Cloud Computing, Sustainability, and Risk

Cloud computing is considered a growing trend in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, and, of course, risk issues of leveraging this computing model are still in focus. In this chapter, we develop a novel quantitative model for cloud security risk management regarding optimal cloud risk appetite. We focus most on determining cloud risk appetite, which must be considered in advance to make an applicable enterprise risk management (ERM) and to make any plan regarding strategic risk mitigation. In this approach, we mention primarily some of the main risk examples in terms of cloud architecture layers and the developing optimization model of cloud risk appetite. We use a risk map that indicates the severity of each individual risk, Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (CIA) as risk constraints and evaluation criteria, and linear programming for final fuzzy optimization calculation to gain risk acceptance amount for a given organization in regard to each cloud’s predefined risk. Finally, the applicability and effectiveness of our model is demonstrated through a case study.