The literature indicates that cloud computing is an exciting and advantageous architecture, well suited to support global business due to its scalability needs, but it also involves new and substantial security risks. This paper provides an overview of a configuration of a cloud that was implemented in the authors' laboratory and was broken into three layers: the cloud, zone, and virtual machine. Security mechanisms that were used in the study, including multi-level firewalling, are described.

more »

... series of actual port security definitions within each firewall are included so that the interaction among the three firewalls can be illustrated and analyzed. Finally, we conclude by discussing the importance of starting with a sound security policy before configuring the firewalls.