A Reference Architecture for Validating Security Across Multi-Cloud Computing Systems

Correlative studies carried out by different experts have cited a number of impediments to the growth of cloud computing technology; at the top of the list is security and data privacy issues. More so, a systematic mapping study which was conducted at the start of this research, revealed that the most prevalent cloud security issues are a consequence of poor architecture. 73 percent of literature surveyed also revealed that frameworks and reference architectures are one of the most effective ways of preventing security and data privacy breaches within a cloud computing environment as these issues are addressed during the requirements phase, prior to deployment. [1], [14] This research seeks to explore a preventative approach to cloud security breaches through the use of reference architectures. Firstly, we investigate the main causes of cloud security breaches and then, we analyse existing reference architectures with the aim of designing a universal security framework usable across multi-cloud computing platforms.