A Combined Responsibility

Traditional IT models relied on an approach that security is the sole responsibility of the organisation however, in cloud computing services, security is a combined responsibility.

Cloud providers handle and treat risks through a shared responsibility model. The amount of shared responsibility is defined by the category of cloud and services provided. There are seven security areas shared between the cloud provider and client.

This means both the client and the service provider should take responsibility. Depending on the services and deployment models that clients use, their responsibility might be more or less than the provider. We summarise the shared responsibility model in the following table.