A Certification-Based Trust Model for Autonomic Cloud Computing Systems

Autonomic cloud computing systems react to events and context changes, preserving a stable quality of service for their tenants. Existing assurance techniques supporting trust relations between parties need to be adapted to scenarios where the assumption of responsibility on trust assertions and related information (e.g., in SLAs and certificates) cannot be done at a single point in time and by a single trusted third party. In this paper, we tackle this problem by proposing a new trust model grounded on a security certification scheme for the cloud. Our model is based on a multiple signatures process including dynamic delegation mechanisms. Our approach supports autonomic cloud computing systems in the management of dynamic content in security certificates, establishing a trustworthy cloud environment.