Conceptualizing a Secure Wireless Cloud

Abstract

The interest in cloud computing by organizations has driven a core desire to become more effective and efficient with information technology (IT). Cloud computing enables organizations to utilize instantly provisioned scalable IT resources on a pay-per-use basis. The wireless grid provides a new model for heterogeneous devices to share physical and virtual resources within an ad-hoc environment with no dedicated server needed to manage the network. Both of these technologies provide new opportunities to provide innovative architectures but also have a number of security related issues that concern many potential users. Despite the potential benefits, each integration of a cloud computing and a wireless grid architecture raise even more concerns related to information security than each architecture alone. As a new paradigm for organizational strategic initiatives, these are the issues which prevent cloud computing and wireless grid solutions from becoming the prevalent integration for an operational system. This article will identify a wireless cloud architecture and identify potential vulnerabilities and threats to a wireless cloud solution. We also identify the beginnings of a promising wireless grid security architecture, which focuses on a wireless cloud authentication, authorization and access control process.