SLA-Based Secure Cloud Application Development: The SPECS Framework

The perception of lack of control over resources deployed in the cloud may represent one of the critical factors for an organization to decide to cloudify or not their own services. Furthermore, in spite of the idea of offering security-as-a-service, the development of secure cloud applications requires security skills that can slow down the adoption of the cloud for nonexpert users. In the recent years, the concept of Security Service Level Agreements (Security SLA) is assuming a key role in the provisioning of cloud resources. This paper presents the SPECS framework, which enables the development of secure cloud applications covered by a Security SLA. The SPECS framework offers APIs to manage the whole Security SLA life cycle and provides all the functionalities needed to automatize the enforcement of proper security mechanisms and to monitor userdefined security features. The development process of SPECS applications offering security-enhanced services is illustrated, presenting as a real-world case study the provisioning of a secure web server.