Blog: Team Releases Tools for Secure Cloud Computing

Team Releases Tools for Secure Cloud Computing
UT Dallas News (08/02/10) Moore, David

University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) researchers have released software tools designed to facilitate cloud computing. "In order to use electricity, we do not maintain electricity generators at home, instead we get the electricity on demand from the grid when we need it," says UTD Cyber Security Research Center director Bhavani Thuraisingham. He says the cloud computing model works on a similar principle. Research shows that the biggest hurdle to broad adoption of cloud computing is concern about the security of sensitive data, so security has been one of the UTD team's focal points. "In building a cloud, we are using a number of open source tools, including Apache's Hadoop distributed file system, Google's Mapreduce, and the University of Cambridge's XEN Virtual Machine monitor," Thuraisingham says. He says the tools provide the infrastructure for security features. UTD's tools provide secure query processing capabilities and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data. The system's framework consists of a network layer, an infrastructure layer, a storage layer, and a data layer.

View Full Article