Cloud computing has become so popular that most sensitive data are hosted on the cloud. This fast-growing paradigm has brought along many problems, including the security and integrity of the data, where users rely entirely on the providers to secure their data. This paper investigates the use of the pattern fragmentation to split data into chunks before storing it in the cloud, by comparing the performance on two different cloud providers. In addition, it proposes a novel approach combining a pattern fragmentation technique with a NoSQL database, to organize and manage the chunks. Our research has indicated that there is a trade-off on the performance when using a database. Any slight difference on a big data environment is always important, however, this cost is compensated by having the data organized and managed. The use of random pattern fragmentation has great potential, as it adds a layer of protection on the data without using as much resources, contrary to using encryption.

The cloud computing model has become very popular among users, as it has proven to be a cost-effective solution to store and process data, thanks to recent advancements in virtualization and distributed computing. Nevertheless, in the cloud environment, the user entrusts the safekeeping of its data entirely to the provider, which introduces the problem of how secure such data is and whether its integrity has been maintained. This paper proposes an approach to the data security in cloud by utilizing a random pattern fragmentation algorithm and combine it with a distributed NoSQL database. This not only increases the security of the data by storing it in different nodes and scramble all the bytes, but also allows the user to implement an alternative method of securing data. The performance of the approach is compared to other approaches, along with AES 256 encryption. Results indicate a significant performance improvement over encryption, highlighting the capabilities of this method in cloud, as it creates a layer of protection without additional overhead.

Advances in distributed computing and virtualization allowed cloud computing to establish itself as a popular data management and storage option for organizations. However, unclear safeguards, practices, as well as the evolution of legislation around privacy and data protection, contribute to data security being one of the main concerns in adopting this paradigm. Another important aspect hindering the absolute success of cloud computing is the ability to ensure the digital identity of users and protect the virtual environment through logical access controls while avoiding the compromise of its authentication mechanism or storage medium. Therefore, this paper proposes a system that addresses data security wherein unauthorized access to data stored in a public cloud is prevented by applying a fragmentation technique and a NoSQL database. Moreover, a system for managing and authenticating users with multimodal biometrics is also suggested along with a mechanism to ensure the protection of biometric features. When compared with encryption, the proposed fragmentation method indicates better latency performance, highlighting its strong potential use-case in environments with lower latency requirements such as the healthcare IT infrastructure.

The advancements in virtualisation and distributed computing have allowed the cloud paradigm to become very popular among users and resources. It allows companies to save costs on infrastructure and maintenance and to focus on the development of products. However, this fast-growing paradigm has brought along some concerns from users, such as the integrity and security of the data, particularly in environments where users rely entirely on providers to secure their data. This paper explores different techniques to fragment data on the cloud and prevent direct unauthorised access to the data. It explores their performance on a cloud instance, where the total time to perform the operation, including the upload and download of the data, is considered. Results from this experiment indicate that fragmentation algorithms show better performance compared to encryption. Moreover, when combining encryption with fragmentation, there is an increase in the security, with the trade-off of the performance.

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