A framework for evaluating security in multi-cloud environments

Multi-cloud environments are complex in nature owing to their distributed architecture. This has made it challenging to ascertain the security status and overall performance of multi-cloud application components hosted across several clouds. It has further made it challenging to determine when to carry out corrective actions required to restore normalcy within the environment in the case of anomaly detection. In addition, the increasing security concerns in cloud environments has led to many cloud customers now being interested in knowing the condition of their applications, regarding security. In view of this, it thus becomes necessary to ensure adequate transparency and security awareness in multi-cloud environments. However, this is threatened by absence of standardization and diverse Cloud Service Providers (CSP) platforms. This article presents a framework for evaluating security in multi-cloud applications. The main purpose is to promote transparency and security awareness in multi-cloud environments through the evaluation of application components spread across diverse clouds. The result of this will be the determination of the security status of all the application components as well as the overall multi-cloud environment. This will also improve trust in utilizing multi-clouds.