Analysis of Data Integrity Schemes in Cloud

The National Institute of Standards and Technology defines cloud computing as a web-based paradigm that facilitates the deployment of flexible and cost- effective business models, through the sharing of expensive resources for computation such as storage, applications, infrastructure, networks, services, data, etc. It is the most sought-after platform for hosting various solutions by service providers due to its scalability to radical changes in the client population. Clients recognize the potential of cloud computing platforms and rely on Cloud Service Providers (CSP) to harness the versatility of this environment in exploiting business solutions, outsourcing sensitive data and computations. Cloud computing has witnessed a phenomenal growth in diverse aspects such as physical infrastructure, deployment models, protocol architectures, security mechanisms, etc., providing reliable solutions in various domains.

Cloud computing is viewed as an integrated platform for data storage, deployment of business models, delivery of services, sharing resources, etc., and enabling resource-constrained clients to access various services at low cost. All the cloud computing models must be designed with the following characteristics to provide efficient service.

Cloud-based services are customer-centric and designed in tune with the client requirements. Storage is one of the major requirements of enterprises to host applications and store data. Cloud storage service is a new standard of cloud services concerned with the allocation of shared storage among multiple clients simultaneously.

Cloud storage providers maintain data in protected physical storage devices distributed across multiple locations. They ensure the availability and accessibility of data to clients through well-designed virtual machine images and web service interfaces. Cloud storage providers are confronted with performance and security concerns and spend huge amounts to meet these requirements.