Research Quantitative Trust Models Using Cloud Security as a Quantitative Framework for Trust Metrics

Abstract

The uptake of cloud services is pegged mainly on the level of trust cloud users have in the cloud computing solutions offered. Whereas trust is subjective, it can be modeled quantitatively thereby introducing objectivity, through a scientific method, in the process of determining the presence or absence of trust. The proposed quantitative model, introduced a new metric for measuring trust, confidence interval, which is derived from a comparison of results from service provider integrated QoS measuring tools, and a vendor neutral QoS monitoring tool, which run simultaneously in the background while the user is utilizing the cloud provider’s services. The fact that the model relies on results from a vendor neutral tool, which are compared with the cloud provider’s integrated tool, makes the tool more reliable and effective than those based on one set of results. This paper was however limited by the fact that only one metric, service availability, was used in comparison due to limitation on the number of metrics monitored by the cloud provider’s tools. To enhance the trust comparison capabilities, Cloud providers could incorporate other quantitative metrics like service response time and service stability into their integrated QoS monitoring tools. Modeling of quantitative trust continues to be a live field of study, this paper therefore enhances the ongoing research.