and regulations. We present a conceptual framework for trust assessment of cloud computing environments. Our proposal is based on a consumer-centric approach, since it deals with cloud trust aspects from the perspective of end users. For this purpose, metrics and indicators are proposed to allow consumers to assess the trust of cloud services providers. Our contributions are: (1) a conceptual framework with indicators and processes for trust assessment; (2) a lightweight ontology of key concepts of trust assessment; and (3) an application scenario to illustrate the practical adequacy of the conceptual framework.