Taxonomy of Cloud Security

Cloud computing is envisioned as the next generation architecture for IT Enterprises, and has proliferated itself due to the advantages it provides.Cloud computing provides solutions for carrying out efficient, scalable and low cost computing. The pay per usage concept of Cloud computing increases the resource utilisation of a vendor’s computing power and resources; at the same time,it results in reduced hardware costs forits users. It also provides access mobility, easier maintenance, scalabilityand operability in terms of its management and usage. Because of the facilities and solutions it provides to the industry for the next generation computing, it is vulnerable to a variety of known and unknown attacks from attackers.Hence, securinga Cloud environment is a critical problem that needs urgent attention.This articlefocuses on a taxonomy of possible attacks on a Cloud environment and a taxonomy of the defence .The attack taxonomy describes existing threats on Cloud security, and the defence taxonomy gives a classification of the various counter measures that can be taken to protect the Cloud environment from such attacks. The aim of this article is to provideresearchers, academicians and industry with a better understanding of existing attacks and defence mechanisms on Cloud security.This is to provide a clearvision of the challenges that should be worked onto ensure next generation security forCloud computing.