A Proposition of Modifications and Extensions of Cloud Computing Standards for Trust Characteristics Measures

Abstract

In recent years, we have witnessed a marked rise in the number of cloud service providers with each offering a plethora of cloud services with different objectives. Gaining confidence for cloud technology adoption as well as selecting a suitable cloud service provider, both require a proper evaluation of cloud service trust characteristics. Hence, the evaluation of cloud services before used by the customer is of utmost importance. In this article, we adapt the extracted trust characteristics from both system and software quality standards and cloud computing standards, for evaluating cloud services. Moreover, we derive measures for each trust characteristics to evaluate the trustworthiness of different cloud service providers, and generalize these trust measures for any type of cloud services (e.g. Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service). Our work thereby demonstrates a way to apply generalized trust measures for cloud services and therefore contributes to a better understanding of cloud services to evaluate their quality characteristics. As part of our ongoing research, the results of this study will be used to develop a comprehensive cloud trust model.