3.4 Authentication and Authorization:
Because in the application and data is hosted outside of
the organization in the cloud computing environment, the
cloud service provider has to use Authentication and
Authorization mechanism.
Authentication is the mechanism whereby systems may
securely identify their users. Authentication systems
provide answers to the questions:
Who is the user?
Is the user really who he/she represents himself
to be?
Authorization is the mechanism by which a system
determines what level of access a particular authenticated
user should have to secure resources controlled by the
system. Authorization systems provide answers to the
questions:
Is user X authorized to access resource R?
Is user X authorized to perform operation P?
Is user X authorized to perform operation P on
resource R?