While it is possible to lease an entire physical server from most
CSPs, this is not the typical use of the cloud. Typically in a
public or private cloud the flexibility and better alignment of
cost with load comes from the CSP’s ability to distribute the
overall workload to particular servers on a mix and match basis
implemented at their discretion. The net result of this is that the
user has little control over what physical server is used to run
their workload and who they share this physical server with and
virtualization is the key to making this happen. From a security
perspective there have been few if any successful attacks on the
industry standard hypervisors that allow multiple virtual
servers/users to share one physical server. The discomfort that
organizations feel about the situation where they share a
physical server with anyone who has a credit card remains and
the prospect of this changing in the future is not good. The
compliance organizations to which many organizations must
report are also uncomfortable with this situation and have been
slow to issue guidelines around in-scope data being processed
and stored in the cloud