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Cloud services: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Abstract:

Background: The hiring of cloud services is the current trend of companies and even people, mainly due to it avoids spend money in complex infrastructures implementation, maintenance and staff recruitment. However, there is uncertainty about the information confidentiality handled outside the context of their owners. Aim: To investigate the conditions under which cloud services are supplied, specially regarding the service level agreement (SLA) included in the providers' offering in terms of: confidentiality, security and information privacy. Method: A systematic mapping study was carried out in order to inquire about SLA's confidentiality, privacy and security offered by cloud service providers. Results: From the information available on 20 primary studies we found that each cloud service provider offers a different SLA, which are based on standards and existing best practices. Additionally, we found that the cloud service provider's security level is determined by metrics established through trust models. Conclusions: The SLA of cloud service providers is diverse, which forces the user to know different parameters to select the service that best suits their needs, always prioritizing the security, data privacy and services availability.